Doctor’s visit
I visited the endocrinologist’s office today, and my checkup went as planned. BP 122/70, good nervous system function, etc. Got the usual vampire tests, 5 vials this time plus a urine for mass albumen.
The cool thing was I got a new insulin pen (a Lilly Luxura HD) and it uses cartridges instead of single-use mechanisms. It can also do half-units of insulin, so I can more closely control my injections and use that half-dose when my carb count doesn’t work out exactly right.
We changed this because my correction doses were sending me on tremendous lows, and my sliding scale is more like 1 unit per 80 mg /dL over 120 instead of 40. I’m seriously sensitive to insulin, it seems.
Doc also prescribed me in 3 month increments so my co-pays will drop by half. That was nice of her. Maybe I’ll have her do the same when my Lantus supply is out.
I asked my Endocrinologist about the glucose tolerance test, and she said they rarely perform them anymore. A) they are time intensive, and healthcare has very little of that available, B) fasting glucose tests of greater than 140 mg/dL sieve for diabetes in general, and C) Glycosyated hemoglobin tests (the A1C tests) are also a reliable indicator of a long term glucose problem.
The tolerance test is being phased out like most natural insulins, urine ketone strips, and other non-electronic methods of testing.