In the Office

The nice thing about having online access to my test results is that most of the treatment decisions are made and communicated before I even make it to the doctor’s office.

A week and a half after getting my blood drawn, I went to see my endo. She had already advised me to start taking a supplement AND complimented my numbers via comments on my labs.

When I wound my way up to the endocrinology department I answered the standard questions from the nurse got weighed and then offered her my left arm for blood pressure, “If you don’t mind, I’ll have you do my blood pressure on my left arm since I have my site on my right arm.”

“You have your what?” she asked me as I shrugged off my cardigan.

“My insulin pump,” I explained and turned my arm to show her the OmniPod on my arm.

“So that doesn’t fall off of your arm?” she asked. I said no and that is stays put just fine. “So you like your pump?”

“Yes I do, I love that it’s tubeless,” I responded. Then it was like something dawned on her and she took a closer look at my right arm.

“Your pump is tubeless! So it has a cartridge in the white thing? How often do you have to change that?”

I explained that I wear an OmniPod and I fill each pod with insulin and put a new one on every three days.

“I know it’s stuck on there pretty well, but have you ever had one fall off before?” she asked.

“None have ever fallen off, but I have accidentally ripped one off my leg before.” She responded that it was interesting and finally took my blood pressure.

When I got to see Dr. O it was just her who entered the room and I breathed a small sigh of relief. The last several times, I’ve spoken with a resident first and I don’t mind seeing residents and hopefully helping them learn about patients with diabetes but the last one I saw was kind of judgmental and didn’t listen.

We went through the standard appointment questions and a foot exam then we talked about the logs that I brought with me. She was happy with my numbers, however I wasn’t. My fasting levels are too high in my opinion and I’ve been taking a correction as soon as I wake up. So we tweaked my early morning basal and talked about my recent my eyes.

I insisted on seeing her before I fly out to the West Coast since I haven’t flown since before diabetes, so I talked with her about my trip next month. We established that I should change the time on my pump but that I need to set some temp basals for when we’ll be active. She printed me out a letter about what I use to manage my diabetes without me even having to ask.

Side Note: People with joint replacements and other implanted devices have cards for traveling that explain that they have a medical issue and TSA is educated on these things. But I hear/read horror story after horror story about people with insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors having issues with airport security. Why aren’t they trained on these things either? (more on making that happen here)

I was sent on my way with instructions to come back in six months.

Related Posts:

Blood draws for total babies (like me)

Information = Hope

Do you really think that?