Another day at Joslin

Last week I had an appointment at Joslin.  These appointments are so much less stressful when I schedule them during my vacation, even though I don't particularly enjoy hanging out at Joslin during my vacation.  I went in to have the nurse test my BG and get more to test my A1C.  I used the disposable lancet on my thumb so that I could not only have enough blood for the BG test, but also to have enough to drop in the vial.  She wanted to scrape it off my thumb, but I still remember the days of needing to drop my blood onto the test strip, so I was all set.  The nurse was amazed by this.

At the moment, I don't have an endo, but it's something that I've been talking about.  It's something that I find comforting.  Saying "Dr. ________ is my endo.  If something is wrong please call Dr. _______."  But right now I have a Nurse Practitioner who I love.  I go in and sit down with her, and we discuss if I've had any more crazy spikes.  I tell her about how I didn't bottom out, so I consider that a success even though I don't like the ^400 part of it.  We talk about my A1C, which is 8.1.  At my last appointment in November, my A1C was 8.2.  I was hoping for a bigger drop, but I'll take any drop.  And so will my NP.  Our focus now is getting rid of the crazy spikes, and then hopefully the A1C can level out and come down.

When I went to my PCP about six months ago, I had an awful lab experience.  I know that getting these tests are an important, preventative measure to take, but I hate them so much.  When I was a kid, I was that screaming child you can hear behind the curtain.  There was the time when I got "stabbed" 5 times before taking my blood was successful.  And then we met Claire.  She was this little old French lady, and she knew what she was doing.  The stress was still there for me, but less than with the other phlebotomists.  (And I totally spelled that right on the first try!)  I would ask for her every time I went, and I got her too.  And then the worst diabetes day of my life (at that point) happened, "Claire doesn't work here anymore."  She retired.  There has never been another Claire for me, but she definitely had a positive impact on my life.  Last week was the first time I got blood taken at Joslin, and this phlebotomist was really nice.  I told her how people always have a difficult time taking my blood, and she was just very calm and relaxing about it.  She talked to me the whole time and before I knew it, I was done.  I don't know when I'll find the results, but I think I'll request that Joslin take my labs from now on. (Is this possible?)

"Standing your ground is progress when you're battling a hurricane." David Weinbaum