A *Surprising* Doctor Appointment

Howdy Humble Readers...

I can't believe what I'm about to say. 

(If you've been around here a while, you know that I'm not terribly happy with our family doctor, the underwhelming Dr. B.  His dismissive attitude when I went through my miscarriages and his brusque bedside manner made for a bad start to our doctor/patient relationship.  Unfortunately, the way the medical system works here makes it extremely difficult to change doctors.  Anywho...)

I just had a great doctor appointment. 

(let that sink in)

It was awesome. 

Dr. L, the doc who diagnosed me with diabetes two weeks ago, had been adamant that I have a follow up appointment with Dr. B.  So, I printed off my blood sugar/exercise chart and my food diary and headed downtown this morning feeling a bit anxious. 

Maybe it's just me, but I have always felt that there is a lot of judgement out there in the world at large about type 2 diabetes.  It's not like type 1, where you can't help it.  Whenever I read an article or see a report on tv about type 2 diabetes, there always seems to be an attitude of "well, you did this to yourself you lazy fatso" (and no matter how true that is, no one wants to hear that).  So, given all that, and my less than stellar relationship with Dr. B, I was sure I was in for a sermon about diet and exercise. 

At the beginning of the appointment, before I had a chance to say much, Dr. B was going to add ANOTHER medication to my lineup, possibly even insulin.  When I was able to ask him to look at my blood sugar chart, he changed his tune. 

He actually started smiling.  He asked where I had gotten the chart and where I was getting my information, I told him that I had just set it up myself and that I was using reputable websites to get my carb information along with measuring everything.  I also told him that I was working toward my 10000 steps a day, and that I had just passed the 35 pound mark for weight loss (check out my new ticker up there on the right!). 

He asked me where I got my motivation.  My answer was simple (albeit a tad cheesy).  I want to be around when Ginny and Pip graduate high school and be at their weddings.  I told him I want to be off the high blood pressure medication by the time I'm 40 (a year and four months away).  I want to be managing my diabetes with just diet and exercise in two years.  And along with those goals, I want to get to a healthy weight. 

I'm not targeting what the BMI chart says I should weigh, because I think that would be too extreme for my frame.  I'm shooting for somewhere in the 160s, but I'm not thinking seriously about that yet.  I have a long way to go to get there, and I know me.  I need smaller, more achievable short term goals. 

After I prattled on for a few minutes, with Dr. B just smiling away, he looked at me and asked if I would consider coming to talk at a town hall meeting that he's heading up next month.  He wants me to talk about motivation and exercise, not from a doctor/medical perspective, but from a real person perspective.  To be honest about the challenges and the rewards of it all.  (oh yeah, there's going to be about 100 people there... Yikes!)

To say the least, I was floored. 

I walked out of that appointment laughing, the exact opposite of my appointment with Dr. L two weeks ago.  Talk about unexpected.