It's That Time Again!

Today was Vince's three month Endocrinologist check up. All blood work was taken and the results are in. Kidneys, liver, cholesterol, and blood pressure numbers are all fantastic! Vitamin D level is still lower than recommended however. This is something that is very commonly seen in diabetics. Vince is on weekly supplement and they suggested he continue and see how it is next time around. This has been an ongoing issue but it isn't a severe problem, so it is just something they watch and treat as they can. He was weighed as usual and is continuing to lose weight as well which was so great for us to find out. The weight loss slowed for the time being but as long as it is less and not more, we are in good shape!! Aside from kidney function, our big concern every three months is how is A1C is doing. So where are we at this month? 7.0%! down from the last visit. They looked at all of his glucose readings and decided not to change anything for now. It seems that one day his levels are spectacular at around 90-130 all day long and other days, he runs high all day long. Doc said there is really no explanation left for the highs. The only thing he could think of is the infusion site. You see, for the last 10-15 years, he has used his stomach for his injections and infusion sites. He used his arm and leg when he was small, but then moved to the stomach. The doctor said although the insulin is being infused into the body, it is possible that over the years, to much scar tissue has occurred, resulting in the insulin not being able to be absorbed properly when the site is sitting at certain spots. He suggested Vince try placing the site on his thigh or upper rear since these areas are scar tissue free. He wasn't to excited about using his back-side since he would have trouble reaching it and seeing it to be sure all was well, so he chose the thigh. Today happened to be a site change day, so tonight, I loaded it up and injected it into his thigh. We will see over the next few days how his sugar reacts to the new site area. Now that I have recorded all of the medical stuff here, I should also write about a new doctor we were introduced to at the office. At the office, there is Vince's doctor and a nurse practitioner. They prefer patients to see the doctor once a year and the nurse the other three visits during the year. We did this at first however, we were not overly thrilled with the nurse so we asked to make all of the appointments with the doctor and they agreed. I mean, WE are paying THEM for the care, so I think we should have a say in who he sees. Well, today when the doctor took us back, there was a young woman in the room. He introduced us to her and explained she is a new doctor that joined the practice. We were open minded at first. The doctor knows Vince and he stayed and went over the normal findings with us. He then left the room for the new doctor to do, umm, whatever it was she had to do. She listened to Vince's chest, felt (well, poked the heck out of) his throat, asked him if his feet tingled about three times after Vince said he has neuropathy. He also told her a few times that he has retinopathy and she said did you recently have treatments? Vince was like, umm, yeah, years ago...(it's in his record!!) she then asked to LOOK at his eye. We are still not sure what that was all about. Did she think she could see the retinopathy by just looking at it? This is when we started to become skeptical. As we were sitting there, she went over his current medications and updated his file in their computer. Well, she tried, but as she said herself, she went to medical school, not computer school. Umm, how is a young doctor that just graduated not computer savvy or literate? So Vince's doctor came back and took over and got the necessary scripts printed out and sent us on our way. Vince and I both asked each other what in the world she was doing. This wasn't a wellness exam at the family doctor! This is a specialists office. She is supposed to be an endocrinologist. She didn't give us to much faith that she knew endocrinology too well though. Even when she was getting the blood work paperwork together, she put fasting and when the doctor looked at it to help her, he said he doesn't need to fast this time. I tend to not ask them to fast unless it's absolutely needed. Duh, these ARE diabetics they are dealing with! I think I could have filled out the paperwork better than she did! I know all doctors have to start somewhere, but we just feel that she is way to inexperienced to deal with all that Vince has going on. We requested the next appointment with his regular doctor and will continue to do so. Other than that little hiccup, all went well!!