Kind of surprized by Endo

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Permalink Reply by Jan on November 1, 2009 at 9:45pm

Her Dexcom trainer set her up, showed us how to use Dex, but the majority of my questions were answered right here, believe it or not. Before even using Dex, I read all the posts. You can see how to insert Dexcom and restart it on YouTube. There are a few experts on this board that will leave nothing to the imagination; no question is left unanswered. Just ask

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Permalink Reply by Jacky Del Hoyo on November 1, 2009 at 6:20am

Thanks you guys. I wonder a lot about my endo, ihe is a bit confusing to me. I find it hard to get a word in edgewise sometimes, and am occasionally perplexed at some of the advice he gives, and refuse to accept the advice. I think the thing that makes me the most nuts is, he has office people call me back with lab results and pump tweaks. A lot of times, I don't agree, or want to disguss his recommendations, and dealing with an in between person who doesn't have all the history, just the paper in front of her is frustrating. Last time,I couldn't see what his goal was, he wanted me to lower my lunchtime I:C ratio from 1:10 to 1:8. I've been considering raising it back up to 1:12 because 3-4 hours post lunch seems to be a tough time for me, I'm often low. And he recently restarted my back on a statin for cholestrol issues. I was at 109, not below 100 as they want for the "bad" cholestrol;, and he wanted to double the dose after 5 weeks of taking the med. All my other numbers looked good, maybe we could try giving a lower dose of a med a bit more time before doubling the dose and possibly accelerating side effects of taking higher doses of statins? .

I Hope I can find a doc that is a bit more communicative and maybe current with the newer options available to people with D. I was ready to leave this one a year ago because he did not like my electronic logs from Cozmo pumps, so I was hand writing them in his forms. He still can't deal with downloading my pump or meter, they seem to be a mini-med only office, and I pump with an animas.

Do you guys have Dr's that will take e-mailed info? That's another pet peeve of mine, downloading, to print and fax reports. I even brought my laptap last time to try to schow him some of the different reports I was able to get, he was only interested in the log book.

I know they are busy, and have a lot of patients, am I looking for too much? I had this really great endo back where I used to live that started me on a pump. She always called back personally with adjustments, and I felt like she really listened and helped me learn, there were things she advised that didn't always make sense, but at least I could talk them over with her. This Dr seems to have a pretty impressive staff, they are very good at shuffling the discussion between me and him back and forth, but it's hard to have a conversation through a third party.

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Permalink Reply by Terry O'Rourke on November 1, 2009 at 10:03am

You've brought up your old endo a few times in this thread as an example of what you would like. The reasons that you liked this endo, listens well and open to real back and forth dialogue, are valid.

I started with a new endo earlier this year. He isn't up with the latest technology either. He requests that I bring in hand written BG records for one week. Last visit I brought in hard copies of 7 one-day BG graphs that the Dexcom DM software outputs. I added some hand written notes for meal carbs, bolus doses, and the basal rates. He was OK with that.

He told me that he found that asking his patients to keep hand written logs one week per month was effective in getting the patient to look at their numbers. Once a person monitors the BGs it's natural for them to take action to make them better.

Ideally, I would prefer an endo that takes all of my data electronically and following some study and analysis, give me his recommendations. I'm happy with my current doctor, however, since he listens well and respects my experience.

I'm thinking that generally speaking, if you could look for a younger endo, one under 40, you would increase your chances of finding one that is comfortable with all the new and emerging technology. You'd still have to screen to find a good listener.

It sounds like your current endo is minimally acceptable to you (he did enable your CGM) but you want more of the characteristics of your former endo. Good luck.

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Permalink Reply by Jacky Del Hoyo on November 1, 2009 at 1:52pm

LOL, If I had it my way Terri, I would still be with my entire Dr team where I used to live. Too bad we couldn't afford to live there : )

I guess the bottom line is, I am going to have to put a bit more effort into using my CGMS effectively than I was able to when I was just doing finger sticks, I'm going to have to learn how I react to things based on the feednack the CGMS is giving meand after all that, when I talk to Dr, make a decision if I think he's listening to me and offering advice I hadm't thought of, or just using a cookie cutter approach.

I think I am going to see how this Doc works after I get a better grip on using the CGMS, he did sign for it, so I'm hoping I'll be able to devlop a better relationship with him.


Thnaks for the advice. When you do talk to other people with diabetes, you rarely talk about their relationships with their Dr's, this is a very unique forum that I appreciate having, and hearing about everyone else's experiences.

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