Takin’ Care of Business

This is the face of diabetes.

No, actually it’s the face of my husband who has diabetes.

This was taken in Ireland; he’s in an old house/castle.

I assume it wasn’t occupied.

I wasn’t with him because I was in Killarney in an internet cafe.

Hey, internet access points are few and far between in the southwest of Ireland and I had to take advantage of the opportunity provided to me at the time.

Okay, I’m not ashamed, I’ll admit it.

I’m addicted to blogging.

Is that so wrong….

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How can I put this delicately?

There was a period of time after hospital discharge where John needed assistance with meds and blood sugars and each meal was an inservice in what was okay and why.

Frankly, he was waited on hand and foot during recovery.

And he kinda liked it.

I was afraid we were developing a case of PDS: Prima Donna Syndrome.

I nipped it in the bud before it had a chance to sprout.

Actually, John took over responsibility for his diabetes care by the time I had gone back to work. He is doing well and is motivated to the extreme.

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I was stunned when the hospital questionaire came and John didn’t want to fill it out.

I reminded him of the four-bed ward, the waiting an hour (or more) for pain medication. The interminable waits for his bell to be answered, the diet screw-up that postponed his surgery for hours, the HIPPA violations, the JACHO violations - everything I saw and witnessed during the four days he was in the hospital…..

He said he was happy with his care and didn’t want to fill out the form.

Excuse my language, but WTF?

He certainly complained to me during the hospitalization.

They must have given him an amnesiac before discharge.

He said he had some nice nurses, and only a few of them were airheads.

Oh…well that makes up for everything.

Men……..

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With any new change, there is a learning curve and John had a few experiences with learning how diet directly affects blood sugar.

I had gone shopping and bought two types of cereal. Whole grain cereal for John and frosted mini-wheats for the family. But John thought the frosted mini wheats were okay and decided to have a bowl.

Blood sugar a bit later: 195

Okay, as his doctor says, the reason to take a blood sugar is to be able to ask yourself “Why?” if it is out of whack, and then make the appropriate changes.

John thought, because I had bought them, they were okay for him to have.

That led to a discussion on complex vs. simple sugars and why the sugared cereal had that effect on his blood sugar.

Lesson learned and changes made.

Great!

Now, the doctor had said that a good time to check his blood sugar was two hours after dinner. So that’s what John did. It was 209!

What he didn’t realize is that the bowl of cereal (John loves his cereal) 90 minutes after dinner was going to affect the reading! It’s two hours after you eat, not two hour after dinner per se.

Speaking as a nurse, I’m learning a lot about patient education. You can be highly intelligent and still not quite grasp the basics of your illness at first. We’re both learning as we go along.

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I didn’t accompany John to his second doctor’s appointment. He felt comfortable going alone. It was too early for a repeat A1C.

The Lopid had dropped his triglycerides from 288 to 77. I was amazed.

Longer living through chemistry!

John’s cholesterol was under 200, but the ratios were all wrong. The “bad” cholesterol predominated. So….another med, Vytorin was added to the mix.

And then the shocker.

It has always been my impression that when a physician gives you a card that says both “Internal Medicine” and “Endocrinology”, he is an internal medicine doctor who has a specialty in endocrinology.

He acts as an internal medicine doctor who has a special interest/ability for endocrinology patients. My doctor is an internal medicine physician who specializes in pulmonary dysfunction. Now my lungs are perfect, but he acts as my internal medicine doctor.

So at the last visit, Dr Hsu tells John that he has to find an Internal Medicine doctor.

He only does endocrinology.

Pardon my language again, but WTF?

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So we are now in the same position my son was in a month ago.

My doctor no longer takes Blue Cross, although when I was in the last time none of the office staff was aware of that - in fact they were stunned. Couldn’t figure out who told me that.

Every other doctor recommended had an impacted practice and was not open to new patients.

The only doctor in our area who is taking new patients is an absolute jerk of the first magnitude.

I know. I worked with him. He isn’t even a good doctor.

So…I will try my doctor again to verify the Blue Cross problem because he is now taking new patients. I love the guy. But if he is not, we are going to have to go across the bay to find my husband an internist.

Failing that, we’ll start at the top of the yellow pages and work our way through.

It shouldn’t be so hard.

For anybody.

Next up: I’m Just A Bill…..