Nail...Head...Hit.

Image taken from Google Images.

Yesterday, I had my first appointment with my new GP in my uni town. I decided to transfer from where I previously was just to have one closer to where I'm currently living. She did the standard health checks - weight, height, blood pressure, BMI etc and then we sat down and got to business. We had the diabetes talk. 

"I can see your on Novorapid and Levemir (she'd clearly read my notes before I went in - gold star) can you tell me roughly how many units?"

"How's your control?" 

"What was your last hba1c?"

"How often do you suffer with hypos? And hypers? Are you aware of low blood sugars?"

I happily sat there and answered all of her questions whilst she tapped away at her computer making notes. And then she said something that made me think:

"Sorry for all the questions! You must get sick of being asked them every time you see a doctor, especially as you've probably lived with diabetes for longer than I've been practising as a doctor!"

"I'm not so sure," I replied, "unless you've only been qualified less than four years, I think you'll win that one!"

"Seriously?!" my new doctor asked, as she looked back through my notes and found what she was looking for. "March 2010. You were diagnosed at 17?"

"Yep. Bummer, huh?!"

"Huge bummer! From what I can see though, you're doing good. I know this is only the first time we've met, but you're very grounded from what I can tell. And you don't look like you could lie well, so I'm pretty sure I'd be able to tell if something were wrong. But that means when you come back in for appointments, you book in with me. Okay?"

She hit the nail on the head in that first appointment. I liked that. It's so important to me to have a good relationship with my GP/endo/DSN. I have to work with them to stay healthy, and I have to be able to talk to them comfortably about any health-related issue. And New Doctor made a good impression. Here's hoping it continues.