Wishing to start seeking remedial strategies

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diatubes said:
  • headaches all sorts
  • hot flushes at miscellaneous intervals
  • can't always tell hot from cold by touch
  • dizzy
  • drowsy
  • faint
  • balance problem in feet
  • less sensation in the feet
  • sometimes visual and hearing problems
  • word finding and pronouncing getting rapidly more difficult than it ever was
  • orientation problems (I was always very good at that)
  • neck scrunching
  • pressure behind eyes and nose
  • complex tasks are more difficult to coordinate than before
  • nausea which I cure by eating
  • sometimes no energy
  • tremor
Most of those most days
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Some of those could be connected to high blood sugar @diatubes but a few don’t seem like they would be. I’m particularly worried about your comment about complex tasks being more difficult and vision and hearing problems. I know you said you were going to get a special HBA1C meter, but I hope you can see a doctor to have all your symptoms checked out.
 
Inka said:
Some of those ... symptoms checked out.
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Well of course, that's what we used to think doctors were for, prior to 2017.

If they keep me off their list of patients with "diabetes" 2, 3, 4, etc, that doesn't stop me in actuality being in the realm of grave peripheral complications already.

The NHS doesn't do neurology or endocrinology, as was seen long ago.

In any case, even normal people like you have all sorts of other conditions which didn't exempt the professions from attending to your ongoing diabetic situation.

According to me, pre-diabetes is already an ongoing diabetic situation.

Some of you in this thread seemed to be saying that the practice should have followed that up (on its own initiative) by testing me every few months after that. I think that was when my doctor left, which is why they haven't been doing it.
 
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I don't know what monitor you are meaning but an HbA1C is usually done from a blood sample from your arm so venous blood and that is not something you can do at home. The monitors you can buy give a moment in time glucose level from a finger prick test which is a useful tool and can be an indicator that your HbA1C will be in the diabetic zone and how high but is not the same thing.
Some probably claim they tell you your HbA1C but are likely to be predictive rather than accurate.
I know some people have had private tests but unless you are prepared to go down the private health care route you will have to interact with the NHS system at some point.
As mentioned a complaint through the PALS system may get you somewhere.
I'm afraid these days people need to be proactive in their own health care and push for the follow ups etc.
 
@Leadinglights I believe the OP is going to get a private HbA1c done from a finger prick sample which you then send off. I believe other people here on the forum have done this, but I am not sure how reliable the results are and if for example you are anaemic, without the raft of other tests that are routinely done via the NHS, I doubt it would be highlighted but could well affect the result.

@diatubes I would urge you to try to get an appointment. Are you able to go to the surgery in person to try to get an appointment. Or does your surgery have eConsult or "AskMyGP" or similar online means of contacting a doctor or nurse. What happens with this system is that the doctor reads your symptoms and if they feel you need a blood test, they make an appointment for you and inform you of the appointment time. It was how I was diagnosed with diabetes 4.5 years ago. I filled in the form on the Sunday night with my symptoms, the doctor read it Monday morning, and emailed me to tell me she had made an appointment for a blood test the next day and I got the result the day after. I appreciate that not all GP practices have this system but it is worth checking if they do. Does your surgery have a website? That would be the place to look for this option. It certainly beats hanging on the phone for hours only to be told there are no appointments and to try again tomorrow. 🙄

You definitely should have had some follow up appointments. It would be unlikely to be 3 monthly if you were just at risk of diabetes initially but it certainly should have been checked annually.
 
rebrascora said:
@Leadinglights I believe the OP is going to get a private HbA1c done from a finger prick sample which you then send off. I believe other people here on the forum have done this, but I am not sure how reliable the results are and if for example you are anaemic, without the raft of other tests that are routinely done via the NHS, I doubt it would be highlighted but could well affect the result.

@diatubes I would urge you to try to get an appointment. Are you able to go to the surgery in person to try to get an appointment. Or does your surgery have eConsult or "AskMyGP" or similar online means of contacting a doctor or nurse. What happens with this system is that the doctor reads your symptoms and if they feel you need a blood test, they make an appointment for you and inform you of the appointment time. It was how I was diagnosed with diabetes 4.5 years ago. I filled in the form on the Sunday night with my symptoms, the doctor read it Monday morning, and emailed me to tell me she had made an appointment for a blood test the next day and I got the result the day after. I appreciate that not all GP practices have this system but it is worth checking if they do. Does your surgery have a website? That would be the place to look for this option. It certainly beats hanging on the phone for hours only to be told there are no appointments and to try again tomorrow. 🙄

You definitely should have had some follow up appointments. It would be unlikely to be 3 monthly if you were just at risk of diabetes initially but it certainly should have been checked annually.
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It was just the OP said he was going to send off for an HbA1C machine which I took to be a monitor rather than a one off test, my misunderstanding.
 
@diatubes why not purchase test strips/sensor and finger prick (eg accu chek fastclix).
This would have informed you of your typical BG level at different times of the day indicating if you’re pre or well into diabetes levels.
You can use it to determine your ability to recover to normal levels after a meal with carbs.

As you mention you can afford to pay for tests perhaps you could instead afford to buy a libre2 glucose sensor that tracks your BG all day long until the sensor expires in 2 weeks.

It may cost a but considering your symptoms and no joy at the doctors this might provide an insight to confirm diabetes or not.
 
