Grrrr – and breathe.

I’ve just come back from a diabetes check up at my GP’s.

Aaaand breathe.

You see – when I took my son in for his six week vaccinations, they decided to corner me about not having seen the diabetes nurse at the clinic for over a year.

“Ahhhh”, I said. “That would be because I’ve been under the care of the diabetes department at National Women’s for the last 16 months”.

“Well”, they said. “We need you to come in and we’ll go through a checklist of all of your vital tests etc and check that your diabetes is under control”.

Me: “Oh, but you see I’ve been under the strictest care I’ve had in 15 years of having diabetes, emailing through blood test results every week. And my last HbA1c was 5.8%. And you’ve been copied on all the blood test results.”

Them: “Well the nurse who looks after diabetes in this clinic would prefer if she can check you over herself.”

Me: “I’ve never been more closely monitored in my life! I’ve been testing upwards of ten times a day, and my diabetes is better than its ever been. However, [here's the bit where I relent] if it would make you feel better about having an overall view of my health, I’ll agree to come in”.

So – today was the day. I actually hadn’t given it much thought beforehand, which is probably a good thing as it was PAINFUL. The nurse had a sheet with a load of things on it she needed to check. I would say 75% of the things she needed to check were provided in the last lab blood test I did, which was a month ago. So that annoyed me from the start – she could have done all of those bits without me even there (and really, could have done them twice as fast too).

Then came the bit about my latest HbA1c. Which wasn’t actually 5.8% (that was the one before, just before I had my baby). It was 6.6%. This was taken about five weeks after I’d had my baby. The physician at National Women’s was thrilled with me, calling it a fantastic post-baby HbA1c (let’s not forget how crazy the first six weeks after having a baby are). Let’s also get some perspective – hands up who would be thrilled with a 6.6% HbA1c? Yes, that’s the majority of you out there in cyberspace I’m sure. 6.6% is great! Did the (well-meaning, extremely nice but ultimately ignorant about T1) nurse think so? Her words: “HbA1c – 6.6%. [looks at me] Are you happy with that? [looks doubtful]“. I want to screeeeeeeeeaaaaaaam! “EXTREMELY happy”, I say, through gritted teeth.

And on and on it went. I won’t go into any more detail as it’s just a rant, but suffice to say there were quite a few dumb questions (such as “what sort of blood sugars are you getting?”) and well-meant, but half-baked advice.

Then she tested my blood pressure. Quell surprise, it was high! No wonder! I was about to burst a valve!

Anyway – to put this into perspective, of course I don’t expect a nurse at the GP to be an expert on diabetes. There is so much for those nurses and doctors to stay abreast of, across the whole medical spectrum (hence the term “General” Practitioner). I just wish she took a minute to digest this before giving advice, to someone who is clearly pretty clued up about the whole thing (there are letters and documentation galore from National Women’s saying that I’m intelligent, considered and diligent about my diabetes).

It’s like me (who specialises in digital marketing) giving someone my hastily-constructed advice on a television media campaign strategy. Out. Of. My. Area. Of. Expertise.

Deep breath.


By Nic on 22 January 2010 at 10.06 am
Posted in Medical Services, Pregnancy, Slice of Life
Tagged as
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