Visits with my new GP and diabetes nurse educator

I am so glad I changed GPs. My new GP was quite happy to spend an hour chatting about diabetes and IVF, and he was very interested in my experiences as an adult diabetic with Type 1.

It's fantastic to have stable, positive GP care again. I've missed that. My last GP went nutso. And then his receptionist went nutso too. Yeah so after more than 6 months of inadequate care from my old doc, I finally have a primary care doctor who I feel I can trust. (Oh, and the nurse-receptionist gave me a flu shot, which has hurt like billy-oh for 3 days now :( wah)

Yep, so that's a load off! :)

I also went along for a very quick appointment to my diabetes nurse educator. Even with a bunch of builders and electricians in the office (some hospital renovation disaster) she was still able to spot the cause of a trend that I haven't been able to figure out. I keep waking up either on target or a bit low, then going high coming into lunch, often having a low at around the 4pm mark, and then just getting really crazy wild variable results at dinner.

She explained that if I increase my insulin to carb ratio for breakfast, from 1:14 to 1:12, this would give me a slightly larger breakfast dose of Humalog, which would help prevent the highs at lunchtime. Having a more normal lunchtime test would mean I don't over-treat the lunchtime dose, which will in-turn help prevent dose stacking and 4pm lows. No 4pm lows will mean a more stable dinner test result. Well, that's the plan. I will give it a crack :)

Oh yeah, I've also finally gotten around to it, and booked an appointment with my dentist. It's only been like, what, 3 years!! :P

As you have probably guessed, I have a sore tooth. Not too bad, but enough to make me pick up the phone and call. It will probably hurt my bank balance more than it hurts my jaw.

My GP, just to hop back a few topics, was interested in our struggles to get funding for IVF, and interestingly enough he got to talking about doctors he had trained with. Turns out the chief of Fertility Associates was in his class at medical school. So he's suggested I write a letter to him directly.

Yes, you have heard me say that "I will write letters" before. And you know that it takes me bloody ages to get around to actually doing it. That's because life makes me tired, teaching makes me tired, diabetes makes me tired, thinking about IF makes me tired, and getting the strength to sit and write a coherent and convincing letter, which I know will in all probability only result in a polite form letter or brush-off, is hard. It's hard enough just to think about it, let alone turn the events of the last year and a half over in my head without breaking down into a sobbing mess.

But I have to make time to write the following letters:

• Complaint letter to CEO of Fertility Associates
• Letter requesting review of our case, with special consideration of our unusual case, to head of the local district health board
• Perhaps a letter directly to the Minister of Health, as he didn't truly "get it" when my local MP contacted him. In fact, he completely missed the point.

Yep, I will get there eventually. Surely, sooner or later, someone in a position powerful enough to fix this mess will see that logic has just escaped the building when they decided to discount the medical facts.

Work has been a bit manic, with all my students preparing to submit their first design projects this week. Oh the craziness and tears and wailing and "I can't do this" (them, not me) and "I've lost my design mojo"! Ha! It's great! :P It's the time when my students finally figure out that what I've been teaching them is actually useful, and if they are one of the students who pay attention and put in the hard slog, then presentation day is a blissful relief. Of course, it's always the 20% of students who cry and wail and stamp their little feet which make it all so exciting. Getting them across the line is all part of the challenge. I get to be a design tutor, a counsellor, a life coach, and a technical help line all in one. And I love it. I love figuring out what makes them act the way they do, and how I can best use that knowledge to help them learn. But by jove is it tiring. I tell all my students I am on call 24/7 (whether I answer then is another matter :P  ) but most of them are taking me up on the offer, and actually coming out of their teenage shells and COMMUNICATING with me, which is fantastic! :)

Easter is coming up, and I got in early and bought a bunch of yummy chocolate eggs for the step-kids. Goddamn! 3 teenage kids can eat a lot! But they haven't found where I've stashed them yet. I don't think...better go check!

p.s. sorry I've not posted as often as I normally do - we've had some severe interweb connectivity issues :(