Most of us have no difficulty accepting that people can have more than one thing wrong with them at a time. Over the years, Babygirl has had the kidney failure/transplant thing. The high blood pressure thing (which, oddly, went away for no good reason!). The migraine thing. The endless vomiting thing.
Along the way there was one MORE little thing. She was diagnosed with Type II diabetes in her early teens.
While this can lead to kidney issues, it is NOT managed by the kidney docs. They do, however, include a random blood sugar measurement with her routine labs. They alerted us: Sugar is high. See an endocrinologist.
The long-term monitoring measurement for diabetes is HbA1c (glycosilated hemoglobin: In simple terms, sugar gets into red blood cells and has a chemical reaction with the hemoglobin (the red stuff lol) and cannot get OUT of the red cells, so measuring it gives a solid estimate of average sugar levels over the past 3 months).
Normal A1c is 5 or so. At 5.8 -6.3: Prediabetes. 6.4 or more on 2 different measurements: Diabetes. Typically she runs at about 6.8, and for over 10 years has not required a single medication for this.
Her most recent A1c is 14.5. Average daily sugars can be calculated by these numbers. At 6.8, average sugar is 148. At 14.5, the average is 369.
As always, God bless our primary doctor. We saw him at 6:30 Monday morning. He looked it all over, sent in a prescriptin for insulin and testing supplies, and put in a referral to endocrinology. I expected a wait. One of our busiest endocrinologists just retired, and there are LINES.
He must have put in a call. When I went to the pharmacy on Wednesday there was a grocery bag of stuff. I didn't realize until I got home that it was not just HIS stuff, but also endocrine's. She got in in less than 2 days, and, one week later, has already had a follow up visit.
We had a visit with nephrology yesterday, and all is well with the kidney. Continue monthly blood work and see you in 6 months.
Babygirl is now on up to 5 shots of insulin daily. She has glucose monitor on her arm that does continous monitory so she doesn't need to poke her fingers all of the time. Depending on how things go, they will likely consider an insulin pump at her visit in February.
Since diabetes in is the #1 cause of kidney failure in this country (although not in her case), there are millions of people living this life. Millions of people who are on dialysis, transplant lists, or who have had transplants for whom this life is just another random Tuesday.
Babygirl is, as always, doing what needs doing and learning what needs without complaint. She is built of stern stuff. She has boatloads of medical trauma, and she acknowledges it and still Does The Things.
I hate this. I am allowed to HATE this, not that it helps in any way.
DeeDee
