Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Wacky Wednesday

Wacky Wednesday has always been one of my oldest sons favourite books.  He would squeal in delight and point out the strange incongruous things going on in the pictures like shoes on the ceiling and babies pushing their mums in prams.   Theres garden sprinklers that work despite missing segments of hose.   Weird and wonderful things.   My favourite is a house with no front door.    Totally useless!    Heres yesterdays real life version -

JULES:   Hi Dr. How are you?   Reuben is the patient today, I need to replace his insulin I think its gotten frozen.
DR:  But you have insulin.
JULES: Yes its frozen. It wont be any good will it?   We cant use it.... can you write us new scripts.   I also need one for glucagon, the old hypokit is about to expire it would be good to have a spare script for it.
DR: Ok.   What are his doses?
JULES:  Lantus 9 units  once a day.
DR:  When, morning or night?
JULES: Once a day, AM.
DR:  Oh.   (Looking on data base for an eternity)
JULES:  Its the solostar pen.
DR:  Penfill?  (still scrolling through her database - its obvious she doesnt know what shes looking at).
JULES:   The disposable pens, not the cartridge. (The dr begins huffing and its clear shes annoyed at me).
**Im beginning to panic, I cant bear the thought of an incompetent GP giving my son the wrong medicine.**
JULES:  Do you want to see his book or something?
DR:  OK OK. What was the other thing?
JULES: Novorapid, the 3ml.
DR:  What dose?
JULES: Its variable.
DR:  What d o s a g e is he on?
JULES: I said it depends, on what he eats.
DR:  He has to have a dosage!
JULES:   Its variable - it depends on what he is eating. It might be 0.5 - 1 unit at a meal up to 3-4 times a day. *Somedays he has none*
DR: Yes Yes I KNOW that.
*If you know it why are you asking*
DR: The penfill?  3Ml. *She begins typing away huffing some more. Clearly clearly annoyed. By this point I have NOOOO confidence in her she is typing 0.5-2u x 3*
JULES:   Its only 0.5 through to 1 full unit per meal
DR: I know that.     What is this other thing. I havent .....
JULES: Do you want to see it?   *Im taking no chances and get the glucagon out of the bag to show her....*


Even after all this when I got to the chemist I had the pharmacist show me the items so I could be sure it was the right things she wrote the script for.

Theres a huge problem with healthcare for diabetes.  We see an endocrinologist once every 3 months at the Diabetes centre and in between we are supposed to see a GP -  whom we clearly know more about the disease than because we manage it everyday! 

I also discussed a health care plan where you can consult with diabetes educators and dietitians prior to going on an insulin pump.  To obtain one I need a General Practitioner referal.   She asked me to come back another day.

Im wondering if its because of all the paperwork or because she wants to familiarise herself with the procedure first!

Besides this shes not a bad dr (Ive never been to a better one), 
shes usually quite friendly and
shes does an okay pap smear....

2 comments:

  1. How frustrating. In the 9 months since Mr 10 was diagnosed we've only been to our GP once for something non diabetes related and he was wonderful. Asking Mr 10 to show him what was in his kit bad and praising him for being so responsible. I dread the day we have to go to the After Hours service and strike someone who doesn't get it.

    You did well. You are always our child's best advocate.

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  2. Duh I meant - "your child's best advocate". Though maybe you could do it for others too!

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