#my doc mentioned that several of his patients called the freestyle libre an improvement on life and I agree 100%

[thatonceandfutureprat]

My yearly doctor’s appointment is something I kind of dread, because it’s generally bad news. Blood sugar’s still too high, oh hey your eye’s getting worse, the rest is all good but please be careful...all that.

I had this year’s appointment last Friday, and the news is as follows:

1. thanks to the Freestyle Libre sensor system, my blood sugar is finally starting to lower (went from 89.2 to 81.9, which would be 10.2 and 9.6 in the old system) after literal years of being stuck in the 89s;

2. my right eye is actually getting better, which I already knew, but my doc was happy to hear it. My right eye is the one that’s been getting injections and laser treatment, but for the next 4 months I don’t have to get any injections, and then with the check-up in august we’ll see if my eye doesn’t worsen again. I hope not. The cataract on the left is still so severely underdeveloped no one’s worried about that yet (though I, a perpetually stressed person, am stressed out about the actual operation to remove it);

3. My feet are also still fine, as expected, but it was funny that my doctor prodded my toe and asked if I could feel it with me very blatantly watching him do that, which kind of defeats the point. But after closing my eyes, I still could feel all the things;

4. I’ve been taking a pill called enalaprilmaleaat since I was 12. There’s a little leak in my kidneys that cannot be from anything diabetes related, as I’d only had it for 5 years when it was discovered, and as a kid my diabetes was a little easier to handle (damn hormones). But now my doctor wants to see if I can perhaps stop with that treatment, and see how that goes. For the next three weeks I’m going to go from 20mg a day to 10, checking my blood pressure all the while, and if that goes okay, I can try to stop. We’ll see what that does with some further tests along the road, but it’s nice! And...

5. I’ve been given information about research that’s going to be done on type 1 diabetics, centred on mobile monitoring. The team wants to build an app that doesn’t just allow patients to set alarms for stuff like checking blood sugar or eating things on time, but also allows them to seek advice for specific problems without having to visit the hospital or wait for fridays to call the office. I’d love to do it, as my phone has almost atrophied with me at this point (I use it to check my blood sugar), but I selfishly hope I can get into the test group that uses the app they’re building because you’ll get fitted with a FitBit x) x) x) I love gadgets, what can I say

So for the first time in a while, I’ve left the hospital with nothing but good feelings, which was odd. Usually I cheer myself up afterward with a cappuccino in the hospital restaurant, or go to the Body Shop right next to it to buy myself nice smelling soaps and shit. But this time I just meandered back to my car and drove home, signing along (badly) to Imagine Dragons in my car.

Kinda hoping this upward line continues.