You just can't make some doctors happy.
Even though the doctor was smiling when he said I was a drug addict,
I still took offense to the statement. Having had a doctor attempt
to increase my dosage for several medications to bring me in line
with the guidelines for recommendations for blood pressure
medications and statins has left me with a sour taste in doctors.
Add to this a great discussion with a VA doctor about eliminating one
medication and reducing the dosage on another medication, I really
can't understand why doctors are pushing to increase some medications
so enthusiastically.
Admittedly, I would like to be off a
few medications, but because of the lab reports and other tests, I
know that I am where I should be for the results I am obtaining. I
am lower than the guidelines for blood pressure readings, yet I have
had to refuse to let the nurses take my blood pressure readings
immediately after entering the exam room. Not only have they
increased the pace from the waiting room to the exam room, but also
taking the BP with the incorrect BP cuff is another trick they have
used to bring my BP readings up.
Even my wife, who is a certified nurse
aide, has the right cuff for me and my BP readings are consistently
115 to 125 over 60 to 75. Yet the doctors' nurses work to get my BP
up to 140 (or higher) over 90 (or higher) so that the doctor will
prescribe a higher dose of BP medication.
Now the cholesterol (lipid) panel seems
to be all over the range. The latest test done at the VA showed
everything within the normal range, but with a three day difference
in blood draw, all my results done by the hospital lab were beyond
the high limit of the range. I therefore have to wonder if the
hospital lab reports are inflated for the doctors to enable them to
increase the statin dosage. To check the hospital lab reports, on
the same day, I went to the local hospital and paid out of my own
pocket to have them do a blood draw and do a lipid panel. All the
results were within the ranges and the ranges were the same as the VA
and the regular hospital lab. All three blood draws were fasting and
that is the reason I say that the results for the doctor were
inflated.
I am beginning to think I need
seriously to consider changing doctors and hospital labs. Not only
would I save on distance traveled, but I may also save on
frustrations. When it comes to my diabetes, I don't like the idea of
leaving the endocrinologist I have, but I am tired of having the
suggestion of letting my A1c get above 7.0 at every appointment.
Yes, they tell me that is because of my
age that they make this suggestion. I tell them that until I am
unable to prevent hypoglycemia, except for the rare episode, I will
continue to manage my diabetes to the best of my abilities. Only
three readings below 60 mg/dl in the last year and two were at times
I suspected I would go low because of injecting the Novolog too close
to the Lantus injection site and testing proved I was going low and
the glucose tablets did their work. The lowest reading each time was
56 mg/dl and 58 mg/dl. I consider these low, but not severe lows.
The third time I injected Novolog when I should have injected Lantus.
Now am concerned because I do not have
the symptoms when I get below 70 mg/dl of sweating, being shaky, or
the other symptoms. I seem to have become hypoglycemia unaware in
the last year and that does concern me. As a person with type 2
diabetes on insulin, I always believed that only people with type 1
diabetes had this problem. This confirms that the analogue insulins
can cause this condition in both types.
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