Diabetes Check Up

 

Yesterday afternoon I saw my GP. It was time to get the results from all the blood tests that I had done last week and to get my blood pressure checked. He said I only came in to show off because the results all came back "NORMAL".

He took my BP and said 'wow' .. 124/72 (also one of my best readings ever - last time it was 126/70) HbA1c is 5.9 mmol/L (39) which is my BEST ever
Fasting glucose was 5.3 mmol/L (down from 6.3 mmol/L)
Cholesterol is also down and the combined total was 3. He said he wished his level were as good.
Liver, kidney and thyroid functions were normal Vitamin D, blood count, platelets normal

I am sure he mentioned a few other things but I can't remember them. All I know is that all that hard work of calorie counting, exercise and the extra walking has certainly paid off. Not only are things visible on the outside with the inches that I have lost around my waist and the drop in clothing sizes but my insides are doing so much better as well.

I am feeling pretty darned good right now. I even treated myself to a new hairstyle too. I know I deserved this reward. Time to do a happy dance!

A rare photo of me and my new hairdo.

Paediatrician Review

We had a review with the Paediatrician yesterday after school. It was Brodie's last visit because he turns 18 in July. I cannot believe he is almost an 'official' adult. But Michael wants to see Brodie one more time before he writes up his final review for our GP.

The main concern Michael has at the moment is Brodie's blood pressure. For someone so you he has had high blood pressure for years. He's a big boy which doesn't truly help and the fact that he is now the third generation with high blood pressure doesn't help. His genes are against him in more ways that one. Although Michael is no expert on blood pressure problems with teenagers he said that it is highly likely that our GP may treat his high BP more aggressively once he is an 'adult'.

I'm not exactly sure what was going through Brodie's head knowing that this was his last visit. I am sure that he was a bit anxious because he tried to be the clown & make everyone laugh. He tends to do that when he feels stressed. They've had a good rapport for the past 9 years. I guess in some ways its like losing a friend to Brodie.

So when Michael spoke to Brodie about needing to lose weight. I could see the look on Brodie's face change. It was almost like I could see steam come out of his ears. He took that stance that he does when he is pissed off. The one where he stands firm and crosses his arms. His lips get thinner (if that is even possible) and is eyes completely change from sparkly to dagger-like. I had to try and diffuse the situation before anything happened.

Brodie is dead set against doing anything but sit on his bottom on his laptop talking to all of his online Facebook friends. He hardly ever does anything else. So for someone to suggest he do something different .. well, its like a slap in the face.

I suggested that perhaps he goes for a walk in the mornings. To which Brodie replied what for there is no point. So I then said he could get the paper or perhaps a drink of juice or milk from the supermarket. Not every day of course but every other day. He could even use the Wii. (I didn't think about that one until we were in the car going home). Brodie calmed down a bit then. Thank goodness because I didn't want him to go off at Michael especially when there was a waiting room full of families with young children. I didn't want them to hear his potty mouth!

Anyway, to hopefully help with this we are cutting back one of Brodie's medications (risperidone, the medication that helps him calm down a bit, its an anti-psychotic) it can sometimes make you want to eat more. I truly hope that reducing this one can make a difference with Brodie's appetite but I doubt that. He isn't eating all that much at the moment but that being said when he does eat he chooses the wrong foods and eats lots of it.

We'll see how he goes and our final review with the paediatrician will be in October.

Blood Tests

Both boys have had blood tests this past week.
Brodie had one done on Monday checking his tegretol levels. Last time they were within the normal therapeutic levels but he as still getting those horrible facial spasms.

Angus had his done on Friday to check for various levels of things like glucose, iron, cholesterol and liver function. Angus's blood pressure was up the other week when I took him to see the doctor for his sore throat. I thought it might have been because he was in pain but Dr. F wanted me to bring him back to see how his BP was. Thankfully it was good this time.

