Home monitoring and GPs - help please!

[Ellie N]

Hi - I am very new here and would love your advice. Having struggled with extreme tiredness for some time (and not being anaemic) it was suggested (by a medic friend) that I check my blood sugars. I bought a home monitoring kit which advises fasting blood checks and on two consecutive mornings results were 7.2mmols and 6.9mmols. Accordingly I booked an appointment with my GP to double check this. From here it all goes downhill - GP is scathing about my request and suggests that I shouldn't be self-testing, am wasting his time and he has to think of budgets, etc. Very grudgingly he arranged for a blood test (which apparently don't need to be fasting anymore) and I am awaiting the results. Clearly I am hoping it doesn't reveal diabetes but beginning from a perspective of trying to be responsible and keep healthy I am now feeling like a complete hypochondriac. Have other people had this experience with GPs? Is it better just to get private testing?

 

[Amigo]

Hi - I am very new here and would love your advice. Having struggled with extreme tiredness for some time (and not being anaemic) it was suggested (by a medic friend) that I check my blood sugars. I bought a home monitoring kit which advises fasting blood checks and on two consecutive mornings results were 7.2mmols and 6.9mmols. Accordingly I booked an appointment with my GP to double check this. From here it all goes downhill - GP is scathing about my request and suggests that I shouldn't be self-testing, am wasting his time and he has to think of budgets, etc. Very grudgingly he arranged for a blood test (which apparently don't need to be fasting anymore) and I am awaiting the results. Clearly I am hoping it doesn't reveal diabetes but beginning from a perspective of trying to be responsible and keep healthy I am now feeling like a complete hypochondriac. Have other people had this experience with GPs? Is it better just to get private testing?

Sounds like it would be better to change your GP Ellie. What a pompous prat with a small budget!

Hope it’s negative but if you need us we’ll be here with support and advice. Just start to ease up on the carbs because the morning levels are too high regardless.

 

[Ellie N]

Sounds like it would be better to change your GP Ellie. What a pompous prat with a small budget!

Hope it’s negative but if you need us we’ll be here with support and advice. Just start to ease up on the carbs because the morning levels are too high regardless.

Thank you - I appreciate that

 

[Northerner]

Hi - I am very new here and would love your advice. Having struggled with extreme tiredness for some time (and not being anaemic) it was suggested (by a medic friend) that I check my blood sugars. I bought a home monitoring kit which advises fasting blood checks and on two consecutive mornings results were 7.2mmols and 6.9mmols. Accordingly I booked an appointment with my GP to double check this. From here it all goes downhill - GP is scathing about my request and suggests that I shouldn't be self-testing, am wasting his time and he has to think of budgets, etc. Very grudgingly he arranged for a blood test (which apparently don't need to be fasting anymore) and I am awaiting the results. Clearly I am hoping it doesn't reveal diabetes but beginning from a perspective of trying to be responsible and keep healthy I am now feeling like a complete hypochondriac. Have other people had this experience with GPs? Is it better just to get private testing?

Hi Ellie, welcome to the forum 🙂 Your readings are very borderline from the fasting tests you have done, but that doesn't necessarily mean the other test will confirm a diagnosis. It sounds like you are having an HbA1c test, which measures the level of exposure of your blood to glucose over the 6-12 weeks prior to the test. There is also another test that can be done called an OGTT (Oral Glucose Tolerance Test), which involves measuring your blood glucose levels, then you drink a glucose drink and further blood tests are taken to see how your body copes with the drink over the following two hours. I don't understand his reluctance to perform these tests, it's hardly going to break the bank! 🙄

Do you think you have any symptoms of diabetes e.g. excessive thirst, needing the loo a lot? Please feel free to ask any questions you may have 🙂

 

[DaveB]

Hi. Fasting tests are not the best for measuring blood sugar due to the overnight liver dump of glucose. Best to test 2 hours after a typical meal and to be less than 8.5 mmol.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Also important to recognise that home monitors are not licensed for diagostic use, they can guve useful information, but aren't quite up to muster when if comes to a definitive diagnosis.

Hope the results from the GPs blood test come through OK. Sorry he behaved so poorly towards you.