Diabetes Blog – Happy-Medium.net

I got a chance last week to see my endocrinologist again, my quarterly appointment time coming due, and I’ve got to say, it was an interesting experience.

The appointment started with me arriving ten minutes early, but waiting at least ten minutes to check in at the desk, because the office is under a new medical group with new computer systems. That means additional signatures on additional pieces of paper that are not usually part of the quarterly check-in.

The wait became even greater after five more patients showed up in the next three minutes (it’s a big practice). I was never so happy to have been early for my appointment, even if I did have to stand due to a supply of patients that were greater than the supply of available chairs in the waiting area.

Once I saw my doctor, it was fairly clinical. But it was different from what my quarterly appointment might have been just a year ago.

Back then, I didn’t have a Dexcom Clarity account set up to help track and report on trends from my continuous glucose monitor. Now I do, and instead of using hearsay (from me) to decide where to tweak my basal rates, we were able to use something much more reliable: the actual data itself.

We found out that the lows I’ve had recently have been happening, mostly, right before lunch. If I get lunch at my normal 12:00-12:15 time, no problem. If it’s much later than that, I usually encounter a low. ”It’s because you’re so fine tuned”, says my endo. ”If your schedule is off just a little bit, you’re going low”.

That’s true. We’ve worked over the years to get my basal rates to the point where, most days, I don’t see a lot of BG variation, and my average glucose is in a very good range (I know it’s time in range that matters most, but let me have a little victory here).

We also spent some time talking about the Freestyle Libre. I shared the highlights of my 20 day trial, and she shared that she thought it might be a great option for Type 2s who are really averse to fingersticks. It will be interesting to see where it goes from here.

All of my vitals are pretty good right now. I’m not getting any flack for adding weight since my surgery last year, and I’m half grateful/half hoping she’ll give me a hard time about it. To be honest, I’ve found shedding weight to be a nearly insurmountable task at my age. No matter how hard I work, no matter how I change my diet, I keep adding a couple of pounds per year. Trust me when I say, I would do nearly anything to drop about 30 pounds.

That’s the bad story from this visit. I’d like to add a really good story to the next one. I’ve got about 90 more days until my next check in, and I have a lot to work on in the meantime.