Don't act all surprised that we're well into the second week of January before I'm writing that!
Okay, how do I catch you up? No shock to anyone, I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes back in September. Just over the edge of, but enough to kick me into the next level of medical attention. That means Dietician, eye checks, foot checks, you name it, they want to suddenly check it because I've gone from level 44 to 48.
The Dietician - I am not really a violent person, despite what this blog might have you believe. But I wanted to kill her. At our Doctor's surgery, they know I use a wheelchair. So imagine our surprise when the appointment with the Dietician was upstairs. Through two heavy fire doors to get to the minuscule lift, then out of the lift we were basically re-enacting the 'Friends' "PIVOT" scene in order to get round the corner to go through two more fire doors to get into her office. Where I promptly fainted - exertion, stress, whatever.
She did everything but flap her hands and go 'oh dear, oh dear'. Then she asked us why we were there. Once we explained that we had been sent following a diabetes diagnosis, she proceeded to give us (no word of a lie) two print outs of diets you can find for yourself on the internet, which just so happen to contradict each other on the advice they give you. When it came time to weigh me, she had to go and find some scales which were dead (needed new batteries that she didn't have any spares of) and her manual scales showed me as 20kg heavier than the ones in the Dr's office had less than two months previously.
She knew nothing about VLCD diet plans - I had to find the products I've been using on her website for her to have a read - and she said she couldn't give advice on them as she didn't know about them. Obviously she can't know about every single diet out there - I wouldn't expect her to - but considering the Government are considering funding people who have Type 2 Diabetes to follow them in an official capacity, you would think she would have at least heard of the plans.She then said I needed to be booked in for bloods before we could talk any further - which seemed fair enough. I stated that any future appointments would need to be in a downstairs room to which she replied 'well she can't promise that' (like, WTAF, does she seriously expect me to go through this every time I have to see her?!) so I said well if it's not downstairs then I won't see her again. She kinda looked relieved!
Booked ourselves in for bloods. Letters received giving me dates for my Diabetes review, telling me where I can go for appropriate eye tests, etc. Need to have recent blood test results from no more than three weeks (I believe) in the past. Well that doesn't gel with the blood tests the dietician has booked us in for. Umpteen phone calls later, it turns out that no one at the surgery has any idea what tests she has booked me in for, they make no sense to the blood team, the receptionists, none of them. But they don't want to cancel them in case she has a reason for it. I swear, I thought I had boiled my brain, the sheer amount of steam coming out of my ears following these conversations.
Anyway, had my Diabetes review this week. Because of Christmas, my numbers had gone up a little BUT they are still in the green so Diabetes nurse is happy with me and wants me to keep going on the weight loss front. Giggled my way through the foot check (very nice man put up with me snorting, giggling and hiding in Stripes' teeshirt to muffle my sounds) and that was quite possibly the nicest trip to the Dr's we've had in years!
Hmmm, this is gargantuan as it is, and I haven't filled you in on LM yet. I shall write more once I've recovered! If you made it to the end, well done you!
