So, yesterday I went to see my primary care physician. To start the day, I took a LOT of energy to fight with my scraggly appearance and get back to my normal self.

It took quite a bit longer than my normal grooming routine, but this is how it ended up:

After a nap I was able to dress myself and get to clinic in plenty of time. I was way early, so I got in some knitting time; so early that my Dr. actually came out, saw me, and said he was out to get his own physical done. He was back in plenty of time, since his nurse took me in and began with the preliminary stuff.

When the Dr arrived, we discussed the pain in my hip as well as the peripheral neuropathy and the pain/burning in my feet. He extended my Rx for Tramadol, and also gave me a Rx for Gabapentin for the neuropathy. Then he sent me off for a blood draw to check my A1C as well as having some X-rays done on my hip.

The X-rays weren’t fun. I had to lie on a hard cold metal table, for starters. Because I’ve lost nearly all my butt fat, my tailbone had zero padding and that hurt. Then the technician had to move my leg to various positions and that hurt some more. And I had to take off my pants and put on a pair of paper ‘shorts’, looked like over-sized granny panties. Sooooo fashionable! LOL

And then the blood draw for the A1C. She hurt me inserting the needle. Usually these things don’t hurt me much. Oh well.

And then I had to wait for the new Rx and old Rx refills to be filled, so I got to sit and knit some more while waiting. I ended up spending over $300.00 for all the meds and stuff. I knew that would happen, though — start of the year, so I had to pay this year’s Rx deductible ($100.00). And while I came home with three months of insulin injector pens, they failed to included the disposable needles that are used with the pens, so I had to call and request those be mailed to me. Thankfully I have enough needles for several more days.

I took the Tramadol and Gabapentin in the evening, and managed to get some sleep. I still woke up a few times in the night, but at least I wasn’t thrashing about in the bed from the various pains and stuff, and didn’t get up and stay up until almost 5:00. Nice.

So this morning I received several emails announcing results from yesterday’s blood draw and X-rays. First was about the X-rays: “Your results showed moderate arthritis of the hip and narrowing of the cartilaginous surfaces. This arthritis or degenerative damage is wear and tear that has happened over the years.” That’s not much different from what a rheumatologist (specialist — $35.00 per visit) would be able to tell me, and I can go online to find various exercises and other coping skills to deal with the pain so I can stay mobile. That’s fine.

And then I got another message a couple hours later, regarding my blood draw. “Mr. Whiting, Your a1c has gone down dramatically-I would shoot Dr. Thomas a message if he hant refilled your insulin yet and see if he wants to decrease the dose.” Then I looked at the numbers below: In November my A1C was 12.4%. Yesterday it was only 5.8%. Holy shit, that’s a dramatic drop!

A couple hours after reading that message, my doctor’s office called while my granddaughter was here, in order to personally announce my A1C and to congratulate me on such improvement. Yayyy for me, eh?

So it was a good and fruitful Dr. visit. I still need to see my endocrinologist with my new A1C number, and show him my daily log book with my finger stick numbers and what I’ve been eating each day. I assuming he will tell me to continue as I have been, OR he may revise my insulin dosing or something. I will likely always have to monitor, and possibly take insulin, but if I remain diligent and don’t get cocky I may be able to prevent further damage to my body caused by out-of-control diabetes.

Meanwhile, today I am feeling quite tired. Devyn accompanied me on a walk to the corner, and I did some of my leg exercises, but mostly while she was here I sat on the couch, hurting in my hip and leg, but I did take 3 ibuprofen and now it’s not so bad. I also took an hour and a half nap soon as Devyn left. 🙂