coolbird30

I started out with an OB appt this morning.  He wasn’t happy with the blood sugars, so said we’ll probably go ahead with putting me in the hospital overnight for observation to get me going on the insulin…   he also mentioned that he wants to do a 24 urine collection to make sure my kidneys are ok…  he was going to send me home with a thing to do that, but then said he’ll just have them do that in the hospital.. which makes sense.  Anyway, I had barely gotten back to work when he called me and told me he just got off the phone with a ‘new’ perinatologist and this guy thinks that he can get me started on the insulin without having to put me in the hospital…  however I need to go in to see him right away.  Well, right away generally doesn’t work for me due to work and all, but I was able to move my lunch…  so I took off and went to this dr.  Took me a little over half hour to get there, then cuz I haven’t been before you have the list of papers to fill out, which I tried to do as quickly as possible..  I sat with him and we talked a bit.  He decided which types of insulin to put me on and which doses and then sent me across the hall for training.  Of course he wants me to start on the insuline tonight, so I had to drop off the RX at my phcy…  luckily my phcy is Target and this Target has pizza hut pizza’s you can buy, so I quickly ran thru the line and got pizza to eat on the way back to work… I just got back from that about 45 minutes ago.  I ended up with a 2 hour lunch!!  YIKES!!  So I guess I’m on insulin now, and we’ll see how it goes from here!!

So I took your advice and called my OB’s office yesterday morning.  Had to leave a message.  The triage nurse called me back to go over what happened.  I advised her how I was in with the Dr for all of 10 minutes, and left so stymied that I didn’t know what happened.  The nurse called the perinatel’s office and was told they will pull the dictation from the ‘evaluation’ and get back to her.  When they called her back they told her I had had a 45 minute consultation with the Dr, and that the Dr had gone over reccomendations with me.  When the nurse told me this I was completely flabbergasted!!!  45 minutes?  How did they calculate that????  I asked what reccomendations do they claim they gave me, she replied that they gave me recommendations on how many times a day I should check my sugars, and what levels my sugars should be at.  I told the nurse that what was said was “If I were to be one of their patients, they would recommend I test 4 times a day, and that *such and such* were the levels I should be at”.  I said the Dr never even asked me how my levels were.  The nurse asked why didn’t I tell her my levels were not good…  I told her because the whole thing just went so different from what I was expecting, that I was too stymied to realize until after the appointment that she hadn’t asked what my levels were.  I told the nurse that I and my husband were under the impression that I was going to this Dr to see if they thought I may need to go on insulin for the rest of the pregnancy, and when I mentioned that to the Dr — because she certainly didn’t bring it up — she said that that decision is between me and my OB.. and that if my OB wants their help in my therapy that he just needs to ask….  Again, I told her that I was puzzled again from that response because I thought that was why my OB sent me to them.    So needles to say I’m even more confused then I was before.  I’ve left a message for the perinatel Dr to call me back to go over some more things, but I really think at this point, it’ll just be easier to wait and talk to my OB next week. 

I don’t think it went the way it was supposed to…  My OB gave me the impression he wanted them to see if they thought I’d need to go on insulin for the rest of my pregnancy…  and all this Dr did is talk to me about Diabetes and pregnancy…  as if I don’t already know the details on that.   I’ll have to call my OB next week, or maybe I’ll just talk to him at my next appt, since it’s only 2 weeks away.  A little disappointed, but what are you gonna do?  Watch this space for any further updates!

 Have a great weekend everyone!

Well I haven’t posted a blog on here since I’ve started because it’s not something I’m good at.  I’m a member of the Wildcats team, so I tend to just stick with our team forums.  Today I decided was a day for me to post a blog, as it may end up helping out someone else.  This may be long winded, but hopefully insightfull.

I have been a type II diabetic since January of 2001.  I started out taking Glyburide and being deathly afraid of what I ate or drank, thinking it would kill me instantly.  I switched right away to diet sodas, and sugar free everything.   Most sugar free stuff was ok, but some of it is just down right horrible, and it causes such gas!  I hated that!  I finally found that if I just ate the regular stuff, I wasn’t going to die…  of course I wasn’t checking my blood sugars like I should have been…  ok let’s be honest here.. I wasn’t checking them at all.  I don’t know why, I guess I thought if I ignored it, it wasn’t really there.  Stupid really.  At this time I was married to my second husband, the useless one.  At the time, we had been married just shy of a year, and were giving it our all to get pregnant.  Never happened.  I had no idea why.  I mentioned it to my dr, and she sent me to have an ultrasound of my ovaries.  They were fine.  So why wasn’t I having my periods every month?  No one knew.  And no one bothered to try real hard to find out.  I just let it go, and thought if it happens, it happens.

