I’ve been using my endo as my GP for the last 15 years or so. I’ve been lucky in that I rarely get sick, and if I do it’s the usual stuff like the common cold or a UTI, though it’s been years since I’ve had one of those. My endo is fine with writing a prescription for what I’d need.
I see my endo every 6 months and he always does bloodwork and urine tests. But he doesn’t do physicals or basic stuff that I’d probably use a GP for.
I’m in decent control (A1c 5.8), and on an Omnipod and Dexcom.
However, I’m wondering… since I’m in my late fifties, would it be a good idea to have a GP? I would not use the GP for T1 diabetes stuff.
It is good to have a GP for 3 reasons. 1) Endo’s, from time to time go from being allowed to act as a GP to a change in policies that restrict them to being a specialist and can create havoc with setting you up with a procedure or treatment and making sure your insurance will cover the expense(s). My Endo was in that situation and now she reviews everything taken care of by my GP and lets me know if the GP missed anything important. 2) It is always good to have 2 sets of eyes looking after you and help validate care, sort of like always having a second opinion on your care. 3) More and more you can order your own tests and simple procedures, so the GP is the best place to act as a repository for all your records with any doctors or providers you may use. Patient charts are starting to be available through patient portals, however, the sharing of information between providers often available on one chart provider is not available on another. Probably, in the not too distant future, all chart providers will cross reference all care and be available on one portal.
All my GP usually does for the “yearly check up” is a full blood work panel to make sure that’s okay, ask if I want vaccinations, and then to set up a mammogram and give me a kit for the at home colon stool test. She then asks if I have any concerns. But I am considered healthy, but have an awful back. I am more likely to be seeing her in regards to my back. I can always contact her if I need something and she arranges it, but again in my case, that is always because of my back. I did contact her to get blood drawn to see if I had already had covid in the past (negative) and she arranged it.
The blood work my endo would do anyways, as the GP and endo would duplicate except they look at whats already ordered, I turn down the vaccinations. That leaves the stool test kit and mammogram, which are probably every 2 years anyways. Until type 1, I rarely saw my doctor. My husband chose always to get yearly check ups. But you might be missing some of the routine tests that become more common as we get older?
I use both, and they are both at the same office building and have access to all my visit notes, treatments on MyChart. So both are aware of what tests, visits, etc have been done.
In the past, when diabetes was my only medical condition, my endo also was my primary. When she retired, I switched to having separate primary dr and new endo.
Except when I was pregnant 34 yrs ago, I have never used an endo, I have found physicians who will write the prescriptions I feel like I need, but I treat my diabetes myself. My GP looks at my A1c, and figures that I know what I am doing. He wouldn’t know enough about Type 1 to treat me. If I ever decide to use a pump I will look for someone to help me. There is a diabetic educator in town.
I haven’t had a physical in years and neither has my husband which I don’t think is unusual. My GP does full blood work every 3 months when I request it and asks if I have had the Covid and flu vaccinations. He also makes sure I get colonoscopies and mammograms. I do have a Cardiologist, a urologist since I had bladder cancer, and a gynecologist. I have been to various functional doctors too, but depend on myself to do research and figure out medical decisions.
I am finding my GP lacking a bit since I was diagnosed with osteoporosis, because he only told me that the meds to treat it are bad and that he wouldn’t take them and to not fall. Next time I see him I will ask him who I need to go to for more info. I am depending on YouTube videos for exercises and I joined a forum for more information, and to hear about other people’s experiences.
I use the term GP and I live in the US.
And I just got a new endo and my a1c has been fluctuating between 5.8 and 6.1 consistently.
Actually my insurance requires I visit my endo twice a year to keep my insulin and pump scripts up to date.
He only treats diabetes and makes sure I get retinal phots and checks my feet and does blood tests. There isn’t much else that goes on with an endo. I would want to see him more if I was struggling with control.
At one time, I used my endo as my primary care physician, as, at least to me, everything is related to diabetes. Now, I use my internist as the entry point for all those things my endo is not equipped for, and since my endo has a 6-month lead time for appointments, although I could see her PA via televisit, it is just faster to see my internist.