High BP is one thing that runs in the family. Sadly we have three generations our my immediate family that have it. My Dad, me, Brodie and even one of my nieces. Mark does too. So its something that we have checked regularly. When Angus's reading was much higher than expected I wasn't terribly concerned but as it runs in the family its not something we can ignore.

I forgot to get the results for Brodie's test during the week. I feel awful that I forgot but if there was something not quite right I would get a phone call or a letter from the clinic. Angus's results should be in either on Tuesday or Wednesday. I just hope that I don't forget to phone for the results. I am sure if there's anything wrong the clinic will let me know about it. LIke they did when my glucose levels were a bit high. I'm crossing my fingers that there is nothing to worry about.

Part of Week Two ...

I cannot tell you how much of a relief it was this past week to be able to survive without so much as an argument or a screaming match happening in our house. It was wonderful to be able to relax and just enjoy the holidays. Oh I know it might sound a bit harsh knowing that Brodie is on camp and saying all of this but let's face it I have to be honest and say how I feel. It's been great without all that added tension going on in our house.

In fact I went to see my GP on Tuesday morning and told him exactly how things have been at home. Of course while I was there I forgot to mention some of the other things I originally went to see him for. I got side tracked obviously with discussing Brodie. Actually with Dr. F taking my blood pressure and with him saying it was okay got me started (150/85 ~ or it could've been 14o I'm not sure) on talking about Brodie. I said that with the stress I had been under I was surprised that it wasn't higher.

Anyway he got me thinking about Brodie seeing a psychologist or a psychiatrist or just getting some counselling. Dr. F only gets one referral for us to have 6 free visits for counselling and he doesn't want to waste our referral on someone who may not be specialised enough to deal with out particular situation. Which of course I totally understand. I spent most of Wednesday on the phone tracking down different agencies that may be able to assist us. I called Autism Victoria, our paediatrician, Berry Street and even Quantum Support Services. I've only gotten replies from two places. I'm thinking that this week I may need to contact them again to get some answers/suggestions/help!

I was going to add more but I have totally lost my train of thought which makes me think I need to get off this thing for a while and perhaps update at a later date (or not).

Brodie's Kidney Specialist Appointment

On Tuesday afternoon Mark & I took Brodie to the Monash Medical Centre in Clayton. His appointment with a Paediatric Kidney Specialist was for 2:40 p.m. We finally got in to see her after 3 o'clock. After an in depth run down of our family history and Brodie's medical history. She gave us a list of various tests that can be done to investigate what's causing Brodie's high blood pressure. For now however we will be using medication to see if it can control the high BP. Brodie has been prescribes Ramipril (Prilace - is the generic brand) which is an ACE (angiotensin-converting enzyme) inhibitor.
After reading the product information that I requested I don't know if I really want him to be on another lot of medication. This one will make it his fourth lot that he will be taking. The poor kid must rattle when he walks with all the tablets he takes.

I was setting up his medication container last night and I was getting confused with all the tablets that I needed to put in it. I'm thinking I might have to change him to a weekly medication box instead of what we are using at the moment.
His medications are: Ritalin (Attenta - generic brand), Tegretol, Catapres and now the new one. I feel awful for him. He needs to take anything up to 9 tablets per day.
I am hoping that we can perhaps wean him off the Catapres once we have seen the paediatrician in the school holidays.

Now with this new medication I have sent a copy of the possible side effects to watch out for to the High School. I am hoping that Brodie remembers to give it to either the Principal or the Assistant Principal as it's very important that they know what to look for. I wrote a letter to them as well stating that I would like his teachers and his aide to have a copy too.

As a precaution I have decided not to start Brodie on this new med until the weekend so that I can keep an eye on him to make sure that there are no adverse reactions. I guess I am a little scared after what happened with Mark a couple of weeks ago. I would hate for Brodie to have any type of reaction at all. I'll be watching him like a hawk. I just hope that this helps him. I hate to think of him being on a medication that doesn't lower his BP.

Paediatrician Review

Both boys had their reviews with the paediatrician on Wednesday after school.

