Meeting With the Group East of Us

In the three weeks since the meeting that bombed on me, I have not felt like going to other group meetings. Therefore, Tim, Sue, Rob, and A.J. were the members that went to talk to the group on December 7. According to Sue and Tim, they had a good reception and were happy to hear about the “Choosing Wisely” points from the AACE and ACE. Many were happy to see the slides of the Health Central Blog by David Mendosa.

Sue said that they had no one interested in getting off medications, but they had some good questions. The doctor for the group did say that he appreciated the discussion and the information they had used. He did say that he was originally opposed to people coming off medications, but if people would follow the rules that she and A.J. had given, he would have a discussion with these patients. When he asked for a show of hands, none were raised.

Tim said the copies of Rob's email were well received and generated a good discussion. Then Tim surprised me when he asked if I would go to another meeting with them after the first of the year. I asked what they wanted us to talk about. Tim said they just want to ask me questions about the oral medications and why I was writing a lot about insulin and especially my blog here.

I asked Tim if he was joking. He replied that the doctor was the one asking and several of the group wanted to ask you questions about oral medications and insulin. Tim said he had talked about the problem we had encountered and that was why I had not attended this meeting. Tim added that at one time, the doctor said he was working with a CDE, but did not appreciate some of the comments he was receiving about her recommendations. When her family moved out of town, he was happy to have no one to work with and this may have caused him some of the problems he was forced to deal with when he was forced to move people to insulin. Plus, he did not feel comfortable with patients' testing and just did not bring it up during patient appointments.

I asked Tim if he would go and have his projector available. Tim asked what I was thinking about. I explained that I would put together a set of slides to present the material and handouts for them to have for reference. I told Tim I would use some of my blogs and other material for the slides and handouts. I added that I was thinking about a few blogs by other bloggers, but that I wanted to review them first.

Tim asked what I thought about bringing several of the groups together for one meeting and not doing two or three meetings. I told Tim I thought this was a great idea and we should present it as a trial to our own group and then have three or more available to assist with the larger group. We talked some more and Tim was in agreement to bring as many as possible from the group we had the bad meeting with and let them see a large group in action.

I told Tim that we could have the weather to contend with and I wanted to bring Jason into the discussion and see if he agreed and we could take a few pictures to send to his doctor friend. I added that we could send this information to him and a list of topics to see if this could help motivate some of his patients into a support group. I said yes, this could mean a long trip, but Tim was in agreement and we called Jason and asked if he had an hour or more for an impromptu meeting. Then we called Allen, Sue, and A.J.

When we were together, Tim explained what we had tentatively planned. Jason and Allen agreed, but Sue and A.J. were concerned about weather problems. Tim said we could set a date and an alternate and if weather was a problem for both, we could reschedule for a later date. Sue was still not in favor and we decided to postpone until April or May and Tim and I would handle what we could for the presentation we had been asked to do.

Allen asked if he could go and we agreed. Jason did ask if he could still contact his doctor friend with a list of topics and see if there is a positive response. We agreed and Tim said he was asking for a written statement from Sue and A.J. and we would convert it to slides. Sue said she would not have time until after the first of the year.  Tim said if possible by the end of January and Sue agreed. Tim said he would show them the slides long enough before a meeting to make changes if necessary. With this, we ended our impromptu meeting.