You may want to check out Part 1 and/or Part 2 of my story before you read this one!
It's Homecoming Week, I went in for blood work on Tuesday morning and then I was able to take off some time on Wednesday morning to go to the clinic to meet with our family doctor to discuss my high glucose counts and test results. During my appointment, we discussed family history with diabetes (I have a 3rd and 4th cousin who have type 1, but no one else) and what symptoms I was having (frequent urination, thirst, loss of energy - which I chalked up life changes). At that appointment, he decided to prescribe me Metformin, which he told me was supposed to help the insulin I did have work better. A side effect would be weight loss. All of those things I was okay with! Again, he wanted me to start tracking my blood glucose in the morning and at each meal. He asked me to call in my numbers on Friday morning so they could see if the medication was working. I also had more tests done that day that were related to diabetes and thyroid functions.
Friday morning rolled around, my numbers had decreased slightly, but not too much. I was trying to eat almost no carbs so that my numbers would be a bit better, but even that was only helping so much. After I called in my numbers, the doctor called back and wanted to start me on a long-lasting insulin - Lantus. They sent the prescription into our local pharmacy and I had plans to get it after school. My doctor also mentioned that he would like me to see an endocrinologist (a diabetes specialist), just so that they could look through my files and make any other recommendations they felt necessary.
Meanwhile, I felt defeated. So, so defeated. Throughout my two rounds of gestational diabetes, I had been able to control my blood sugars with my diet. Here I was a few days in and I couldn't do it on my own anymore. I was flooded with so many thoughts... my aversion to needles and having to stab myself each day, let alone the fact that I was already pricking my fingers several times just to check my blood sugar. I felt as if I was at the beginning of the end. The end of what? Life as I knew it, normal, being healthy, being able to be a go-with-the-flow kind of person, and being able to check "no" on all the boxes when I fill out any sort of health-related form. I felt broken and I didn't think that I could be fixed.
Later that day, a nurse from the doctor's office called back after she had been trying to find endocrinologists in our area. I live in a rural town, so she wanted to know how far I was willing or wanting to travel. She gave me the options and I decided on a Diabetes Clinic about two hours from my house. The only problem was that it was going to take about 3-4 months to get in to see one of the doctors because they were so booked. The nurse assured they would send my test results over and get me in as soon as they could. In the meantime, they were confident that my family doctor would be able to help me get my blood sugars under control and we would wait out the few months until I could get a second opinion.
That all happened on a Friday. The following Tuesday, I got a call from the Diabetes Clinic and they were going to get me in the next day. Wait a minute...what? I thought it was going to be 3 or 4 months? It's been 3 days! I'm sure this is a blessing, but is it a coincidence I got in this quickly or is this worse than I thought?
Stay tuned for Part 4!
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