I’m new to this site and I’d like to thank Mr. Peachy for the kind invitation to join. I posted a question on AnswersYahoo and he was gracious enough to offer his words of wisdom and support.
First of all, I have not been diagnosed as being diabetic. In fact, my physician seems to think I’m blowing things out of proportion and hasn’t been too terribly pro-active in pursuing things. Last summer I was exhausted, extremely irritable, slept 12-14 hours a day and never felt rested, was having balance issues, intermittently blurry vision, urinating frequently and had tingling in my hands and feet to the point that I was having trouble holding smaller objects or even walking “right”.
I went to the doc, explained what was going on and before I could even finish he interrupted and declared that I was “depressed and need an anti-depressant”. He didn’t even want to do any testing to see if there was a medical reason for my symptoms…something I thought a doctor was supposed to do. I mean, when have you heard of depression causing tingling in your hands and feet?
Anyway…it was like pulling teeth, but I argued my way into getting a Thyroid panel, a Metabolic panel and a B12/Folate level. The thyroid came back within normal limits, as did the Folate. My B12 was on the lower edge of normal but “still within normal range, so it doesn’t need treated”. My FBS that particular day was 98, a number that seemed strangely “high” since I’d had some trouble in college with it going very low…like 37 kinda low.
A cousin in another state told me about how her doc had treated her borderline low B12/fatigue symptoms with B12 injections and how much better she felt. I returned to my doc with this info and some research I found from the National Institute of Health recommending treatment for borderline low B12. Again, he was reticent to go along but did so in order to get me out of the office.
The B12 shots have helped with the fatigue and tingling…as long as I take them FAR more frequently than usually prescribed. I returned to the doc and asked to have more testing for DM, such as an A1C and/or OGTT. He refused because my 98 fasting sugar 4 months before was “still within the norms”. Seeing a pattern here??? He refuses to think outside the box as long as lab values fit somewhere into the so-called normals. I argued loud and long and he finally agreed to my suggestion of getting a home meter. Again, I think he just wanted me out of his hair and figured the best…and fastest way…was just to agree with me.
I’ve never been pregnant so I’ve not had any OGTT’s in the past and can’t speak to my likelihood of having had Gestational Diabetes. I decided to buy an A1C kit through a medical supply company and it was 6.0. That “normal” A1C coupled with the FBS of 98 have given my doc even more ammunition to say “everything’s fine”. He can’t, of course, explain why the home 75 gm OGTT tests I did show 1-hour sugars of 185 & 119 and 2-hour sugars of 141 & 148, but he IS quick to say that I’m just making a big deal out of numbers that “just aren’t that significant”.
Seven months ago I was seeing AM fasting sugars that were 105ish- 115ish, usually only during the 2 weeks leading up to (sorry, guys) ‘that time of the month’. Now I’m finding sugars like that almost every AM, regardless of what time of the month it is. I checked my sugar this AM (after fasting for 10.5 hours) and it was 105. I ate a breakfast at 8:30 AM that consisted of a bowl of Rice Chex cereal with 6 or 8 fresh strawberries cut up and tossed over top then drizzled with maybe as much as 2 Tbsp. of heavy cream - not even enough to pool on the bottom of the bowl. Yeah, yeah, I know…lots of fat but I hate the taste of milk and soy milk, too. Anyway, I barely got that last bite in and I was feeling RAVENOUSLY hungry already. At 9:45 AM I started feeling really weak and shaky and my heart was pounding really hard and a mile a minute. I checked my sugar again and it was 169. I checked again at 11 AM and it was 130.
I struggled for 20 or so years with what my idiot doctor refused to investigate and,instead, just called IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome). I’d have horrible boughts of stomach pain, diarrhea and/or constipation. I was never convinced of his diagnosis and eventually went gluten-free on my own. My symptoms disappeared completely. It’s pretty obvious, at least to me, that my dumba$$ doctor gives pretty bad care and now I’m left to wonder if I have a brewing diabetes problem that he’s going to let go until the sugars are so bad he can’t deny it anymore. By that time, of course, a good deal of damage could have been done. I’d like to find someone else but I live in a VERY rural area where the choice of doctors is severely limited.
That’s why I’ve started seeking out “real” diabetics to see if the people who deal with the problem every day agree with my doctor, that I’m over-reacting and worrying over something that’s a non-issue. If not, and you all agree with me, I’m hoping that you can give me some guidance on what I can do for myself in spite of a doctor who seems bent on ignoring things.