I’ve used my internist for all sorts of things not appropriate for the endo, like lung/sinus infections and unexplained pain. At a minimum, he provides referrals to specialists in cases I do not have someone and he prescribes when it is straightforward, although by now we have appropriate specialists we trust.
For me, the primary care doctor is much more useful than the endo. If it were not a requirement that I see a doctor regarding my diabetes care and maintenance of Rx’s that supply my insulin, pump and CGM, I would have little to no need for an endo.
I seek no blood sugar or control advice from my endo. My knowledge and performance far exceed anything he could do to help me. He recognizes this reality and I am grateful that he’s willing to do the work necessary to manage my never-ending Rx need.
My primary care functional medicine MD helps me manage my digestion, blood pressure, heart rate, and thyroid for now. She’s also playing an important role in managing post-stroke cardio-vascular treatment that mainstream doctors would not.
I have both but hardly ever go to the gp. The office is terribly run, you never see the doc, the np is an idiot basically and when I go for a physical they always make the wrong appointment. Every time I have gone there for a vaccine they told me they ran out of it! And they don’t let you come without making an appointment for that.
I have to go because I haven’t been there since the pandemic although I had video appointments when I had Covid. The nurse there was trying to tell me I just had a back spasm when I had Covid double pneumonia after I told her I felt like someone was stabbing me in my shoulder blade! My doctor called me right back and told me to go to the field hospital so she was great about that.
My endo treats me for the diabetes and Hashimoto’s and questions on any other issues I am having but I don’t think he’s allowed to do the all of the testing the GP might. I am not sure. My gp refuses to treat any endo issues but I would not trust her on that anyway. Fortunately I only have to go to the endo two times a year now. Their office is great, I call if I need something and they do it almost immediately.
They have raised the co-pays dramatically in the space of four years or so, so it’s really starting to be very expensive seeing all of these doctors- when I get bloodwork I have to go to one specified lab which is a terrible one, the ins won’t let me do it at endo office and the lab they use which would be a lot easier for me and it would save me a co-pay.
Yes I have a PCP or GP who sees me once per year now that she referred me to an endo after I began MDI. Up to then she helped me manage diabetes, hypothyroidism and vaccinations. The endo is now in charge of diabetes and hypothyroidism.
Last week I had an annual body check by a dermatologist. He froze several pre-cancers with liquid nitrogen - ooo ooo fun.
Last month my cardiologist ordered an echocardiogram because of exercise induced shortness of breath after a bout of Covid. Then there is the retina specialist. That should be once per year, but I had a vitreous detachment, and he wanted to rule out retina damage.
The doctor that delivered my Dad, uncle and aunts and treated me as a child was a General Practitioner (GP). For some reason we in the US like to change names of stuff for no good reason. As I see the endo more often than the PCP, it seems he’s really my primary care doc.
PCP and GP are different things.
GP is a speciality meaning a doctor who handles general medical stuff for generally healthy people.
PCP is a primary care physician. The doctor who is assigned by your insurance to care for you.
For many years my endo was my PCP. But a PCP can be any specialty. I’ve had an Endo and an Internal med dr, and even a nurse practitioner be my PCP over the years.
It sounds like it might be a good idea for me to scout out someone who does internal medicine, someone who could do physicals and see me for the non-diabetes-related stuff. My endo assured me he could write a prescription for anything I’d need, but I still feel like there might be something missing in his general care. Not that I don’t get excellent diabetes advice from him.
My partner, who is generally healthy and is not diabetic, had an issue with a swollen foot lately where we were concerned it might be related to the covid vaccine. He called his GP/family doctor/jack-of-all-trades doctor, who told him to go to a walk-in clinic if he wanted to be checked over sooner, because a scheduled appointment wouldn’t be available for a couple of weeks. What the what? Why have a general care doctor if they’re just going to tell you to go to a walk-in clinic?
Far cry from the GP who cared for me as a child. He assisted my Grandmother as she delivered 3 of her 4 children at home, the last was in hospital because Grandma was 49.
In my teen years family doctors would stitch wounds and set simple fractures. Now those things get referred to a general or orthopedic surgeon.
and when I go for a physical they always make the wrong appointment. Every time I have gone there for a vaccine they told me they ran out of it! And they don’t let you come without making an appointment for that.
