Another Day, Another Doctor's Appointment

Yesterday I had another doctor’s appointment with Dr. Maier and Sharon Palmer, my pump specialist/baby nurse. They were displeased with my morning bloodsugar levels (which are usually in the 150s, which is a vast improvement over my pre-pump morning bloodsugars, but still too high). They wanted to up my basal rate again, and I balked at this. I eat too many carbs at night. That’s the issue. I got them to reluctantly agree to let me try my new less-carby night-time routine, email in bloodsugars, and then see what happens. Victory!

This is Dr. Maier. It’s a good thing that I like him, because I don’t have a lot of choice when it comes to perinatologists at Kaiser Walnut Creek. As I’ve noted here before, he has a very calming, confident, been-there, done-that presence which I find essential in a medical professional who is responsible for overseeing my own and my baby’s health. I made a joke yesterday about keeping the baby in a dog crate once it was born, since the puppy would’ve outgrown it by then, which I think he found humorous, but who knows, maybe I will soon be reported, prenatally, to Child Protective Services.

There’s some major stress happening in our life right now surrounding something minor that may turn into something major, legally, and it’s making me a little crazy. This, combined with constant money issues and the general hectic nature of life, combined with the constant monitoring of my diabetes, the doctor’s appointments, etc., is making my life a little damn hard.

The doctor’s appointments themselves take up a hell of a lot of time; it takes about 35 minutes to get there, then often it is an hour wait for Dr. Maier, and then it is about an hour to get into work in San Francisco, which means that there is about 3 hours, at a minimum of my day taken up, every couple weeks, with doctors appointments. It’s affecting work somewhat (I have to work at night now), and also my ability to feel, well, refreshed, rested, centered. I guess I just need a little more help right now, but you can only ask for help so many times before you start to feel like a nag and a bitch.

Last night Marlene and Lyne (grandcousin-in-law and step-mom-in-law) stayed over on their road trip down to LA. We went out to Fonda, a Mexican tapas restaurant, and enjoyed the warm evening on the patio, eating plantains and black beans and duck tacos and a beet grapefruit salad.

My bloodsugar, when I went to bed, was 97, and I had a feeling (as I did the night prior) that it was going to drop more, so I reduced my basal rate to 80%. Still, I woke up with a bloodsugar of 48 this morning. So this proves my point to the doctors: my basal rate is fine (perhaps a little too high) as long as I don’t overdo the carbs at night.

Oh, and this was my bloodsugar with a night-time snack of grapes, too. I guess that my dietician would say that I should’ve eaten some raw cashews, too, with my grape snack. So I’m not perfect, by any means. But I’m trying to get a little better.