Waiting for January 9

That’s when I finally have an appt with an endo. My PCP is still dragging her feet on diagnosing me with diabetes. I have a fasting bg of 128 now, and I am struggling with after meal values at 150+ despite frantic and strict low carbing. I am still scared. It’s not coming down with “diet and exercise” and I feel desperate. I had to beg my pcp for a referral to an endo (not that my insurance needed it, but no one around here would take me without a referral.) as if I am making this stuff up.

Exercise is still making bg’s go up, so I have cut back drastically on exercise. I am still losing weight.

I am just wondering at what point I will get diagnosed? Do I have to have sky high bg’s and be in dka? I don’t want to go there. My pcp will also not rx metformin for me. I have asked several times. She does not think low carbing will work, and pretty much refuses to dispense metformin until I “follow the ADA diet”. Now she gave me an rx to go to a diabetes educator/dietician to learn the ADA diet, BUT until she actually diagnoses me with diabetes, my insurance won’t pay for diabetes education and that’s all out of pocket. I can’t afford that. Makes me wonder about those illicit overseas pharmaceuticals, where you can get meds without a prescription. But god knows you can’t do that. It’s illegal and half the meds aren’t what they are supposed to be anyways. There has to be some other way.

Meanwhile, I have read Bernstein, and Taubes, and I am NOT going to do the ADA diet, my god, if a salad (which is what I just ate today) with no dressing a grilled chicken puts my bg at 177 I don’t want to think bout what higher carb entrees would do to me. So basically it’s a standoff, either pay out of pocket to get dietetic advice I won’t use, to get metformin that might help, or just wait til January 9 and see the endo. Hopefully, he won’t be as difficult to deal with as my PCP.

You might wonder why I stick with this doctor when she seems hell bent on killing me by refusing to dx me as a diabetic. She is the FOURTH doctor I have seen in the past five years. I am afraid I’ll be marked as a doctor-shopper if I try to see someone else at this point.

What an odyssea, from Dr. Bs. telling me my hair was falling out because I was in “a period of shed” to Dr. J telling me my tiredness is because i don’t exercise enough. To Dr. S. who poo-pooed all my complaints. Only to find out on my own that my bs is high, and THAT could be what is causing almost all the complaints I’ve had over the past few years. Dr. Now is actually much more concerned with my lipids than with my blood sugar and A1c.

Dammit. I am scared and mad.

I totally understand your frustration. I have only recently been diagnosed and my numbers are still out of wack. One day it is really high when I expected it to be low and and then when I expect them to be high they are low. It is such a pain. I know you dont want to eat carbs but maybe just try adding a little more carbs to your diet and that might help your numbers a little. The important thing is to make sure you get the right kind of carbs. I just went to my class with the dietician and my brain is still trying to get around the idea of eating that many carbs. I hope your appointment with endo goes good. I have my first endo appointment on Dec.12th and how I wish it were tomorrow! Well Good Luck!

Kathryn, You said " know you dont want to eat carbs but maybe just try adding a little more carbs to your diet and that might help your numbers a little" Oh no, I WANT to eat carbs, but every carb I eat goes right to my blood sugar. It does not matter what kind of carb it is. Right now I need to figure out whether I am just severely insulin resistant or whether (I suspect) I’m not making enough insulin. Right now, I am eating as few carbs as I can. It’s tough! But like right now, my bs is at 120. I used to eat oatmeal for breakfast. I could not do that today. Even protein seems to make it go up, so I have to be really careful. I am hoping to get some medication to help with this sooner rather than later, and going thru the holidays like this will not be fun.