So, a few years go by, the loser husband leaves, and my mom has pulled out an article on PCOS (Polysystic Ovarian Syndrome).  My mom and I are both the type that whenever we read about a disease, we automatically have it, however this was different.  I actually had these symptoms!  I went to my dr and mentioned that I thought I had PCOS.  She sent me to an endocrinologist, and no offense meant here, but I couldn’t understand anything the guy asked me or said to me.  He was middle eastern, and had one of the heaviest accents I have ever encountered.   He decided I didn’t have PCOS.  So the issue was dropped.  I still felt that the medication they mentioned would be beneficial to me, so about a year or so later I was at a new job, with all new insurance.  I set myself up with a new dr and went in.  Talked to her about the Glyburide not working for me, and could we maybe try me on Metformin?  She thought it was a great idea…  and also put me on drugs for cholesterol, kidney function and told me to start taking a baby aspirin a day. 

The cholesterol and kidney meds were pointless.  All it did was give me a persistant cough.  So I stopped those.  Once I was going strong with the Metformin, my periods started coming back on a more regular basis. 

By this time though, I was 33 years old, and kinda to the point where I didn’t really figure I’d ever get pregnant.  I was on the verge of moving to England, and marrying my current husband.  He’s 7 years older than me, and we both kinda thought we couldn’t get pregnant… he had been tested previously with a girlfriend for fertility, and he had been told he had a low sperm count, as well as slow swimmers.  And of course with me, my cycles have never been very regular, and I’d never gotten pregnant before with 2 husbands under my belt, and on my third. 

 We moved from England in October 2007, back to AZ where I’d lived for 30 years.  We were staying with my mom and trying to get ourselves situated.  I got a great job and things were starting to roll along…  then my mom had her strokes.   The evil step-father made things so we were no longer comfortable, or felt welcome to live there so we felt we had to move out.   We moved in with a friend of mine who lived about 50 miles or so outside of the city.  The first night we were there, it was a very cold night, so hubby and I got to snuggling…  I’m thinking you get the idea….

 So about a month later, I’m trying to do my workout and really having a hard time.  I’m feeling sick, and light-headed and like I hadn’t slept in days.  I cut the workout short that day.  The rest of that week I wasn’t feeling good so I didn’t work out for the rest of that week.  Several of my co-workers, and the friend I was staying with, all encouraged me to take a pregnancy test.  I finally broke down and bought one from the dollar store.  I took it on March 16th and that darn think turned pink faster than I ever thought they worked!

So now onto the drama…..   My blood sugar levels have never been all that great, as I’m sure you can imagine.  In January, my doctor decided to try me on a new medication called Janumet, which is Metformin and another medication combined.  When the doctor told me about it, I asked specifically if I should continue with the regular Metformin or discontinue the use of it and only take the Janumet… I was told to continue on both meds.  My blood sugars were awesome!  The best they’ve ever been!  I was very happy! 

Then…. one day… I ordered my refill for Metformin..  this is about 2 weeks ago now, and the pharmacist tells me that that prescription has been cancelled.  I asked why, and on who’s orders?  They told me that it was on my PCP’s orders, but didn’t tell me the exact reason, just that I was taking more than the FDA guidelines say I should.  I was absolutley pissed!!! 

The folowing morning I called my PCP’s office and just was so upset.. how could they take me off one of my diabetic meds, halfway through a high risk pregnancy??!?!?!?   Didn’t they realize what a stupid idea it was??  It was working!!  What difference did the FDA know about my body verses some animal they did their testing on???   Well the dr would not reconsider.  She held firm, she will not renew the script!  Boy was I mad!!!

I carried on, changed my diet again so that I was getting even more protein… and guess what?  It didn’t matter!  My body sent my glucose levels soaring!  -You see, as soon as I found out I was pregnant, I went to an OB my friend went to for her high risk pregnancy, and he told me also to stay on both meds, and to test my glucose at least 3 times a day… which I was doing…  so I knew when my levels went up!

I put up with it for a bit, and then this morning I went to my OB for my 6 month check-up.  The second question out of his mouth was “How are your glucose levels?”  I told him straight out they were horrible!  He looked at me, like what is going on????   I told him all about what my pharmacy and PCP had done, and he was furious!  He said they had no right to do that!  Turns out, the pharmacist had decided he was a dr himself and thought it’d be a good idea to call my PCP and ‘remind them’ that I was on both drugs….  and that’s what caused my PCP to change her mind all of a sudden.  That’s the part the pharmacy didn’t tell me.  I know phcy law, and they are not supposed to questions meds you’ve been on for 6 months, only new meds that may interfere with old ones!!  So my OB writes me out a new script for Metformin and tells me he’s going to set me up with the perinatologist to evaluate my diabetes.  He says I may have to go into the hospital overnight for them to truly evaluate me, and that now I may have to go on insulin for the remainder of my pregnancy!  He did mention they may put me on an insulin pump, so that’ll make it a bit easier, as I’m not good with needles to begin with.

So that’s where I am for now, going to call the perinatologist and set an appointment up for that in a little while.

I hope this isn’t too long and drawn out, and that maybe it helps someone, somewhere.  I promise to blog the rest of my journey as well.

Thank you to everyone on BS who has helped me though all my troubles and turmoil, and especially to all the Wildcats for being a source of support I never knew I needed! 

(((((((((WILDCATS))))))))))