Post Doctor Visit Debriefing
Well, that visit didn’t turn out at all like I was expecting (see the Pre Doctor Visit Briefing to find out what I was expecting in detail). I was expecting badness, horror, disappointment. I felt like a criminal walking into that appointment because I knew I had done some bad bad bad stuff. I was irresponsible, I was careless, I was lazy (LAZY!).
But then, the magic number, the wholesomeness of the A1c was presented to me: 6.7. HOLY COW 6.7! I was expecting at least 7.2. I really wouldn’t have been surprised if it had been 7.5. BUT! 6.7! that number all by itself blew my case right out of the water. My case for, “hey, I need help staying on track”.
I knew my A1c before my doc came in, because I had the coolest nurse today. I have to say a few words about this nurse, cause she totally rocked. When she brought me in, she had everything set up so that there was no messing around or looking for things in order to check my blood, my blood pressure, how much I weighed, and my heart beats. So, going in there to get the pre-see-the-doctor stuff done took no time at all. She told my my A1c because it was done last week and wouldn’t be done this week.
So my doctor comes in and we begin by looking at my blood work…An important thing since the last time I had blood work done my liver was screaming that by the time I was 50 it’d be dead. Ok, that might be slightly exaggerated, but not by much. So, the blood work showed that everything was good, my liver, my triglycerides, my cholesterol, and most importantly to me, my A1c.
Then, I whip out my log sheets. Which, she wasn’t expecting because that wasn’t on the list of things that I was going to do the last time I had seen her. She was impressed I think and it gave her something to work with. We discussed me switching between the pump and shots. And then we got to the important details…the blood sugars that were on the sheet…which I summed up with one word: LAZY.
I told her I was lazy. I didn’t take my levemir 12 hours apart. And that was laziness because I could always take the nightly dose 12 hours from the morning dose. The morning dose may or may not be 12 hours after the nightly dose and that’s completely due to me and my lack of normalcy in my life. Nothing is consistent with me. My doctor asked for one thing and I couldn’t even give her that. I don’t go to bed at the same time, I don’t ever wake up at the same time, meals are eaten whenever, never at the same time from day to day, snacks I eat just to eat, again, nothing regular on the time clock for them…so we decided that I needed 2 things.
1) to add some consistency to life
and
2) stop being lazy
To add onto the laziness problem I experience, we discussed the highs that I was having after going low and eating. I don’t typically dose after eating much more than needed for a low. For example, if I’m low at meal time, I’ll eat my meal, a little extra for the low and go do my thing. No shot involved. I’m going to work on that as well.
I also discussed how I fall off the wagon after about 3 weeks after seeing her and my need to go in every six weeks. Immediately she asked about insurance because when my insurance switched she was no longer an in-network provider. I told her that yes, she’s still out of network; no, i’ve not met my deductible and that this was very much important to me to the point that I was willing to pay to see her every 6 weeks. I said that I thrive on accountability and that there’s really not much accountability when I’m seeing her ever 3 months.
Also in my laziness, and my falling off the wagonness, there was the lack of blood testing on occasion so there was an importance stressed on me always testing no less than 4 times a day (which is a far cry from the 8-10 times a day that I test when I’m on the wagon). [on a side note, whoever called it falling off the wagon anyways???]
Needless to say, I walked out of the doctor’s office feeling happy. I have 3 things to do, 1 is very easy.
1) Take my levemir twice a day between 8-10am and 8-10pm
2) Get my labs done in 3 months (1-2 weeks before my appointment)
3) Check blood sugar always 4 times a day minimum.
I will continue to log to the best of my abilities even though it wasn’t spoke of because if for no other reason we can tweak things with those numbers, food intake, and insulin intake that I write down.
4 Responses to “Post Doctor Visit Debriefing”
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I have two alarms set on my cell phone for the Levemir - one at 8:30 AM, the other at 9 PM. I would forget otherwise.
I’m logging this week for an appointment on Tuesday - logging is work!
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