Hi everyone. Thanks for the messages since I last checked in - I am very well aware of the legal position and had no intention of driving until the situation was resolved, it was the competence of the consultant I was concerned about and his failure to recognise that a decision re driving could be made without a CGM. I don't have anything to hide with a CGM, the simple fact of the matter is that I seem to have 'white coat' syndrome and the moment I have the thing fitted my sugars go completely haywire, so it is never going to be an accurate analysis of what my sugars are doing - thus making a decision without a CGM would have been far more sensible.
I had the thing fitted and as usual my sugars went completely haywire, though this time in an upwards rather than a downwards direction. I've now been approved to drive again, but was given absolutely no advice following that CGM on how to improve my results (which were averaging between 13 and 17). This has cemented my opinion of the diabetes team in my area, who apparently have no concerns about the long term effects of high blood sugar. Within 2 hours of having the CGM off, my sugars stabilised back to normal good control. To be fair to the team, if I wasn't living through it, I probably wouldn't believe it either!
If this had gone the other way, my next step was to seek out the assistance of a private consultant diabetes specialist (I had already traced a few). I would strongly recommend to anyone else who finds themselves in my position to do the same if they can afford around £175-220 for an initial consultation. Its a matter of speaking to someone who actually listens to what you have to say, provides reasoned advice and is available to speak to you and answer questions rather than feeding the nurses piecemeal information. The hope was that if they would not have been happy for me to drive on the available information, they would have helped me (quickly) get into a position where they were happy. I flatly refuse to believe that a private consultant would require a CGM where the patient is opposed and can show (backed up by test results) the discrepancies between results while the CGM is fitted and those without.
Thank you all again for your support during this difficult period. Hopefully if someone else comes across this thread in a similar situation, they will find it useful. Take care all.
I had the thing fitted and as usual my sugars went completely haywire, though this time in an upwards rather than a downwards direction. I've now been approved to drive again, but was given absolutely no advice following that CGM on how to improve my results (which were averaging between 13 and 17). This has cemented my opinion of the diabetes team in my area, who apparently have no concerns about the long term effects of high blood sugar. Within 2 hours of having the CGM off, my sugars stabilised back to normal good control. To be fair to the team, if I wasn't living through it, I probably wouldn't believe it either!
If this had gone the other way, my next step was to seek out the assistance of a private consultant diabetes specialist (I had already traced a few). I would strongly recommend to anyone else who finds themselves in my position to do the same if they can afford around £175-220 for an initial consultation. Its a matter of speaking to someone who actually listens to what you have to say, provides reasoned advice and is available to speak to you and answer questions rather than feeding the nurses piecemeal information. The hope was that if they would not have been happy for me to drive on the available information, they would have helped me (quickly) get into a position where they were happy. I flatly refuse to believe that a private consultant would require a CGM where the patient is opposed and can show (backed up by test results) the discrepancies between results while the CGM is fitted and those without.
Thank you all again for your support during this difficult period. Hopefully if someone else comes across this thread in a similar situation, they will find it useful. Take care all.
