New Member Introduction

Hi Everyone....I am new to this board so I will give you a synopsis.  I am 65 years old, have Diabetes (not sure which type). I began having blackouts and sleeping most of the day when I was 16 years old.  I was sent to the Internist who took lots of tests and told me they were all too high or too low. Every fasting blood sugar I've ever had has been over 140.  Had a GTT and at 2 hours it was 360.  That was the start of Diabetes then.  The Doctor never suggested any kind of treatment, and the years went on as before.  In 2000 I went to see a GP who diagnosed me as a type 2 (because of my age).  She never ran a c-peptide test to find out what I was.  She took me off 10 units of Lantus at Bedtime because of high night readings, and told me to watch my diet.  I went on Atkins and lost 50 pounds.  I have never been obese.  I am 130 pounds and 5 ft 2.  Both my natural mother and father had Diabetes, and half of my 10 siblings have it and hypertension too.  I got to feeling so bad that I went back to the doctor and asked for more treatment.  My A1c at that time was 12.6.  She has now put me back on Lantus 24 hr insulin at bedtime and Glucophage 500 once a day.  My feet and legs get shooting pains at all hours.  My blood sugars are running between 198 and 432.  I have been on the meds for 6 weeks now, and am ready to go back for an adjustment in the dosages.  I am getting ready to find another doctor, because I don't feel that she is informed enough on Diabetes.  The first time I went to her I asked her if she wanted to check my feet, and she asked me why.  She had not read the chart to know I was Diabetic.  That scares me.  My mother lost toes because of gangrene, and I want my feet checked.  I appreciate any help I can receive from the members of this board.  I  also have Spinal Stenosis, Osteoarthritis, and Hypertension.

Wow. You know, I'm gonna tell you something I did to my doctors. I have 2 tumors, one behind each eye and I have vision issues due to it. New doctor goes "follow my finger" I say "Which one?" he goes "this one" "which one?" he wiggles his finger "this one" "alright I'll do my best" I do the test he says "Do you by chance have double vision?" I quipped "if you read my chart you'd know I do and that I have two tumors on my optical nerves" he was speeachless and left the room. Next time I had him, who ironiclaly is my doctor now, he looked at me and said "I should of been doing my job better, thanks for the lesson" it stuck with him... sometimes you gotta give them a taste of their own medicine. so in a diabetic case id go something like "out of curiousity do diabetics have to have their hands and feet checked?" wait for them to say "yes" then go "oh ok, because if you would read my chart you'd know I was a diabetic"

Good for you on the food then.  Please read the two stickies at the top of the Diabetes Forum, Testimonial and Diabetes Resources for more information about food, etc.  Sticking to a reasonable low-carb food plan helps even out the blood sugar.  Regular and sustained exercise also helps with that.  However, since it seems the meds are not controlling the blood sugar, they need to be re-evaluated.  And good luck finding an endo.  At the very least, I would change doctors anyway if I were you because the one you've been seeing doesn't seem to understand diabetes.