Tuesday 22/4
Phone call from surgery saying "your blood sugar is very high" (wouldn't give me numbers), "can you come in to the surgery today" (no), "it's really urgent", "you must send us a urine sample immediately", "you might have to go to hospital right away". Didn’t stop them closing up for the night without bothering to tell me the ketone readings, although I did manage to drag my HbA1c score out of them, 113.
Wednesday 23/4
Saw GP late afternoon. Urine ketones yesterday were >3 but the nurse who'd threatened me with hospitalisation yesterday hadn't bothered to find out the result before she ******** off home apparently, and no-one considered letting me know in the intervening 24 hours. GP tested BG (20.1) and blood ketones 1.7, decided that was low enough.
She gave me a BG monitor, prescriptions for lancets, test strips, Gliclazide and Metformin.
Told me I MUST start eating an extra meal per day in order to take Gliclazide 12 hrs apart. (I'm used to one meal in the afternoon/ evening then a snack before bed, as I explained to her)
Said I must test BG first thing, after a meal and before bed, and before driving.
Follow up in 3 months to retest HbA1c and hopefully stop Gliclazide.
Get home, lancets don't fit the device supplied with the monitor.
9 left in the monitor's box (GP used 1). Tried testing using instructions plus Internet advice, 6 stabs and only 1 dodgy blood drop (turns out I was dehydrated) so no readings.
Don't know whether it's safe to take Gliclazide without testing in case of hypos. GP surgery now shut and online system about as useful as a chocolate teapot. Ring 111, wait 6hrs for ringback from lovely GP who says, don't worry, your BG numbers are so high that a hypo is incredibly unlikely. Start taking Gliclazide once per day.
Thurday 24/4
Ring surgery to explain about lancets as well as asking to see a diabetes nurse, seeing as I can't get a blood drop for testing no matter what I try. They appear to take notes but no details appear on system when I check later.
2 more days of flying blind then MIL digs out her late mother's lancing device and box of gaily coloured lancets (still no idea why there are 6 different colours in the same box), they're 10 years old but how can a lancet go off? Try half a dozen times to get blood but still dehydrated so no testing.
Friday 25/4
Check GP online system, my lancet prescription "will be sent to my nominated pharmacy". I have not nominated a pharmacy since I haven't taken any medications since electronic prescriptions became a thing. Surgery only lets you raise a query online 8am-8pm Mon-Fri (do their poor computers need sleep and holidays?) so no idea what's happening. If I didn’t have backup lancing options I'd be really p'd off.
Sunday 27/4
Supposed to up Gliclazide to twice daily but wary as still unsuccessful with lancing. Decide to postpone.
Finally manage to get a BG reading so decide it's safe to start 2 doses Gliclazide per day from tomorrow.
Monday 28/4
Have been given appointment with diabetes nurse but at a time I can't do (clashes with taking MIL to a different clinic). Check online system, my lancet prescription request has been closed, no info visible. Send a request to find out where lancets are, and another to request different nurse appointment. Told they will be dealt with next working day. Try to open another request (got 5 issues need sorted) and system says, sorry, you can only have 2 open requests at a time. Why not warn me beforehand?
Tuesday 29/4
Finally getting the hang of testing, but where are my lancets? Check system several times but requests still awaiting processing by surgery. Ring them 10 mins before closing and told "sorry, we're really busy". They can't deal with any of my other queries until these two are answered. At least I found out where the lancets have gone. Tried to rebook diabetic nurse, apparently it's really difficult to find a 20 min slot. She thinks there's one on Friday but while she's put me on hold for no obvious reason, it's gone. No more available until 16th May, at really inconvenient times, at a surgery several miles away. Decide to accept anyway as may never get another appointment!
Just feeling like I'm being messed about here by the surgery (There is one excellent GP but she's semi-retired/ part-time and not involved with this fiasco). Is this normal behaviour or should I seek another practice? I fail to see how any of this is either improving patient health (my stress levels are extremely high as well as my BG) or even saving the NHS money, as the system is so inefficient and full of errors. I'd forgotten until now, that while I was collecting my prescription, I got an email from the surgery saying they'd received my prescription request (for a load of medicines I don't take and never have), but they couldn't process it because they couldn't find them on my records! Hopefully some other poor sod didn't go without their meds but the incompetence is staggering.
Anyway, rant over, just needed to get it out of my system as family don't want to listen to me.
