Saturday, November 17, 2007

Gestational Diabetes Consultation Friday

Met with this other doctor on Friday. An M.D. endocrinologist and diabetes doctor. He was so dry and pale and socially awkward, he reminded me very much of Garrison Keillor's description of the "indehiscent Lutherans" of Lake Wobegon! He was nice and slow and methodical and very, well, dry. Anyway, he wants to monitor my finger pricks and added a several times daily pee-stick procedure of checking for spilled ketones (protein) in the urine. (This is important b/c the carbs help absorbtion of the ketones into the body, and the ketones are instrumental in brain power, and especially in the neurological development of the fetus! As the doc explained it, and if I got it right.) I'm going to be filling out a chart for him and faxing it to his office. He says I'm losing too much weight and that, especially in the morning, not eating enough carbs and letting my blood sugar get too low. I didn't think that was possible, but it makes sense that there's a healthy range I should shoot for. Duh! It also explains my light-headedness and shakiness before lunch.

Remind me never to make another appointment in the city on a Friday afternoon. I hit rush hour, and it was an hour just getting out of the city before even hitting the highway! I missed dinner but was there for Tyler's bathtime. Luckily I thought ahead and grabbed a sandwich at the hospital cafe before hitting the road. Eight miles an hour is a nice speed for driving w/ one hand and eating w/ the other, on the straightaway of the highway, mind you. Not the city. Yikes.

In other doctor-related news, turns out my old doc hasn't sent my medical records not because they are dragging their feet but because they have a "procedure" for that. I called asking why they didn't fax over the records to the new doc. I also asked if I could stop by and pick them up. But instead what I had to do was stop by and fill out a complicated release form. Thank goodness I took Friday afternoon off for the other doctor's appointment, because it's only on Mondays that they have this service come in to scan in medical records. Then this service takes my complicated form and prints from their scans all the appropriate records I have requested, at like 13 cents per page. Sheesh. Then the service mails them out. I'm having it sent to my house so I can make myself a back-up copy! Sheesh, again! I will deliver to the new doc myself by hand.

What made it all nicer was the sparkling young man in charge of the medical records at the doctor's office, who remembered me from my phone call and came out to take my form personally. Gabriel. Yum.

No comments: