"Seven years after I stopped taking a medication, I discovered why it was important."
Watch the story of one of our members below as she talks through what she learned in her medication review with her Scene pharmacist!
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Can you introduce yourself and share a bit about your background with diabetes?
Hi, my name is Anna and I have diabetes. I was diagnosed 12 years ago and it hasn't been easy because I like to eat a lot and I like my sweets, my good cakes, so it has been a little bit hard, but every day is getting easier and easier. And I didn't know what to eat at the beginning. And now I have, I like to eat again.
Can you share your experience with your medication review and what you learned about the importance of your medication?
When I first was diagnosed with diabetes they gave me metformin. And then they gave me another medicine that was for the blood pressure. I took it for four or five years. When I started doing some research I realized that the medicine was for blood pressure and I thought my blood pressure is always good, so I stopped taking it.
So I didn't take it for seven years. Talking to the Scene pharmacist made me realize that the medicine is important. She asked me if I was taking medicine for my kidneys and I said, no. She said it's not for your blood pressure, it's more for taking care of your kidneys. There is some medicine that the doctors are giving to you. Not for, for what it says, but it's more for taking care of other organs that diabetes can affect.
She actually then shared with my provider. At my next provider visit I was told, your insurance says that you need to have an exam, foot test, and also your eyes need to be checked and also you need this medicine for your kidneys. I never had anyone examine my feet before, but the Scene nurse sent that request and I got examined. So that for me was very encouraging because it's not easy to make yourself appointments. It's not easy for you to remember everything that you take and the names of the medicines. But the Scene nurse did that step for me, it was easy. And that for me was huge.
What impact has the Scene program had on your health, especially your A1C levels?
My A1c was 12 then went down to 8. The last time that I checked, it was 7. Now I use the glucose monitor and it used to be 200, and now it's between 135 in the mornings, all the way to 98 to 87 in the evenings.
What advice would you give to someone newly diagnosed with diabetes?
One of the things that helped me to do better for myself was knowing that people can actually die from diabetes. I have my grandsons and they motivate me to keep myself healthy as long as I can, so I can be there for them. The other thing that has really helped me is the encouragement that I received from the Scene team.
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