I fasted for three damn days before going to the doctor—Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and this morning. I was dead on my feet and feeling almost hypoglycemic. Today, I finally get to eat (and as per tradition, Doctor Visiting Day is a Day of Misbehaving, although I'll try to rein it in somewhat), so I'll probably go downstairs and grab something from the donggaseu* guy. My favorite kalguksu dude hasn't come back yet, and the donggaseu guy diplomatically told me, last time I visited him, that the kalguksu guy would be coming back in July. Maybe... maybe not. I suspect he said that just to mollify me; I think the kalguksu place has gone under, and when July rolls around, the place is still going to be dead. But we'll see.
The clinic I go to recently acquired a new way to do blood pressure: they have a machine in the front office, and you wait for one of the desk ladies to order you to use the machine. My BP came out to 149/83; compare that to last night's score of 139/88. I got a finger prick to test fasting blood sugar, and that came out to 91; compare that to last night's 87, and you can see that there wasn't much fluctuation. I also had a full blood test, which required a blood draw. The ladies at this clinic always have trouble finding a proper vein. I had told the doc that I wanted to know more than the usual A1c: I also wanted to know stats like my insulin numbers and my triglycerides, but the doc told me my insulin was fine from what he saw last time, and it didn't pay to check that too often. I may have to insist next time because I really want to know all those numbers. Your triglyceride score turns out to be a really good indicator for things like strokes. Anyway, the blood work came back with an A1c score of 8.2, which is down from 10. On one hand, that's still way too high, but on the other hand, I'm down from the scary 10 I had last time (and that was the highest A1c I'd ever recorded).
The doc was pleased with the drop in A1c numbers, but he adjusted my blood-sugar meds, anyway, so maybe my numbers will drop more next time I see him (once I start walking again, all numbers ought to drop even further). The doc is only prescribing 30 days' worth of meds at a time, which I find annoying; I wish he did what the hospital did, i.e., prescribe 110 days' worth of meds so that I do a blood test every time I visit while visiting only once every season.
Oh, yeah: about my toe. The doc is happy that the toe continues to heal, but he did caution that healing would continue to be slow because I'm a diabetic (I knew that already, but yeah). I'm still hoping to have good news in July. Even if distance walking doesn't start up again until the hottest summer months, I'll be happy just to be walking again. The doc prescribed ten days' worth of antibiotics for the toe, but I now take my meds only once a day, so that can stretch out to twenty days. I might even be able to stretch the meds out to thirty days if I skip a few days (which I've already done with no ill effects).
And that's about all I have to report from today's visit to the doc.
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*That's tonkatsu if you're partial to Japanese. Panko-fried pork cutlets. The don/ton comes from Chinese and means "pork" or "pig."
So it sounds like the (perhaps other than the prescription) it was a generally positive visit to the doctor. That is good news. I have to wonder that if your toe had been treated differently in the early stages that it would be healed up by now. Hope improvement continues.
ReplyDeleteI probably delayed my own healing by 6 months. You'll recall that I started off by treating the wound with a combination of alcohol and hydrogen peroxide—both of which experts call a no-no because, although those treatments do disinfect a wound, they also kill the "good" cells that are necessary for proper healing. Things didn't move forward until I visited D&F Hospital that first time. Alas, it was during my second visit to the hospital that that stupid doctor cut too deeply into my toe callus, causing that enormous bleed. That's when I switched back to treating myself (but with better knowledge now), and I began seeing my local doc instead of going to the hospital. Healing has been steadily positive ever since. Six months delayed, but positive.
ReplyDeleteKevin,
ReplyDeleteGlad that things are on the upswing. However, does it make sense to fast for three days prior to going to see the doc? Seems like that would give you a "false" number, and it would be beneficial to see a realistic #, even if it is not what you really want to see.
Just my 20 won.
Brian
The important number is the A1c, which is a three-month average, and a few days of fasting won't affect that.
ReplyDeleteSounds like confirmation of what you've been saying--slow but steady progress with the toe healing.
ReplyDeleteGlad the other numbers are trending in the right direction as well.
BP is weird. I take mine at the same time every morning, but I'm all over the map--120s one day, 140s the next. No idea why.
Yeah, BP fluctuates a lot.
ReplyDelete