Anyone else have this? I read a case study in a Diabetes UK report that could have been me - repeated cancellations then cessation of contact. The only difference? The case study had started to lose their sight. I'm not yet in that position. Even so...I had kick up a fuss, and eventually got an appt, and a Libre, after two letters from GP recommending one. But the same process has since occurred. I hit problems with the heat - it sends my sugar up - and when I finally made contact with a DSN I was told, in effect, that I was making it up. Heat sends BGs down, they said. Not in my case. It's been the other way since childhood. I could go on and on about their complete lack of interest in providing anything resembling care. I see lots of talk about your "medical team". This produces only bitter laughter in my case. I'm lucky. I have a very, very good GP. But the hospital clinic? Dismal.
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Problems with Diabetic Clinic?
- Thread starter SparksFan
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Sorry your having a bad experience I don’t have much of any use to say apart from your definitely not making it up!! 😡 I think dehydration can play a part in the rise of blood sugars in the heat and I’ve certainly read of others on here experiencing the same thing, but with that aside there are so many things that can cause blood sugars to swing about and we all react differently to different things so to generalise is a bit naughty of your DN
rebrascora
Well-Known Member
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Sorry to hear that you feel let down by your clinic. Most diabetes clinic's workload has dramatically increased since Covid but the staffing levels have not, so they are struggling. Good that you have a helpful GP though.
The term "team" is used very loosely I believe. Children and their parents tend to have a team but adults less so. It is just easier to use team than DSN or Consultant. I get a 10 min phone call about once every 10 months since Covid from my consultant. I do not know if I have a DSN or if so, who he/she is, so as far as I am concerned I don't have a "team" as such, however I don't need one. When I get stuck, I come here and ask questions and then do a bit of experimenting on myself until I find what works.
Why do you need to contact the clinic about your levels going high in the heat. The answer is surely just to increase your insulin until your levels come back into range? Most of us do find the heat (and/or increased exercise/activity in the warmer weather) makes us go a bit lower and we need to adjust our insulin down, but if yours goes up, then it would make sense to increase your insulin. By how much, would be down to you to do some cautious experimentation. Start with a small increase and see how that works out for a few days and then increase again if necessary.
I personally would trust my own knowledge and judgement over that of a nurse at the clinic that I may not even know and has perhaps never seen me or know anything about me and particularly if she was suggesting that diabetes can't impact us differently in the same conditions ie the hot weather has raised your levels when it tends to lower most people. I would not be keen to take her advice because she is clearly not able to tailor her knowledge (or lack of it) to my individual needs.
This forum has taught me that I need to be the expert in my particular diabetes and I very much feel that I am in that position now and I would challenge anyone who suggested they knew better, because they don't live with my diabetes, so nobody knows it better than me. I certainly don't get it right all the time but nobody can, so I don't need to worry about that, just what lessons I can learn from when I get it wrong and that mostly I am getting it right.
You might have been better coming to the forum to ask about your high levels in the heat and what strategies we might use to tackle it if we were in your shoes. That way, you get a range of options to try, rather than one person's off the cuff remark which doesn't sound like it was helpful at all, but maybe the nurse was stressed and rushed off her feet and didn't engage her brain before she spoke.
The term "team" is used very loosely I believe. Children and their parents tend to have a team but adults less so. It is just easier to use team than DSN or Consultant. I get a 10 min phone call about once every 10 months since Covid from my consultant. I do not know if I have a DSN or if so, who he/she is, so as far as I am concerned I don't have a "team" as such, however I don't need one. When I get stuck, I come here and ask questions and then do a bit of experimenting on myself until I find what works.
Why do you need to contact the clinic about your levels going high in the heat. The answer is surely just to increase your insulin until your levels come back into range? Most of us do find the heat (and/or increased exercise/activity in the warmer weather) makes us go a bit lower and we need to adjust our insulin down, but if yours goes up, then it would make sense to increase your insulin. By how much, would be down to you to do some cautious experimentation. Start with a small increase and see how that works out for a few days and then increase again if necessary.
I personally would trust my own knowledge and judgement over that of a nurse at the clinic that I may not even know and has perhaps never seen me or know anything about me and particularly if she was suggesting that diabetes can't impact us differently in the same conditions ie the hot weather has raised your levels when it tends to lower most people. I would not be keen to take her advice because she is clearly not able to tailor her knowledge (or lack of it) to my individual needs.
This forum has taught me that I need to be the expert in my particular diabetes and I very much feel that I am in that position now and I would challenge anyone who suggested they knew better, because they don't live with my diabetes, so nobody knows it better than me. I certainly don't get it right all the time but nobody can, so I don't need to worry about that, just what lessons I can learn from when I get it wrong and that mostly I am getting it right.
You might have been better coming to the forum to ask about your high levels in the heat and what strategies we might use to tackle it if we were in your shoes. That way, you get a range of options to try, rather than one person's off the cuff remark which doesn't sound like it was helpful at all, but maybe the nurse was stressed and rushed off her feet and didn't engage her brain before she spoke.
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