Angus went first as he is the easier of the two boys to deal with (less complications that is). He was thrilled that he had grown a further two centimetres, he is now 146 cm tall (only 20 centimetres shorter than me) I have no idea how tall that is in feet and inches, we tried to convert it quickly when we were talking to my Dad on the phone. He only knows the old scale not metric when it comes to height. Anyway Angus is fine, doing extremely well in fact and doesn't need to go back for a review until the middle of next year.

Brodie was a trickier one to deal with. He has so many medical things that it's sometimes hard to know where to start. He too was thrilled to know that he has grown taller since his last visit in August. He is now 170 cm tall (about 5' 7") but he is also 5 kilos heavier too. Not good considering he has high blood pressure. He's now been given another lot of medication to take, Catapres (mydr.com), which should help his impulsiveness and also help lower his blood pressure. He started taking half a tablet last night. The bonus with this medication is that it might make him sleepy but since he is taking it at night that should be fine. It wont hurt him to go to bed early now and then.

He also needs to have a whole range of tests done. Should be interesting considering he needs to do 2 x 24 hour urine collections and some blood tests. He hates needles and becomes really stressed when he needs that done. The paediatrician also mentioned that he might need to have an ultrasound done of his renal artery or something like that. I can't remember it all but that's not surprising though as Brodie was bouncing off the walls while we were there and so impulsive and interrupting us quite a lot. I'm not sure when we can do this 24 hour urine collection .. hopefully on his day off when the teachers will be writing their school reports. The kids aren't required at school that day, that's on December 10th. We need to go back in early January for the results.

School Holidays

We've had a reasonable busy week this week...

Monday: The boys both had appointments with the paediatrician. Gosh we were in there for quite some time. I got Michael to see Angus first as his is relatively easy and straightforward. All we needed to do was get his new script done and get his height checked.
Brodie's visit was another story. That child can be so annoying!! He didn't follow instructions very well. He was doing his 'own' thing like he usually does and acted a little babyish too. There were a couple of good things though. His blood pressure is down a little but that might be because Michael used a bigger cuff. Brodie has also lost 2.7 kilos. Much better than before as he had not lost much at all. he goes back in 6 weeks though as his blood pressure is still way too high for someone his age.

Tuesday: We all went to Morwell to go shopping for Brodie's birthday presents but we stopped for Maccas on the way to mid-valley. Not too sure if that was a good thing or not as Brodie hasn't done much exercise at all these school holidays. We spent most of our time in BigW. My fave store. I got quite a few bargains in the clearance racks. I'm sure Brodie was happy that he got so many clothes.

Wednesday: We stayed home! Yay!

Thursday: Brodie's 14th birthday!! He had been hanging out for his birthday card from Poppa (who posted it last week on Thursday) because it had a money order in it. Thankfully it arrived in the morning post. We went out to see the latest Harry Potter movie (Order of the Phoenix) which was a really good movie even though it is getting 'darker' but so are the books. Mark wasn't able to come with us his stomach was doing flip flops. So it was just the boys and I. After the movie we went and chose a birthday cake and ordered some pizza. I am sure that the boys were impressed with the fact we had pizza and I had been wanting some for the last couple of days anyway lol.

Friday: We stayed home! Yay another quiet day at home! Well apart from the boys arguing but what's new with that??!!

Tomorrow: we will be going to food bank as usual. And I promised Brodie that he could spend his birthday money so I'll need to take him shopping. I can't remember what he is after but no doubt he will remind me!!

I'm off this thing now as it is time to serve dinner...

I Hate My GP

I've decided that I HATE my GP and I NEVER want to go back and see him. Only trouble is that there are NO other doctors that I know of who will bulk bill. I cannot afford the $30 - $40 to visit a doctor every time I need to go! It's NOT fair! I'm just so upset right now! Even the 20 - 25 minute drive home didn't help me cool off!

