I have diabetes and take oral meds, not insulin, but the point is the same.
My control started screwing up, or my pancreas/muscles deteriorated, or whatever. Started an additional med, sugar returned to “normal” level, that of non-diabetics. In fact, I now can sneak in a chocolate bar more per week. I will not do that, however (I hope), so as to maintain the status quo.
Which raises my question (and is applicable to any number of similar medical pathology/counter-pathology situations): if the status quo is truly static, am I diabetic functionally? I’m not being all that philosophical, just a little.
My header refers to the military posture between two nuclear-armed enemies: status quo maintained by mutual terrible threat, or by assured mutual armed destruction (MAD).
What’s to stop me from figuring (which I won’t, even though I’m wondering), “well, I’ve got x more protections available, so I’m ‘OK’”? (Yes, I know, there’s a limit, and the pathology “wins,” which is where the status quo analogy breaks down.)
If you need to take the medication to keep your blood sugars in line, you’re diabetic. The medication can only do so much, however, so just taking twice as much won’t allow you to eat twice as much. That would be one of the very few advantages to being on insulin, as there tends to be a more direct response; if I eat a couple more carb servings, I just take an extra 8 humalog with my meal and I’m fine a few hours later.
You want to get philosophical? Fine, I can do that…
Okay, so you want to distinguish between being a “functional diabetic” and being “some other kind of diabetic”. So my response is that, if you’d like, you can consider yourself as being a particular kind of non-diabetic. Specifically, you are an artificial non-diabetic because your lack of diabetes is purely due to the meds you’re taking. Or perhaps you are a temporary non-diabetic, because you’ll relapse as soon as you mess up.
Bottom line: Be as philosophical as you like, just don’t misbehave! (Which of course, I do trust you to do, as you stated several times in your post.)