All Together Better: Understanding your type 2 diabetes

For people living with type 2 diabetes, kick us off with what questions you suggest someone asks at their first appointment.

[UPBEAT MUSIC]

I would ask questions, especially to your primary care doctor, about monitoring every three

months to check on their A1C. Ask about what they can do for daily monitoring as well.

There's a lot of things you can do for monitoring your day-to-day blood sugars, how food and activity are affecting your blood

sugar going up and going down. You can get a glucose monitor, which is attached at the arm and can give feedback to a smartphone.

Dr. Sobel, let's go to you and ask you, as an endocrinologist, what are some questions you recommend that patients ask, say, every time?

And you can also piggyback on what Jen said. What are some important things for you? I think it's important also for patients to know what the goals are, what the specific targets are

that the physicians or their care team is looking at. So for example, with the A1C, we might have more strict A1C

targets for individuals who are more mobile and are younger. And then for our more senior individuals

living with diabetes or who live by themselves, we might not have as strict of a target and might have a higher A1C target.

What is my fasting glucose range? What is my goal for after I eat?

When should I be checking my blood sugars, if I'm checking them after I eat? What do I do if my blood sugar is too high?

Do I need to take extra medicine? Is there anything I can do that doesn't involve medicine that can also help bring down my blood sugar?

Am I on the appropriate medications? Do any changes need to be made as a result of new data that's come out, or as a result of my lab results, I think,

is an important conversation that patients can have with their health care team? [AUDIO LOGO]