Any advice on handling doctor?

Aha, Alan and Bebo, I am hatching a cunning plan...

A rather nifty suspender belt (think heavy duty 1940s corsetry) is winging its way to me from the vaults of eBay. When it arrives, I will feel that I have done everything I can to deal with this ridiculous stocking thing.

If it doesn't work, I shall hotfoot back to doctor (wearing the stocking like a leg warmer, as proof) and ask for a better solution.

Then I can use the suspender belt for much more interesting things.

Grin.

Ye Gods!

Thanks for the heads up, Robbity.

I can see that the battle is only beginning... And all for something that is basically a waste of tIme, according to NICE guidelines.

And, like you, I was stunned at how difficult the pesky thing was to get on. Nail-breakingly, hand-hurtingly, awkward. Like wrestling an unobliging elephant trunk. How on earth can people with arthritis or hand problems manage? Maybe they stretch a bit after a few uses.

I'm actually wondering whether a nice pair of high elastane footless leggings wouldn't do the job much better with far fewer complications.

Oh, and in a passing-on-useful-information way, Mr Pharmacist told me that if I hand washed the thing, and NEVER tumble dried it, and NEVER laid it over a radiator to dry, I might get 6 months of effective use out of it. Something to look forward to, eh?

))Denise((, thank you.

Great links, and look what I found:

Compression hosiery is not recommended in the following circumstances:

• Diabetes: peripheral arterial disease and peripheral neuropathy are both complications of diabetes. Anyone with other conditions that would normally require treatment with compression hosiery need to be carefully assessed and monitored if the medical team decides that the benefits of compression will outweigh the risks.

It was here, if you need to quote it at your next appt:
http://www.daylong.co.uk/compression

I had OGTT test two years ago. The results showed that my blood glucose was 7.0 fasting and 12.4 after 2 hours. I was given a high carb diet sheet, and sent away for 12 months. The test made me feel so ill that I had 2 days off work with crashing headache and blurred vision - definitely wasn't safe to drive. Not going to do that again.

An 'official diagnosis' would achieve very little. They would try and push metformin on me (tried that, disagreed with me). They would refuse me a glucose monitor (I have one already). They would tell me to lose weight (they've been telling me that for 30 years). They would tell me to eat exactly the kind of high carb, low fat diet that helped create my current situation. The only benefit that I can see is an annual HbA1c. But I have ordered two for £20 from the US, and can do them quarterly, not annually. Even allowing 10% inaccuracy, 4 tests a year is better than just 1 of slightly greater accuracy. I have eye tests annually, including retina inspections, and my feet are very healthy. I know this because I inspected them this week.

Grin. Anyway, I already know what I am - a not yet diagnosed type 2, controlled by diet. My monitor tells me the effect of diet on blood sugar and I (almost always) keep well within NHS glucose level guidelines. When/if I can no longer control my glucose levels by diet, I will make an appointment and cast myself on the vagaries of the NHS. Until then, I monitor the situation better, and FAR more often than they will even WITH a diagnosis of type 2.