Some of you might remember that a few months back I had a not so great endo appointment. I was told I was testing too much - that 2 or 3 times a day was enough and I would get burned out if I continued testing before and after every meal, before bed, and as needed when exercising. I'm a T1 on insulin -- 2 or 3 times a day???
Appointment with new doc was today -- what a relief! I went in fully prepared to defend the amount I test and blurted that out when her medical assistant asked, "Do you test?" He said, "Don't worry about it. I'm sure we have people who test more." The doc was equally cool. She could see that I was on top of things and didn't make me feel like she was going to micro-manage. She then said, "We automatically set you up for an appointment with a diabetes educator, but you can go ahead and cancel that if you want."
I will now let go of the feeling that I'm being obsessive with the way I test. The prior doc just didn't seem to understand that trying to bring everyone down to the lowest common denominator doesn't help anyone.
Glad you left that doctor quickly. I've been T1 for 30 years and have never had a doctor tell me to test less, especially as low as 2-3 a day. I know people that do more, but I've felt pretty good with around 4-6 a day.
Congratulations. If you have the time - and we all have so much free time don't we- I'd actually see the educator. I've learned tricks and worked on problems with just about every CDE I've seen including those with whom I disagreed on targets.
That's awesome you've found a cool doc! I don't "use" my doc all that much, mostly rx's. When I've had "issues", she's been like "I need to see you right away..." and then we'll meet and I've usually already done what her nurse emails me to do two days later, which sort of makes me roll my eyes at the whole process. A CDE may be useful if they are really accessable but I've only seen them like twice since 1984, right when I started and when I "shifted gears" to get a pump.
Yeah, good for you. I have been T1 for 37 years and have like the vast majority of people never had the endo say test less. In fact he was perfectly ok with writing a script for 10 times a day even when the insurance company wanted to limit to 6.8 or 204 per month. So congrats for going the extra mile to get what you want.
