Computers down!

Went to a doctors appointment today. I usually go at 8am. The doctors tend to run behind and if I'm the 1st patient of the day they can't be behind. Anyway, the doors are usually unlocked at 7:45 or so. I pull up and there are three or four people milling around the door. At about 8 they open the door. I walk in and try to check in. Apparently the computers and phones were down. They couldn't check me in, they couldn't put me in a room. Fifteen minutes later, they put me in a room and found some forms to manually check me in. The doctor comes in a few minutes later, he's obviously flustered.

How are you doing? Did they check your sugar today? No of course not, the computer would have told them to do that. Sorry we have no chart, we're all paperless now. What was your last Hgb A1C? your memory is better than mine... an altogether unsettling visit. He's a really good doctor and actually remembered a lot off the top of his head.

Funny how relient we are on computers in the medical field these days. I know I couldn't do my job very well without a computer

Oh, Happy New Year

high glucose

my fasting glucose this am was high, 167 usually it's been running high but only in the one-teens to 120s 3 confounding factors.
1)I was up all night teeing up a heart transplant
2)I'm using a different glucometer, the one at work, rather than my usual at home
3)I had Chinese takeout for dinner.

Sadly i suspect It's number three.

Being a patient

So apparently I have diabetes. I went innocently enough to the doctor's office to ask about getting a sleep study for sleep apnea (which I probably have). So he's asking all these questions and running all these tests because it's the first time I've gone to the doctor's in years. My Hemoglobin A1c was through the roof. The hemoglobin A1c measures the average blood sugar over the last 120 days or so in your blood. Also I had a pretty high blood pressure in the office.

Now I'm checking my glucose (almost) every morning, supposed to be checking my blood pressure regularly so he can decide if I need an anti-hypertensive medication. My sleep study is scheduled, and I'm making calls to the insurance company to see if things are covered.

I guess I'm a set up for this. Even though I'm in my early 30s, I'm overweight, I eat poorly, diabetes and hypertension run in the family ... let me continue.

I don't think I'll like being a patient.

Trick Daddy

I may be the only anesthesiologist that listens to rap. It's good stuff. It's amusing though... occasionally they throw in that random medical term in.

Lately on the radio they've been playing (Gimme Some) Sugar(remix) by Trick Daddy, featuring Ludacris, Lil' Kim, and Cee-Lo. It's a great song. They have some amazing rhymes.

One verse by Lil' Kim goes "I give ya high blood pressure like a diabetic". I know they're trying to relate the diabetes theme in as the title is Gimme Some Sugar, but I don't know that diabetes cause hypertension. They are associated however it seems. I guess she's saying she's so hot she raises your blood pressure.

Oh well, I can't hold it against them. I still like the genre. I still like the song.