diabetes Type 2 diabetes

[RUREADY]

whats the first medication if they think you are a diabetic they would put you on?

I am type 2 yet VA never said a word about it not to me. I take no medicine for it

but after researching the doctor who they sent me too that's his trade treating diabetes

Why wasn't I told??? I don't understand. Is it that bad 

[Chuck75]

11 hours ago, RUREADY said:

whats the first medication if they think you are a diabetic they would put you on?

I am type 2 yet VA never said a word about it not to me. I take no medicine for it

but after researching the doctor who they sent me too that's his trade treating diabetes

Why wasn't I told??? I don't understand. Is it that bad 

A commonly used drug is Metformin HCL, 500mg tablets, 2 to 4 per day. The VA will often suggest that diet and lifestyle changes will negate the need for the drug. (After all,

drug treatment can increase eligibility for a higher rating).  I had to go to an outside endocrinologist to start treatment, then present the VA with the

prescription. The typical VA PCP will usually just approve the prescription for the VA to supply. A lot depends on what the lab tests show as to the need for treatment.

Any drug has side effects, and Metformin is no different. It's usually fairly minor for most. Some of the others have larger side effects, and are usually used when Metformin isn't doing what is needed, or the patient has problems with it.

By not telling you, the VA may have failed to meet the "Standards of Care", not that you have any real way to do anything about it, other than complain.

If DMII is totally untreated and ignored, it can get progressively worse, and result in life threatening conditions, and damage.

Use of sugar substitutes is controversial, but can help in some situations.

In the past, there was some controversy as to what blood sugar levels should be used to diagnose DMII, and required treatment. Those levels have been generally decreased in recent years.

 

 

[Berta]

Diabetes, if not properly diagnosed and treated,can lead to considerable other serious complications...heart disease, stroke, PN, PAD, losses of limbs due to DVD, and even death.

"Why wasn't I told??? I don't understand."

I am sure my husband would ask that same question too,but he is dead from DMII contributing to his death.

His DMII could have been diagnosed and treated by VA years before it caused his demise.

But that claim took me 6 years from filing to award.

It was an additional malpractice issue I had but I filed it as direct SC death due to DMII from AO.

Your VA medical records will reveal if the VA should have diagnosed and treated you sooner for this,and if they caused you additional ratable problems due to a failure to treat (such as secondary disabilities directly due to the untreated DMII, you would have a 1151 claim ( possibly FTCA case) basis.

I used the VA's Diabetes training letter, my husband's drivers license, EEOC testimony from other VA employees he worked with, his dental records, MRI, Autopsy, EKGs, and then obtained 3 IMos to make sure VA's Endocrinologist's C & P exams could be overcome by real and convincing evidence of the DMII,evident for 6 years yet left undiagnosed and untreated by the VA.

Did the first formal diagnose of the DMII come from the doctor that VA sent you too?

Did he/she base that diagnosis on your past HBIAC or Glucose readings?

Or did symptoms of high glucose suddenly appear?

Have you asked that doctor these questions?

 

 

[Berta]

I forgot to add....I went over many many times, his entire medical records from the VA,finding evidence of DMII in 1988, then throughout the next 6 years, until he died.

I knew by the time I contacted Dr Bash for an IMO, that the claim would definitely succeed, based on the evidence I had found in his medical records and the other things I mentioned above.

It is possible you have what they call a 'pre diabetic' condition.But if it is full blown DMII ,it didnt start overnight.

 

 

 

 

[Chuck75]

Regarding the "Pre-Diabetic" condition.

It turned out that it's fairly common, given common life style, diet, and so forth.

A private physician's reference to it was often no more than "you should reduce your sugar consumption".

The VA had quite a section on it in the VA's treatment guide, as did DOD.

When it was obvious that the VA was eventually going to recognize additional presumptive conditions associated with A.O. exposure,

language echoing the VA treatment guide in M21 was quietly removed, with a change that only mentioned a section renumbering.

The M21 change divorced various conditions from DMII in the RO's eyes.

(And people wonder why veterans don't care for VA's claims handling!)

Edited January 12, 2016 by Chuck75

[Berta]

 Chuck made some very  points...I think we both were replying here at the same time.

This article explains the current diagnostic readings that determine diabetes:

http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-topics/Diabetes/diagnosis-diabetes-prediabetes/Pages/index.aspx

Some veterans (as in my claim) fell into the older criteria that was changed by the World Health Organization in 1997.

VA has published an extensive Diabetes training letter  in 1997 that I posted here on the older board that I used to determine the symptoms my husband had that led to his DMII

diagnosis ( which came from VA 15 years after he died) .

I certainly agree that VA knew of a potential AO DMII link because they then changed the 1997

diabetes training letter completely....leaving out symptomatic conditions which would cause any good doctor to consider as potential evidence of diabetes.

The last time I used the original VA TL letter for  was to help a veteran prove he had inservice diabetes.He had been at the CAVC twice by then.

The VA finally awarded direct SC for DMII due to inservice manifestations of diabetes.

I prepared my lay assessment and diagnosis based on the research I did on his SMRs and his private endocrinogist agreed and gave him a free IMO.

What gets me is that VA likes to attribute diabetes to weight gain but the truth is that if one has diabetes and no treatment for it, in Type 2 DM, they will probably gain weight because they are always hungry ,as the pancreas is not able to properly function.