I suppose I had better explain what happened. My appointment was for 9:45 this morning and I arrived about 5 minutes early. Mark was meant to come along this time but he didn't. It hurt a little that he didn't but he did mention that some 'ME' time would be good especially since the big fella is home AGAIN because of ANOTHER suspension!! This time he is suspended for 10 DAYS!! I am so NOT impressed with that. What does the school think they are doing when they suspend him for so long? Do they honestly think that having this much time off school is beneficial to him??? Do they think that he understands what it means to be away from school for so long? Gosh I had better get off this school soap box or I'll forget what I was talking about in the first place.

Back to the part where Mark said that some 'ME' time would be a good thing. I could see his point. I could use some big fella free time. He is pretty demanding with our time when he is away from school. Not a constant demand but it's enough to stop you from being able to do what you want during the day. ( for example ~ organise Easter eggs etc). So I took the little dude off to school and drove straight into town for my appointment.
Well the doctor was LATE as usual. No apology for making me wait for 40 minutes! How rude is that? At least the paediatrician says sorry if he is running late! I thought it was just common courtesy!

So I am now in his pokey little room. He said how are you? Well der I am here to see you what do you think? I didn't say it out loud but I did think it! I have no idea why I felt so annoyed, well I wasn't really annoyed at that stage.. .. that comes later. He tells me that the pap smear was normal okay so that's a good thing. ALL that worry I've been doing over that was for naught. So I though okay I'll do the right thing and tell him about my arm and how it has been sore for the last two weeks. He looks at it. Presses on my arm and makes me try to lift my hand. It hurt a little but not much. Then he holds my arm differently and makes me try move it in a different direction. That hurt for sure. Then he said oh its just tendonitis .. Tennis elbow! Well that explains a lot!! (like the sarcasm???) He then said take some nurofen it will help! Sheesh! What a nice sympathetic doctor I have!!

I also told him about the extra stress I have been under due to the big fella's suspension and having him home again. How he has spent more time at home this school term than he has at school. I told him how I worry so much since he is getting such a big boy that with this aggression he has that he might punch someone out and send them flying across the room and perhaps that someone may be me. I told him I worry about anything and everything. I worry about everyone else except me .. well mostly. My GP didn't say much. he nodded his head.

Then my GP makes some comment about a care plan. Didn't say what it was for but that we needed to do one. He doesn't say much just sits at his computer clicking on all these buttons. Says something like you lost any weight? NO was my reply but I wouldn't have a clue if I have or not I don't get on the scales at home or anywhere else for that matter! He took my blood pressure which was in my belief LOW 107/78 either the reading was wrong or its just extra low. Never had a reading that low before but it may explain why I get dizzy of late. Not that I told the GP. He doesn't need to know everything!!

Where was I? .. oh yes the stupid care plan that he was organising. He said you been to counselling .. UM NOT for years I said. He says nothing to that. Then he said you walk? Not really I replied. He said you must walk. Hmmm ok maybe ... He asks you eat healthy? I said YES of course I do .. how can you not when you are on such a strict budget that it doesn't allow for buying chips, chocolate, biscuits, etc. I explained to the GP that the boys get ticked off that I no longer buy them all this junk food for them to eat. I don't cook in fat or lard. We dry fry and use the health grill, we eat loads of fresh stuff when we can get it. He said your last cholesterol .. was that good?? YES I said!!! I even told him I quit smoking but do you think he said way to go or anything. NO he said nothing. You'd think he would've at least say that's wonderful or something! Gosh I could use a cigarette right now!! But I wont go smoke or anything!

Any way he prints this stupid care plan. Hands it to me and says hang on to that! Well hello what is it for??? What am I meant to do with it? I was so ticked off when I got home I showed Mark and then screwed it up and threw it in the bin.
Oh I know you're probably thinking what was the problem with that? That wasn't so bad. But you had to be there. For your Doctor to not show any proper concern or care just isn't right. Am I just another number to him?? Just another name on the computer screen?? Am I just being silly?? I no longer know what to think. With everything that has been happening I just don't know anymore.

What a busy afternoon!!

