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Daisydog

Daisydog

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Parent of person with diabetes
Hello All, Not new to diabetes ,having two t1 sons since age3 and4, now 21 and 14.
Hubby is also t1 for over 30 yrs. We have had excellent support over the yrs from the paediatric team and and am interested in adult gp care, is this usual or do most people see a consultant?? Trying to keep up to date if possible pls.
Thanks and hello
 
Hello Daisydog and a warm welcome to our friendly helpful and supportive forum - wow you've got your hands full there! Good to see you've received the much needed support from the Paediatric team over the years.

I'm Type 2 so I'm sorry I can't advise you with regard to Type 1 but there's plenty on here who are and who will be willing to advise you once they read your message. Lovely to meet you and do please stay in touch, take care x
WL
 
Welcome to the forum and well done for juggling all your stuff!!
 
Hi DD a warm welcome gosh you could teach us a few things I bet hun lol x
 
Welcome to the forum. Sorry being type 2 I can't help with your query.
Others who will be able to, will be along later.
In the meantime feel free to ask questions.
 
Welcome to forum
 
Welcome. GP or consultant for T1 seems to depend on where you are. I've only ever seen a consultant
 
I started off seeing the hospital consultant, but got transferred back to my GP after a couple of years, because I was told we now had a 'specialist nurse' at our surgery. Turns out it's our ordinary nurse, who does everything else as well, like travel jabs, asthma clinic, etc etc, and who has only received extra training in Type 2 management! Fortunately, I get on with her and between us and the Internet, we muddle through.
 
Well sorry if I were Robin, I'd be complaining frankly - unless you can instantly ring the actual experts and get the correct advice pdq whenever it should happen you're stuck and struggling.

GPs and surgery nurses simply do not get the all day every day experience of dealing with solely diabetics, that hospital D clinics do.

I could not possibly manage with my GP surgery alone - no instant grasp of whatever it is that's bothering a diabetic for starters - whilst clinics know it's bloody hard work managing it - which we all magically have to find extra time and effort every single day to fir in with having a life - GPs just do NOT grasp it. It's hard for them to actually grasp the proper self treatment we constantly need to do - and they find it totally unbelievable if we say eg Oh bum, I forgot to bolus for that piece of cake, or I've just taken my basal dose of bolus insulin - will I have to stay up all night and drink Lucozade now? - whereas we all go Oh bugger, been there done that, got the T-shirt. And hospital clinics understand these things too - and are perfectly USED to helping sort them out! - just in a normal day's work.

I was asked if I still wanted my clinic appointments 6 monthly - I said Yes - because frankly I actually like the safety net. You can easily get into terrible habits over a year whereas if someone's prodding you every 6 months, you're less likely to - well, I am, at least!
 
I have a phone number I can ring to speak to a DSN on the mainland. With a population of 3,000 it just isn't possible for nurses here to gain any great experience with diabetes. I'm happy with that.
 
trophywench said:
Well sorry if I were Robin, I'd be complaining frankly - unless you can instantly ring the actual experts and get the correct advice pdq whenever it should happen you're stuck and struggling.
Click to expand...
I have an ace up my sleeve. When I went to a local DUK meeting in Banbury recently, they had a team from the hospital there to answer questions, and the senior DSN revealed that every surgery nurse has access to the DSN team and can talk to them for advice, and refer patients to them direct if necessary. I will be asking for a referral in future, if I can't get an answer to a problem.
 
Hi there, I was diagnosed almost 3 years ago aged 22. I was initially only seen by a diabetic specialist nurse (DSN) but that was when they said I was type 2. The second they finally realised I was type 1 I was seen at the "young persons diabetic clinic" at the hospital where I had access to a diabetic dietician, DSN and consultant. I am still being seen at the hospital however now in the adults clinic where I just see a consultant every 3 months. Once my condition is more stable I will be seen every 6 months then I assume I will be transferred back to my GP unless there are any issues.

Your GP should refer them to the hospital clinic if you ask. Do you feel your GP understands diabetes enough to offer decent support?
 
Hi Daisydog and welcome 🙂

I see a hospital consultant every year, and they wanted to see me every six months - I had to persuade them that once a year would be enough because I also see the diabetes nurse at my surgery every year, so I am still seeing someone about my diabetes every six months. I have the email address of the hospital DSN if I have queries the surgery nurse can't answer.

I've found GPs really don't know enough about diabetes to be able to help with it or answer questions about it. My own GP once asked me if I test my blood sugar twice a day 😱 - refrained from pointing out that I'd be dead by now if I did, and explained that I have to test at the very, very least four times a day as I inject four times a day! An out of hours GP once gave me completely the wrong advice about managing my diabetes too - DSN was horrified when I told her what he'd said.
 
TheClockworkDodo said:
My own GP once asked me if I test my blood sugar twice a day 😱 - refrained from pointing out that I'd be dead by now if I did, and explained that I have to test at the very, very least four times a day as I inject four times a day! An out of hours GP once gave me completely the wrong advice about managing my diabetes too - DSN was horrified when I told her what he'd said.
Click to expand...

My GP didn't understand why I was prescribed Humalog cartridges so didn't sign the repeat. I had to get an urgent appointment to talk to him and explain what reusable insulin cartridges are for. He then asked me to show him how I use them so I got the pen out and he said in all the years he's been a gp he's never heard of reusable insulin pens.

From then on I decided to only speak to my DSN at the clinic about diabetic matters as she is also a nurse prescriber
 
Rosiecarmel said:
My GP didn't understand why I was prescribed Humalog cartridges so didn't sign the repeat. I had to get an urgent appointment to talk to him and explain what reusable insulin cartridges are for. He then asked me to show him how I use them so I got the pen out and he said in all the years he's been a gp he's never heard of reusable insulin pens.

From then on I decided to only speak to my DSN at the clinic about diabetic matters as she is also a nurse prescriber
Click to expand...
I once saw a locum consultant who didn't know about half unit pens
 
When I swapped from disposable to reusable pens. I asked gp for insulin cartridges. Dr S started looking at his computer screen then asked me what dose I needed 🙄.
 
Welcome to the Forum. Very much depends on where you live. If you feel you need more support than GP can provide or questions they cannot answer push for a referral to the Diabetic clinic. You may find you have to push. I was told that the Clinic would not see me as I had not tried all the Diabetic drugs available. This was not the case as I was seen quickly

Diabetic Clinic locally offer appointments in the evening as well as during the day.

Hope this helps
 
Rosiecarmel said:
My GP didn't understand why I was prescribed Humalog cartridges so didn't sign the repeat.
Click to expand...
My diabetes nurse made a big effort to get Glucagen on my repeat prescription because I have so many hypos and am losing hypo awareness - looked at prescription online the other day and some GP at the surgery has only gone and taken it off again - without consulting either me or nurse to see why I have it or what it's for! Thankfully I noticed in time before my current lot passed its use-by date ...
 
Hello and welcome Daisydog. 🙂
 
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