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Do they really have a clue?

J

jumbleannie

Active Member
Messages
26
A little history-
Last March I had a urine infection, or so I thought. After a fasting test I was told I was diabetic.
I was sent to the diabetic nurse who freaked me out totally. She told me I was to stay away completely from sugar, not even a buiscuit for a treat, yet I should eat plenty of low GI carbs, and all the other stuff generally told to newly diagnosed diabetics. If not I was gonna have heart problems and my feet would drop off,( ok she didn't acctually say that, but she did give that impression).
In December last year I went back to see the doc as my readings were not consistant with those of a diabetic, and was told I was not diabetic, but pre diabetic, but I should come back for a FBT in June.
So of course like the good girl I am I did. Hba1c of 6.9. Have been under a lot of stress lately as my brother was dying of cancer, and stress does seem to put my blood sugsrs up a lot. Told I needed to do the oral glucose test and what it involved - 12 hr fast and bring a bottle of lucozade with you. Fine I thought, I quite like lucozade. But no, I have just had a letter stating it has to be a 14 hour fast, and I need to take a 200ml bottle of polycal, not lucozade.
So I went online to find out what polycal was and how the test is conducted. It states that you need to fast between 10 -16 hours and then drink 113ml of polycal, (I do hope the doc has a measure ):roll: ,followed by 150ml of water. Or if in a primary care setting you can use lucozade. What the :!:
So not only can they not decide if I am diabetic or not, they can't even decide how to do the test. Sorry to ramble on , but I just get sooo frustrated by all this, especially since when I fractured my ankle the same docs diagnosed a sprain and I had to go private to get an x-ray to prove it.
Maybe it is time I found a new surgery?
 
Find a new surgery.

Every surgery makes mistakes, but the good ones apologise and fix it quick, and ask a second opinion when they're not sure.
I wouldn't have any confidence left in them after that malarky, and without confidence a doctor isn't good.
It really irritates me the way some doctors are, my FIL is a GP, and he's great. Some i've met are useless.
 
annie
find a description of how to do a OGTT , print it and take it to your surgery.
 
With an HbA1c of 6.9% I think a FGTT is a bit of a red herring. You need to do something to get it down, and fast. FYI 7% is what my surgery tells me is well controlled diabetes, at 0.1% under that, you don't need to be mastermind to consider the implications of what walking around with an blood sugar at that level for long periods of time will do if you don't deal with it.

If you act now you may be able to bring it under control quickly. Take a look around and ask questions. Cut out all added sugar to anything and any kind of sweet treat as much as you can while you are doing this and try to find a diet you can stick to. And get a blood testing meter so that you can see the impact of the food you are eating on your blood sugar.

Diabteics who manage their diabtes well and reduce their readings to noram levels all significantly reduce their carbohydrate intake, whatever diet they follow. If you catch it early you may be able to have more flexibility in your diet than the rest of us with full blown diabetes. Although I think it is simply a matter of where they draw the line at the meont - in a few years time I suspect they will have reduced the threshold.

I'm sorry to hear about your brother. This must be a very difficult time for you. Yes, stress will have an impact on your blood sugar - cortisol, the stress hormone, has an impact on how your body uses insulin. Hopefully we can help you get to grips with it. The support and advice here is great.
 
annie
an ideal non-diabetic HbA1c is about 4.6%. The average is 5.1% and that included all those that are away from Ideal, thus 6.9%, which is better than the diabetic target level of 7% or 7.5%, depending on who tells you. In fact my PCT admits that fewer of its 14.000 diabetics achieve below 7.5%.
The target of many focussed diabetics is to get into the 5% Club. A few manage to get into the 4s.
 
I can post again, now I have had a couple of days to calm down. Went to the chemist to get my polycal drink, only to be told they don't stock it and you have to get it from the doc or a hospital. Rang the doc who told me you can get it from certain chemists, but you have to order it in advance. So why didn't they state that in the letter? Upshot is they have cancelled my test and told me to ring when I get hold of some polycal! Am I being a bit irrational,(quite possibly because I had phsyced my self up for this, booked time off work, and spent a day in pain with a pulled muscle because I didn't want to muck things up by taking painkillers), or is my doctors a joke. If so I'm not laughing!
 
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