I have a colleague who works and lives in the SF Bay Area who urgently needs to see a good endo who understands the importance of good control. The endo doesn't need to be a Bernstein devotee, but it would be good if they're at least a similar mindset re low carb and tight control.
My colleague just shared with me that she thinks she might be diabetic. She went to see her General Practitioner last week because she was feeling lousy (lots of classic symptoms - thirst, fatigue, etc.) The Dr. did a BG test and she was in the 300's. His response was to put her on 1000mg of Metformin and have her test her BG for a week.
I live on the other side of the country and was visiting our CA offices and just happened to have my Bayer A1c test kit with me. She had an A1c of 11.9%!! That translates into an average of 295mg/Dl!!
One of the other Dr's at her GP's office was quite cavalier and said as long as she's not in the 500's, there's nothing to worry about. I was stunned.
I need your help in recommending an endo that can get her the treatment she needs immediately.
Wow, I'm stunned too. How do these people get medical degrees? If I were her I would test myself for ketones and go to an er for a work up. She could be going into dka soon etc. I hope you find someone for her. I'm in NY and don't know of that many endos.
Christopher, I also posted in the SF Bay Area group, but am posting here, too. Let us know where your colleague lives and we may be able to help. I have a good endo in Walnut Creek (SF East Bay), but she is with Kaiser. Also, you may want to suggest that your colleague get tested to see if she has Type 1 diabetes. Type 1 can be slower onset in adults, but it is crucial to be treated correctly (exogenous insulin) and not with drugs only appropriate for Type 2 diabetes. Type 1 autoimmune diabetes can be distinguished by autoantibody tests (glutamic acid decarboxylase autoantibodies (GAD), islet cell cytoplasmic autoantibodies (ICA), insulinoma-associated 2 autoantibodies (IA-2), and zinc transporter 8 autoantibodies (ZnT8). It is important to get the full suite of autoantibody tests, not just GAD. I write about autoantibody testing in this blog. I also wrote my top ten tips for the newly diagnosed adult. I hope these are helpful.
Thanks. She's in the San Jose area. Yes, I actually forwarded your post "Positive Autoantibody Tests Indicate Type 1 Autoimmune Diabetes" to her. I myself was initially misdiagnosed as a Type 2, so I urged her to get the anti-body tests done too.
