Today was the big D day, with the diabetes specialist from the hospital 🙂.
Was supposed to be a 45 min appointment, which turned into a 1 1/2 hour one. Went through the food diary and meter results and through my HbA1c results going back to around 2010 showing the spikes and trends.
I was told my HbA1c levels were within acceptable ranges for a type 2, even though I am getting spike that to me are way too high. Give the lady her due she listened and asked about previous diabetes care. Carbs came up and was happy that I have the carbs and cals book and I could refer to it. The EXPERT course came up and what I thought of it, when I said what they recommended for the daily carb intake was way too high she agreed with me.
As she did not want to put me on insulin just at the moment we discussed my eating habits etc and she asked me to try tweaking the gliclazide dose for a month to see what the effect of it would be, which I agreed to do.
Next came the topic of Victozia and would that be suitable for me, she agreed that she could put a case up for being given it. Also came up as I logged my sudden high to nasty hypo during the food and levels log, which brought up the question of why I want to go onto insulin as in the referral letter and I wanted tighter control to at least come close to the range of 5.0 to 8.5 not the going into the teens. I explained why I wanted to go onto insulin and was happy to go onto it and would prefer the MDI regime rather than mixed as my eating habits would not suit mixed insulin. Came back that she preferred not to try insulin just yet again.
Also came up about my experience with my previous in house DN's and their dictatorship of do as what one is told, with their listening ears turned off. Then came up DVLA testing requirements for testing, I explained I knew about them, but if I followed my previous DN's advice I would be breaking the DVLA's guide lines on testing. At this point she slipped out a DVLA new (May 2016 leaflet to DVLA and driving) which I already follow.
The end result I felt it she was one who I could trust, as she listened and was freely disusing options. Maybe not the initial result I was hoping for but a good starting point for her to see what is going on with my levels and to get the ball rolling for the future treatment. She will be sending another appointment for some time in May to allow time for the changes in gliclazide to build up a pattern.
It's a pity that it's taken a lot of hard work on my part and asking for a referral to get the help and advice that is needed. If anyone else is in a similar position it's worth not giving up on things and hopefully finding a doctor that is willing to listen and read ones notes and do an out of the ordinary referral letter as the normal ones I would never have got to see the hospital DN nurse.
Just hope my new doctors practice will also offer continuing support that the one doctor at my old practice. Might of stayed at the old practice due to that one doctor, but that decision was taken out of my hands when they announced the closure of the practice.
Was supposed to be a 45 min appointment, which turned into a 1 1/2 hour one. Went through the food diary and meter results and through my HbA1c results going back to around 2010 showing the spikes and trends.
I was told my HbA1c levels were within acceptable ranges for a type 2, even though I am getting spike that to me are way too high. Give the lady her due she listened and asked about previous diabetes care. Carbs came up and was happy that I have the carbs and cals book and I could refer to it. The EXPERT course came up and what I thought of it, when I said what they recommended for the daily carb intake was way too high she agreed with me.
As she did not want to put me on insulin just at the moment we discussed my eating habits etc and she asked me to try tweaking the gliclazide dose for a month to see what the effect of it would be, which I agreed to do.
Next came the topic of Victozia and would that be suitable for me, she agreed that she could put a case up for being given it. Also came up as I logged my sudden high to nasty hypo during the food and levels log, which brought up the question of why I want to go onto insulin as in the referral letter and I wanted tighter control to at least come close to the range of 5.0 to 8.5 not the going into the teens. I explained why I wanted to go onto insulin and was happy to go onto it and would prefer the MDI regime rather than mixed as my eating habits would not suit mixed insulin. Came back that she preferred not to try insulin just yet again.
Also came up about my experience with my previous in house DN's and their dictatorship of do as what one is told, with their listening ears turned off. Then came up DVLA testing requirements for testing, I explained I knew about them, but if I followed my previous DN's advice I would be breaking the DVLA's guide lines on testing. At this point she slipped out a DVLA new (May 2016 leaflet to DVLA and driving) which I already follow.
The end result I felt it she was one who I could trust, as she listened and was freely disusing options. Maybe not the initial result I was hoping for but a good starting point for her to see what is going on with my levels and to get the ball rolling for the future treatment. She will be sending another appointment for some time in May to allow time for the changes in gliclazide to build up a pattern.
It's a pity that it's taken a lot of hard work on my part and asking for a referral to get the help and advice that is needed. If anyone else is in a similar position it's worth not giving up on things and hopefully finding a doctor that is willing to listen and read ones notes and do an out of the ordinary referral letter as the normal ones I would never have got to see the hospital DN nurse.
Just hope my new doctors practice will also offer continuing support that the one doctor at my old practice. Might of stayed at the old practice due to that one doctor, but that decision was taken out of my hands when they announced the closure of the practice.
