First face-to-face appointment

On Tuesday, T had an appointment to see the Doctor face to face for the first time since his telephone call with him on Friday.  He wanted me to go with him, so I did – I’m not sure whether work minded this, but since T wanted to be able to talk to the Doc and not worry about forgetting any questions, or making reams of notes, I was not going to do anything other than go to support him.

Beforehand, T dropped B over at my step-mum’s for the day (I was still going into work later), and meanwhile...

...I got out the food processer that my mum lent us aaaaaages ago to make food for B with. Naturally, it has been collecting dust (sorry mum), for a while so I chipped dusted it off, cleaned the bits and bobs, and set to work like a mad thing on the untamed vegetables that had been stuffed into every available space in the fridge and kitchen. 

I peeled carrots and parsnips, and then sliced some of them far thinner, and far faster than I could possibly have done by hand without losing a finger. I shredded some onions, and grated some more carrot, and I chopped some of the carrot and parsnip ready for roasting on Wednesday.  I steamed the parsnip, and some of the carrot slices, and made a mash of them in the food processor with a little butter. I let this cool, and put it in the fridge for later.

We went to T’s appointment.  T had made a list of things he wanted to ask;

• What can he eat / should he avoid? (just eat a healthy diet, avoiding sugar / processed carbs)
• How and when will testing be done? (he was given paperwork for another fasting glucose blood level, and a cholesterol test the next morning, and an appointment to see the Diabetic Nurse next Tuesday)
• Would the surgery support T trying out an extremely low calorie diet as suggested might be a cure by the research carried out by Newcastle University? (The doctor brought this research up and seemed amenable to the idea)
• When could T see the Diabetic Nurse? (Next Tuesday)
• When could T see a nutritionist? (That can be sorted out)
• Should T get his eyes / feet checked out? (Not yet)
• What was his blood glucose level? (Normal is 2-7 mmol*, his was 16 mmol)
• Should the DVLA / car insurance people / HR dept at his work be notified? (Not necessary, but it might be wise for him to tell his work because of appointments etc).

So, more fasting, more needles, and another week before some advice for him to manage this.  Happily, T found out that his regular doctor has a specialism in Diabetes.

For dinner, we had cottage pie made with some of the shredded onion sautéed in a little olive oil, a pack of lean beef mince, a couple of Oxo cubes, a handful of shredded carrot, and topped with the carrot and parsnip mash with a tiny bit of grated cheese on the top (and I mean tiny). No peas because B thinks that they are The End of the World for some reason.

T seems quite angry off and on. It would make me angry too – I am actually a bit angry by-proxy, but it’s hard to be angry with no direction for that anger.

Lunches so far for T have included; salad (made with beetroot and lettuce leaves from the garden, tomatoes, olives, and cucumber); sandwiches (ham and mustard on wholemeal bread); and wholemeal tortilla wraps (containing tuna salad and a teeny tiny smidgen of low fat mayo), along with fruit, and nuts to snack on if he felt peckish through the day. Running out of ideas now - we must get better as we are not convinced that ordinary bread is necessarily the best thing.**

It's awkward though since he has no idea which of the foodstuffs that are probably okay for him to eat in any lunch-sized quantities, actually are okay for him to eat.  Hopefully the Diabetic Nurse will be able to give T a better idea about his diet when she sees him on Tuesday.  T did ask the doctor to refer him to a nutritionist too, so he will have to wait and see whether that appointment materialises or not.

Oh gods, I do hope that if I get this new job that a) it comes with healthcare for T too, and b) that it covers pre-existing conditions.


*What is mmol, I wonder? Micro millilitres something, something? Online? No, surely not. One Litre? Nah. Must look it up.

**Evidently the treatment of carbs in controlling Diabetes is a matter of some contention in internet forums, and the NHS appear to give out advice that can guide people to eat more carbs than their bodies can tolerate.  According the internet (which cannot be trusted for all things, but I see no reason to doubt it in this), carbohydrate is broken down by the body into glucose, and the simpler the carbohydrate structure; the faster it can be broken down into sugar.  This causes a spike in the blood glucose level and is Bad News for health in general. Carbs in bread and potatoes apparently cause this spike effect and it would therefore be better, as I understand it, to try to limit their amount in the diet.