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More questions - sorry

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imtrying

imtrying

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Sorry for another post with questions!!

This morning I went to the drs...and this has brought up several questions. It's official I have a bad chest infection and am now off work and on antibiotics.

When I went to reception to make an appt, as soon as they pulled up my records she told me i HAD to have an annual diabetes review. I told her I've just had one with my diabetes team so there was no need. She said it didn't matter and I HAD to have one there. (my stubborn side came out...as soon as someone says I HAVE to do something, I then don't want to lol). When I eventually went in to see the dr he told me the same thing (apparently this was more important than why I'd actually gone to see him!).

Is this true??? Don't my results with my diabetes team mean I've already done them? Are my GP surgery just trying to make some money?

The second thing was whilst in there and being assessed for the chest infection he asked if I smoke...which I do. I mentioned I had given up for 5 months last year but I put on so much weight I started again. Then he said 'no that's not the smoking that makes you put on weight, the insulin makes you fat'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now bearing in mind DWED is very close to my heart and insulin omission is something I've mildly suffered with, surely drs shouldn't be saying things like this...or am I being overly sensitive??

thanks everyone.
 
There does seem to be a relationship between giving up smoking and putting on weight. I think it has something to do with the fact that people have time on their hands without little sticks in them and so they do the next best thing ...... pick up the nibbles and such-like.

I don't know enough about insulin usage to comment about it's effects, so I won't.

My GP surgery seems far more sensible than yours. I'm still seeing a consultant at St Mary's hospital in London and so my blood tests are done there. Consequently, the GP surgery doesn't need to do them too. However, I do have an annual retinopathy scan organised through them.

Andy 🙂
 
I think my strategy would be to ask your hospital diabetes clinic team their views on where your annual review should be done, smoking, weight gain, DWED etc. Can you phone or email someone at clinic? If so, write down date & time & person of call and what they say and pass this to your GP - or forward an email, if that's how they work.

Has your GP ever offered any support for giving up smoking? Good local support services are sometimes offered through pharmacies (particularly if prescribed medication is part of the plan) or clinics etc - and support should include issues such as preventing weight gain.
 
Katie that is an absolute disgrace!!!!

Your doctor seems to have no bedside manner whatsoever! Given your history (which he should have been aware of) he should have been far more tactfull, but to say this to anyone taking insulin is thoughtless At best, but I would say dangerous.

As far as I know insulin itself does not make you fat, any more than giving up smoking as such would make you overweight. Generally it's eating more calories than you use up that puts on weight. But even if,as a doc, he knows something I don't, he should NOT have said it that way.

As for review, don't really know if adults have reviews at Docs and clinic, but if you dont want to you haven't 'got' to do anything😛 Would be thinking of changing Docs if it were me...

Hope chest infection clears up soon, lot of it about, may have to visit my doc tomorrow, grrrr

(go kick something and pretend it is doc :D)
 
If the doctor used those exact words then he/she has been very insensitive..............

My GP likes to have an HbA1c every now and again, but they dont force it on me.........it can be handy if you need/want one more frequently than every 6 months.........

I think both the quitting and insulin will be contributing on some level........

But not a reason to start again surely............😉

Get well soon.........🙂
 
Really inappropriate thing for your doctor to say.

However you might have to go to the annual GP review, it depends on what exactly happens at your hospital appointments if you get all of the checks done e.g. foot check then it may be enough for the clinic to write with all those details to your GP. But as they do prescribe your medications it's not unreasonable for them to request you attend once a year.

I go once a year to see a practice nurse, she admits she isn't skilled enough to adjust my insulin and I don't expect her to
 
Not saying your experience would be the same but:

I got hardlined into going to AR at my surgery a few years back

Signed myself off at the hospital (they said I should come back anytime I wanted)
Went for a few years with control drifting/gradually worsening
Got to a 'tipping point' and asked questions about change of insulin
Nurse referred me to GP 'with special interest'
He said it was 'a bit out of his league really' and referred me back to the hospital!

I will not be doing that loop again 🙂

PS I *love* my surgery and have nothing but good things to say about them - but they just were not the right place to look after the intricacies of my D
 
My GP surgery once asked me to see the Dr in the practice who specialises in Diabetes - he wasn't expecting me and said that they musn't have realised I went to the hospital. Whenever I have a prescription review they seem to accept that everything will be dealt with by the hospital.

I have known people put on weight after giving up smoking as they crave something else to try and manage stress. Drs should be more sensitive but sometimes they have a bad day. I once had a Dr be quite short with me, but I realised it had been once in all the times I had visited and at the time I had to go every month due to the meds I was on.
 
Thanks everyone, and thank you Nikki for what you said too (always great to have insider info!)

Interesting to see how different people's experiences are ...doesn't seem to be one answer (funny how that always seems to be the case with anything D related lol)

I must admit having the phrase 'insulin makes you fat' in my head all day, I've really struggled with making myself inject...when someone is self-conscious and overweight, it doesn't exactly make it easy to do such a simple thing with that phrase getting louder and louder as the needle gets faster 😡

I have spoken to my diabetes team, who have told me I should go for the annual review...for the same reasons Nikki's given on here, as well as the fact my drs surgery and diabetes team are in different boroughs.

So I will be making the appointment...though not with that dr! (he was just who I got to see with an emergency appointment). I don't mind doing what I need to do, it was just the way they went about it, and now I know it's what happens, I'm fine with doing that 🙂 Still a little confused because as some of you have said, and my DSN said, they do issue my prescriptions so it's only right they do their checkups BUT in 20 years of having diabetes this is only the second time I've been told this, so it's just very different to what I'm used to.

I also think it's not cost effective (if results can just be shared that have already been done!), but hey, what do I know...I'm just a drain on the NHS! 😉

thank you all again for your replies and sharing your experiences. much appreciated.
 
I think I've identified the bulk of that same problem in my PCT, as the fact that the hospital no longer actually seem to write to the GP when I go to see them, except when you do have a change of meds or the hosp want you to start on BP drugs or something.

And the hosp don't tickle my tootsies or measure my waist - which GP's now have to, it's another tick box they have to do! (cos apparently if it's over whatever, I might be at risk of getting diabetes .....)

Without my doing my annual half hour with the surgery nurse, I cannot then subsequently get the 'diabetes specialist GP' to renew my repeat diabetes prescriptions for a further 6 months ........ computer, apparently, says 'No' ....... and no other GP in the surgery will do it ........ :confused:
 
I made a long reply about tick boxes imtrying, but my new computer ate it.:(

Suffice to say, they want to check you themselves as they have a duty to and they get paid for doing reviews, when they tick the box.

My weight went up from 12 stone to nearly 15 when I packed up smoking, I was told nicotine is an appetite suppressant. So doc was both rude and wrong.😉
 
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