Sunday, June 22, 2008

Chapter 13 of the Encyclopedia of Awkward Diabetes Moments: "The Trauma Surgeon"

Last week was my 22nd birthday and so naturally, this occasion called for a few nights out and a few pink drinks. This of course resulted in numerous awkward bar conversations and hilarious happenings. However, I have to give the grand prize for the GREATEST bar conversation to my friend the "trauma surgeon" at Foundation Lounge. Now those of you reading may be thinking that this has nothing to do with diabetes...but trust me, it does.

So my friend and I are sitting on a couch, pink cosmos in hand, chatting and trying our best not to make fun of EVERY single person that walked by. Suddenly, there were two fellows sitting on either side of us. My first though was...eh, not the cutest in the bunch but he mentioned that he was a doctor so I thought FREE COSMOS! (very shallow and bitchy of me, but hey, it was my birthday). So we're chatting and he's a surgeon so naturally I mentioned the big D word. Here's where the hilariousness sets in...so I tell him I'm diabetic and he immediately glances to the cosmo in front of me. I'm like great, another person who is going to criticize me because I enjoy a good martini. Then he says "Oh what's your hemoglobin A1C?" And I laughed and he said "I thought you'd be impressed by me asking that."

I will admit, I would have been impressed if he wasn't a FRICKEN DOCTOR and if the answer to that question didn't haunt me on a daily basis. So I sheepishly answered "8." His face immediately twisted into a horrified, eyes popping out of his head look and replied
"That's REALLY bad."

At this point, I'm thinkin' a lot of different things. First, I thought...ok he's been through about 10 years worth of school and still is a complete moron. Second, when will guys ever understand that insulting a girl is not the way to her heart? My third thought actually came flying out of my mouth..."Well guess what a-hole, last time I checked you weren't a diabetes specialist and for all I know, you probably aren't even a real doctor." He then proceeded to try and make it up to me by buying my friend and I another cosmo...which would have been fine if he didn't stick his foot in his mouth again by saying after "I bought that for you because I know you can't afford it.
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Add this story to the book of awkward, enraging, ignorant yet sort of hilarious diabetes encounters. Hope you all enjoyed it!

Monday, June 9, 2008

I Suck and I'm a little frusterated.

I recently went to Joslin for my 3 month visit which has now become converted into an every six months event. I love my doctor so I'm willing to wait to see him but I'm realizing that I really lack the "motivation" to go get blood work done, etc. on my own. Unless he makes me do it...I chicken out. We changed my insulin to carb ratio moving it from 1 to 10 to 1 to 8 soooo, he wanted me to keep a log of my BG, bolus and what I ate. Can I just say that I have NEVER, NEVER, EVER actually been able to follow through with this. I swear on my OmniPod that it is simply just not possible for an extended period of time. I mean, two weeks is all I needed to do and I stopped after about 5 days. My PDM does keep track of my daily blood sugars so before my appt., I'm going to need to go through them and write them all down basically making a lot more work for myself than I needed to. The reason why I say "I Suck" is because in the past 5 years there are two things that as a diabetic I have never quite been able to do. The first is actually keeping a written record of my numbers and the second is..(drumroll please)...FASTING. Now that I'm out of school its a different story but honestly, when I was working and going to school there was no way in HELL I was going to try and do those things on an empty stomach. I realize that I "fast" all the time and don't even realize it but for some reason it makes me really annoyed when medical professionals expect me too. It's like, are you gonna come over and hang out with me so I don't have to sit at my apartment and fantasize about what I could be eating? Are you going to deal with the wrath that is Kayla when she is extremely hungry?

The thing that pisses me off the most about going 6 months in between appointments is that from January to June..my life drastically changed. I started out in January working really hard, convinced that I was going to lower my A1C no matter what. By June, I had endured a semester of two jobs, my senior project, graduation, a break-up, birthdays, senior week, traveling home, strep throat, exhaustion, job searching...I mean gosh, whatever I did in January/February/March didn't even matter by the time I made it to the doctor. What was reflected in my results was the roller coaster of being a college graduate...not the conscientious diabetic I was trying to be earlier on. Anyways, I admit this is kind of an aggression/frustration driven blog...but frankly, I was disappointed in the results I got at the doctor. I'm most likely being slightly harsh but I really really more than anything want my A1C to be down to 7 and until I accomplish that I can't help but be a little bit cranky, right? The good news is, I have made a triumphant return to the gym scene! Woo!