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A doctor speaks – an introduction to diabetes type 2

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Diabetes Type 2

People's stories

Aged 56 - 65

Duncan - Interview 27

Duncan - Interview 27

Age at Interview: 63
Sex: Male
Age at Diagnosis: 61
Background: Duncan is a retired teacher and careers advisor who is single with no children. Ethnic background/Nationality: White British.

Brief outline:Diagnosed 2 years ago. Duncan takes metformin, gliclazide, simvastatin, atenolol, ramipril and amlodipine. He has had neuropathy in his feet since 2006 and expects to receive laser eye treatment soon.

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Duncan prefers not to check his glucose levels every day. The strips are too expensive and also he was advised not to.
Print Once every six months or so. I mean it's left to me to make the appointment. I think they would probably remind me if I left it too long. I mean, when I first came out of hospital after the Miller-Fisher knowing I was diabetic, I went straight to the shop and bought myself a blood sugar meter and because they'd been monitoring me four times a day, well no, certainly every meal so more often and I thought it was quite important. But the trouble is test strips are £30 for a set of fifty and I just after a bit, it just got too expensive, by the time I'd... And the GP and the diabetic nurse said, “You don't want to do that. You will get worried or something by it if you…” And so I just gave up. I mean I didn't see why I mean I wasn't prepared to keep spending money for something … and I mean I was, I just tested myself every morning and I mean for weeks, I was just on, pretty much exactly the same every morning. And I thought well if the nurse and the doctor say I don't need to do it, I'm not going to keep spending £30 every couple of weeks just to do this. So in a way, I would be… I've still got the meter, I suppose I ought to kind of get another drum of strips, calibrate them up and just occasionally test myself just to be on the safe side. I've got a blood pressure monitor that I use occasionally just to check, but again that usually… Always seems to come up okay.

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