Leadinglights said:
It was just the OP said he was going to send off for an HbA1C machine which I took to be a monitor rather than a one off test, my misunderstanding.
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Apologies, yes, it was me who read it wrong.
 
diatubes said:
Well of course, that's what we used to think doctors were for, prior to 2017.

If they keep me off their list of patients with "diabetes" 2, 3, 4, etc, that doesn't stop me in actuality being in the realm of grave peripheral complications already.

The NHS doesn't do neurology or endocrinology, as was seen long ago.

In any case, even normal people like you have all sorts of other conditions which didn't exempt the professions from attending to your ongoing diabetic situation.

According to me, pre-diabetes is already an ongoing diabetic situation.

Some of you in this thread seemed to be saying that the practice should have followed that up (on its own initiative) by testing me every few months after that. I think that was when my doctor left, which is why they haven't been doing it.
Click to expand...

It sounds very stressful. Is there any way you can get to another GP surgery, hopefully with more doctors?
 
Thank you all for your comments. I shall "bookmark" them for continued reference.

The comments and questions I now have are as follows:

Being disallowed any NHS appointments whatever (in common with a lot of people in my town) I have posted a letter to one of the doctors asking if they would persuade one of the nurses to take my HB1AC in something over 2 weeks time.

A couple of years ago I got shouted at by the man on 111, the web site where I had to re-register doesn't give me appointments and says I am registered with a non-existent doctor, the staff behind the thick armoured glass don't give appointments, and the practice doesn't phone back.

Thus I am near the moment of needing background information because if the practice give me any, I'll need to check it against something reliable.

Am I right in assuming much under "42" is dangerous (similar to blood pressure and temperature)?

And that between 42 and 46 is a good thing? Is "pre diabetic" a good thing?

Also, is "blood sugar" the same thing as "blood glucose" and "HB1AC", or are those different things?

My doctor told me I was "pre diabetic" a long time ago before he left. Is that why no further tests have been offered?

Blood tests occasionally got taken for "this and that" and I was always told there is "no result". I think that is a waste of tests while "professionals" regard them as meaningless.

As to private, it's hundreds of pounds per few minutes. Analysing the odd sample however, might be affordable if there is going to be a report of the result. "Insurance" don't accept ill people anyway.
 
diatubes said:
Thank you all for your comments. I shall "bookmark" them for continued reference.

The comments and questions I now have are as follows:

Being disallowed any NHS appointments whatever (in common with a lot of people in my town) I have posted a letter to one of the doctors asking if they would persuade one of the nurses to take my HB1AC in something over 2 weeks time.

A couple of years ago I got shouted at by the man on 111, the web site where I had to re-register doesn't give me appointments and says I am registered with a non-existent doctor, the staff behind the thick armoured glass don't give appointments, and the practice doesn't phone back.

Thus I am near the moment of needing background information because if the practice give me any, I'll need to check it against something reliable.

Am I right in assuming much under "42" is dangerous (similar to blood pressure and temperature)?

And that between 42 and 46 is a good thing? Is "pre diabetic" a good thing?

Also, is "blood sugar" the same thing as "blood glucose" and "HB1AC", or are those different things?

My doctor told me I was "pre diabetic" a long time ago before he left. Is that why no further tests have been offered?

Blood tests occasionally got taken for "this and that" and I was always told there is "no result". I think that is a waste of tests while "professionals" regard them as meaningless.

As to private, it's hundreds of pounds per few minutes. Analysing the odd sample however, might be affordable if there is going to be a report of the result. "Insurance" don't accept ill people anyway.
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Under 42mmol/mol is normal for HbA1C and is a level that many people aim for when they have been diagnosed as either prediabetic which is between 42mmol/mol and 47mmol/mol, anything over that is a diagnosis of diabetes. At the lower end many can manage to reduce their HbA1C quite successfully with dietary changes above that they may need medication as well.
For those in the prediabetic range it is a wake up call to make some lifestyle changes, diet primarily but getting more exercise if you can and then with some luck and dedication you can get back into normal range.
Blood sugar is a sloppy way of expressing blood glucose stems from historically, diabetes being referred to as sugar diabetes.
HbA1C is an average of blood glucose over the previous 3 months and is representative of the amount of glucose attached to your red blood cells, it is in mmol/mol.
Blood glucose from a finger prick is a moment in time of your blood glucose in mmol/l
 
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diatubes said:
I see there is diabetes insipidus as well as diabetes mellitus.
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Yes. That’s not related to diabetes mellitus but has some of the same symptoms eg thirst. It’s a problem with regulating the amount of fluid in the body (blood glucose is normal in that).
 
diatubes said:
Thus I am near the moment of needing background information because if the practice give me any, I'll need to check it against something reliable.
Click to expand...

You might like to register for the Learning Zone @diatubes - which has a lot of bite-sized modules that you can work through, to give you a good starting point.

You’ll find the Learning Zone at the orange tab in the main menu.
 
Leadinglights said:
It was just the OP said he was going to send off for an HbA1C machine which I took to be a monitor rather than a one off test, my misunderstanding.
Click to expand...
You can buy hba1c machines which analyse a drop of blood but it would be better to speak to the GP then you have the right follow up.

I’d advise completing an econsult explaining your symptoms and requesting some tests. Someone will then get in touch to arrange an appt.
 
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