Phone call from surgery saying "your blood sugar is very high" (wouldn't give me numbers), "can you come in to the surgery today" (no), "it's really urgent", "you must send us a urine sample immediately", "you might have to go to hospital right away". Didn’t stop them closing up for the night without bothering to tell me the ketone readings, although I did manage to drag my HbA1c score out of them, 113.
Wednesday 23/4
Saw GP late afternoon. Urine ketones yesterday were >3 but the nurse who'd threatened me with hospitalisation yesterday hadn't bothered to find out the result before she ******** off home apparently, and no-one considered letting me know in the intervening 24 hours. GP tested BG (20.1) and blood ketones 1.7, decided that was low enough.
She gave me a BG monitor, prescriptions for lancets, test strips, Gliclazide and Metformin.
Told me I MUST start eating an extra meal per day in order to take Gliclazide 12 hrs apart. (I'm used to one meal in the afternoon/ evening then a snack before bed, as I explained to her)
Said I must test BG first thing, after a meal and before bed, and before driving.
Follow up in 3 months to retest HbA1c and hopefully stop Gliclazide.
Get home, lancets don't fit the device supplied with the monitor.
9 left in the monitor's box (GP used 1). Tried testing using instructions plus Internet advice, 6 stabs and only 1 dodgy blood drop (turns out I was dehydrated) so no readings.
Don't know whether it's safe to take Gliclazide without testing in case of hypos. GP surgery now shut and online system about as useful as a chocolate teapot. Ring 111, wait 6hrs for ringback from lovely GP who says, don't worry, your BG numbers are so high that a hypo is incredibly unlikely. Start taking Gliclazide once per day.
Thurday 24/4
Ring surgery to explain about lancets as well as asking to see a diabetes nurse, seeing as I can't get a blood drop for testing no matter what I try. They appear to take notes but no details appear on system when I check later.
2 more days of flying blind then MIL digs out her late mother's lancing device and box of gaily coloured lancets (still no idea why there are 6 different colours in the same box), they're 10 years old but how can a lancet go off? Try half a dozen times to get blood but still dehydrated so no testing.
Friday 25/4
Check GP online system, my lancet prescription "will be sent to my nominated pharmacy". I have not nominated a pharmacy since I haven't taken any medications since electronic prescriptions became a thing. Surgery only lets you raise a query online 8am-8pm Mon-Fri (do their poor computers need sleep and holidays?) so no idea what's happening. If I didn’t have backup lancing options I'd be really p'd off.
Sunday 27/4
Supposed to up Gliclazide to twice daily but wary as still unsuccessful with lancing. Decide to postpone.
Finally manage to get a BG reading so decide it's safe to start 2 doses Gliclazide per day from tomorrow.
Monday 28/4
Have been given appointment with diabetes nurse but at a time I can't do (clashes with taking MIL to a different clinic). Check online system, my lancet prescription request has been closed, no info visible. Send a request to find out where lancets are, and another to request different nurse appointment. Told they will be dealt with next working day. Try to open another request (got 5 issues need sorted) and system says, sorry, you can only have 2 open requests at a time. Why not warn me beforehand?
Tuesday 29/4
Finally getting the hang of testing, but where are my lancets? Check system several times but requests still awaiting processing by surgery. Ring them 10 mins before closing and told "sorry, we're really busy". They can't deal with any of my other queries until these two are answered. At least I found out where the lancets have gone. Tried to rebook diabetic nurse, apparently it's really difficult to find a 20 min slot. She thinks there's one on Friday but while she's put me on hold for no obvious reason, it's gone. No more available until 16th May, at really inconvenient times, at a surgery several miles away. Decide to accept anyway as may never get another appointment!
Just feeling like I'm being messed about here by the surgery (There is one excellent GP but she's semi-retired/ part-time and not involved with this fiasco). Is this normal behaviour or should I seek another practice? I fail to see how any of this is either improving patient health (my stress levels are extremely high as well as my BG) or even saving the NHS money, as the system is so inefficient and full of errors. I'd forgotten until now, that while I was collecting my prescription, I got an email from the surgery saying they'd received my prescription request (for a load of medicines I don't take and never have), but they couldn't process it because they couldn't find them on my records! Hopefully some other poor sod didn't go without their meds but the incompetence is staggering.
Anyway, rant over, just needed to get it out of my system as family don't want to listen to me.
