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Permalink Reply by Spock on January 26, 2013 at 7:55pm

Brian, how did you handle his lack of interest? He looks at my reports and charts and acts like I am stupid. Last time I saw him, he said my glucose levels are way too low, I was having too many lows, etc. My A1C was 5.6, but I commented it had been 5.1 for several years. He had three responses:
--If you have A1Cs of 5.1, I won't see you anymore.
--These low glucose levels will kill you way before the high ones will cause damage. Lows will impact your heart and your brain, so...
--A normal A1C is 7 or below. With an A1C of 5.6, you have a lot of room to play, so loosen up on yourself.

I go back on Monday. I have loosened up a LOT, but still have many lows. He is very gruff with me, and took all my reports and paperwork and threw them in a cabinet. I called back later to make sure the important paperwork was OK. It was a new office and I was told that the cabinet should have had a trash can. OMG so glad I called as they saved the medical reports/requests from my PCP. Not impresssed with his attitude.

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Permalink Reply by Funkyt1diabetic on January 27, 2013 at 5:10am

Yeah he can be that way sometimes. But he has also been very helpful to me when I needed him. The first three years after I was diagnosed, I was having a lot of lows and my A1Cs ranged from 4.5-5.5 max. (I was going to the gym before and after every meal).

He didn't go so far as to say that he would stop seeing me but he did look at my low to normal (and high) carb ratio and recommended that I try and get it up.

The last few years I went to him it was probably within the 6-7 A1C range and he seemed more comfortable with those numbers - but of course my lows were much better.

I have had a few doctors in my life who have been passive which led to some problems so i appreciate DR Ross's gruff style in a way.

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Permalink Reply by Brian (bsc) on January 27, 2013 at 6:01am

Well, this was nearly 7 years ago and I saw him primarily because of the statin problems. At the time, through the Bernstein diet and medication I had gotten my A1c down to 5.9 shortly after diagnosis. When I asked him to take me on as a patient, he refused, basically saying that he had lots of patients in much worse shape who needed him.

After my debacle with my previous endo I looked for a new endo. I specifically wanted one who would "listen to me." Not a characteristic I remembered from Dr. Gruff. I also wanted an endo who could accept my desire for "normal" blood sugars and my low carb lifestyle. And since I had started insulin, I wanted a Dr. who would accept and work with me on an insulin regime as a T2.

So, given all the discussion, I'll tell you who I chose. I now see Nahrain Al-Zubaidi who works out of Fairfax Corner. She is also on the faculty at Georgetown. She listens and really works with me. And although she struggles with running late, she will spend time with patients if they need it. I always felt shuttled out the door after only a few minutes of Dr. dominated conversation, but not so with her. She is a fan of low carb diets and although we discuss the risk of hypos, she has worked with me over the last two years as my A1c has ranged from 5.3 to 5.6% and not gotten all over my case about hypos.

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Permalink Reply by acidrock23 on January 27, 2013 at 8:47am

I had one doctor who was gruff and sort of rude and I didn't bother seeing him for very long. I'm perhaps more confident now at 45 than I was when I was 20 something and probably rather wild but I'd find a way to complain about the guy or at least get the word out that he's not pleasant.

My doctor initially expressed alarm about hypos, was ok for a while, got appropriately alarmed after one of the hypos caught me but hasn't belabored the point and, *knocks on wood*, lets me run the show and is very supportive and complimentary of my efforts. If she sees a pattern that looks off, she'll ask me about it and we discuss things. My next appointment will be interesting as it seems as if my CGM has run off the rails a bit lately. The BG is ok but the sensor data will be more off than usual I think, which may give us less to talk about. Perhaps I'll bring my meter and see if she wants to d/l that to compare?

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Permalink Reply by AskHealthy on March 5, 2013 at 10:28pm

Hello! I am the sister and finally got on tudiabetes. The docs dont know how to diagnose met yet. Technically my glucose tolerance test came up as impaired glucose tolerance as opposed to diabetes but when this all started I had an A1C of 8.6. My first antibody tests came up negative, the second time I was "mildly positive" for the GAD antibody. At first I was taking Amaryl, which brought me down from my initial bsl of 303 mg/dl to super lows, such that I gradually came off it within a week. Since then I have been controlling it with a low carb diet. My last A1c was 4.5 and that was 3 months after that first blood sugar test without any medication of any sort (except for 5 days on amaryl). I had heard about the use of insulin preserving beta cells, but the fact that I had lost 10 lbs when I was already thin was reason enough to give me small doses of insulin so I could up my carb amounts. Two weeks ago I started taking a couple units of levemir in the morning, but I haven't found that it really does anything that I can tell. Maybe brings me lower between meals, but it doesn't affect how my blood sugar reacts to carbs. Right now I eat between 80 and 120 g of carbohydrates a day and eating lots of fats and protein, though still not gaining. I currently live abroad and will be moving to the DC area soon, which is why my brother is trying to help me find an endo there. Thanks for your support and information everyone! It sounds like people have some good (and not so good) endos :)

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