Once we got our act together and got moving we were flat out all afternoon. The big fella had his paediatrician appointment this afternoon. Which we just managed to get there in time because we called into the supermarket first. I just had to get the new Harry Potter DVD, The Goblet of Fire, as it was finally released here today.

Anyway back to the big fella's appointment. The Doctor was running about 30 minutes late. He apologized for making us wait. We found out that the big fella now needs to take a 200 mg tablet of epilim instead of the 2 x 100 mg tablets. That will make it easier for him rather than the two tablets. Mark also asked that if the big fella does happen to have another seizure does he need to go to hospital or not (not his exact words but the meaning is the same) The answer is no we don't need to take him unless he really hurt himself but we do need to contact his paediatrician if he does have another one so that his medication can be adjusted. So it's all good really. He does need to have a blood test to check his liver function and for the levels of epilim in his system but that isn't for about another 6 weeks.

Since we were late getting into seeing the Dr. we were late in picking up the little dude. Of course I panicked (like I always do) I truly hate being late when it comes to collecting the boys from school or the bus stop. I was constantly checking the time on my watch thinking how upset he must be having to wait for me by the gate. In fact Mark said that it wont hurt him. So I thought about it for a bit. I think in all the time that they boys have been at school I think I have only been late to collect them 4 or 5 times. So one day wont hurt. I still don't like being late though. It's not like it was our fault though it is a 15-20 minute drive down the freeway from the clinic, which is near the hospital, to the primary school.

After we collected the little dude we had to go back into town to drop off the big fellas new prescription, go back to the town where the hospital is to go to Medicare to get some of my money back for the doctors visit. I wish he would bulk bill us having to find $73 per visit really puts a strain on our budget which is really tight as it is. ( I know what you are thinking Mark, you wanted me to ask him to bulk bill us but you know me I don't ask for help and I don't ask for things like that ~ I'm sorry I didn't, you were right). Then it was back to pick up the big fellas meds and off home.

I was totally pooped by the time we got home. Even though I didn't really feel like I did much. In fact I was pooped before we got home and Mark ended up driving the rest of the way for us. I'm so glad that he did.
I do know one thing though Mark seems to be extra concerned for me lately. I don't know why I feel the same as I usually do. Mark says I seem extra tense and on a shorter fuse than normal. I feel the same. I dunno. I know he is right though I do worry about EVERYTHING! I know I shouldn't but I do. I can't help it! I know my GP was worried yesterday about my blood pressure (it was 110/98 ~ not my worst BP reading in fact the top number was the best I had seen it in ages!!) so this extra worry I have wont help that but honestly how can you 'calm' yourself down and not stress about something?

I guess I shall have to work on reducing my stress levels. I'm not sure how I can do that but there has to be a way to do it. Oh how weird .. I just typed this and there was something on tv about a news item for tomorrow night's news that will be dealing with how to reduce your stress. I guess I had better watch it then.

I think I'll go make a nice cuppa. Perhaps a chamomile tea .. that's supposed to be soothing & calming isn't it??

The Scales Lied!!!

I put new batteries in the scale this morning so I could weigh myself. They lied to me big time!!! Either that or I just didn't like the numbers I saw on it. I knew I was a big girl but I didn't realise I was that big. Now I wont put down how much I weigh but let's just say it's A LOT.

I wish I didn't get on those darned scales now. It kind of makes sense though that ALL my 'fat' clothes fit better than the smaller sized stuff I have in the cupboard. Its not that the size thing matters because sometimes I don't care about that. It's the fact that Brodie is getting teased at school because of my size and that hurts. It really hurts. In fact the more I think of it the more I want to cry. I don't want the boys to suffer because of me.

Mark said that my size doesn't matter; he is more concerned that it is affecting the rest of my health. I do have high blood pressure. I worry about that too .. .. so maybe I should do something about it. Like anything else I need to be motivated and well I'm just NOT motivated. You know what they say about having to do it for yourself and not for anyone else.... I just don't know if I am ready yet. Although I need to don't I? SO the boys no longer get teased