I recently got access to my VA records online. So I was browsing through them, because I could. Tell me, does anyone see anything wrong with this? Keep in mind, the date on this lab work is 23 Jun 2017. Two months before I diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, with an A1c of 11.8. Two months before I had a BG reading of 594.
I wasn’t informed of anything about this test back in June. I was told that everything looked fine. Is it just me, or is there a serious problem here?
When my dad was first diagnosed with T2D he had stumbled into the VA dizzy and almost fainting, of course he drove there on his motorcycle. They tested his glucose and he was around 500. They were amazed that he wasn’t comatose already. So yeah, with levels that high they definitely should have told you something was wrong. Like I always tell people, doctors are not gods - they want to get to lunch just like everyone else, they are busy, they are incompetent, they are really just thinking about the hot intern at the font desk, they don’t stay up to date on the newest findings, they suck just like everyone else. But I’m a pessimist. And I always ask to see my blood test results on paper.
Yeah. I did ask. I always ask. What does my labs show? Everything looks good. Nothing abnormal.
I mean, I take them home with me on paper and study them because I know that doctors are full of crap. The labs are reliable, doctors are not.
Just be thankful that you now know what you do and you are taking control of your health. It’s better than my dad ever did, he never got it under control and it killed him. He never took his health into his own hands. He never WANTED to change enough to actually change even though he said he did.
This is what I do also. My doc has some kid in his office transfer all the lab numbers onto a dummy sheet that they mail out to us. I have to call and get them to make me an actual photocopy of my lab work so I can see for myself what the hell my numbers are. There is no way I’m going to trust someone being paid minimum wage to not make a mistake while transferring numbers. You have to be your own health advocate because no one is going to take care of you, especially in this day and age of medicine for money.
Gotta do this. I respect doctors and think they deserve their salaries. But they’re human too, and they are very much overworked.
Obviously I’m giving yours the benefit of the doubt as I do, he could be a jerk but I don’t want to go there since I don’t know haha.
I know exactly what you mean, they send this letter that says your fine. I mean, give me a break - most of the time I’m more informed than my doctor on new research. And it doesn’t bode well when they walk in with your results and tell you that they need a minute to look them over. They should have already looked at them and be ready to see their patient!
KABOOM! That’s just wrong on so many levels. I would feel the same as you!
Let me make this a little bit clearer.
In June, I went into the ER for extreme pain. I was passing a kidney stone. I normally just suck it up, as I have a much higher than average threshold for pain. But this stone had me on the floor in the fetal position, drooling, and babbling.
(It’s ok, we can all laugh about it now🤠)
So these Labs weren’t done for shits and giggles. They were ordered by a Doctor in the ER. I was looking at the doctor as he read them. Should I seriously need to grab the sheet of paper out of his hands to verify? (I guess so 
)
Also, know this is government medical we are talking about. The VA medical. There is a reason they are ridiculed. To quote a Doctor my wife worked with at LLUMC, “if they could be a doctor anywhere else, they wouldn’t be there”. An over simplified statement. But it holds s lot of truth. The civilian dentist that re-worked several of my failed root canals that the Air Force dentist screwed up (uhg… was it bad) he said the same thing for his profession. The only reason they are in the military is because it’s hard for them to get fired, and they need the “practice”. Yeah, that made me feel really good about them.
So yes, I’m on the cynical side. But tell me this. You take your car into the DEALERSHIP, not just BobbyJoe’s break/oil shop. You take your Ford to the Ford dealership. They run some diagnostics that shows your brakes are going to fail at any moment. They tell you everything is fine, have a good day, have fun storming the castle, and you leave. Brakes fail coming to the first stoplight. You Rear end a Ford pinto (sorry Ford, luck of the draw) forcing into the side of a school bus full of kids where it explodes into flames. Right in front of the fire department, where everyon makes an escape to safety. Is that dealership off the hook? Everyone lives right? So why bother giving them a hard time?
Ok, sorry. I apologize to everyone. This is getting my blood pressure up, and getting me stressed out. Thanks for your support, all of you.
I need to stop, drop, and unlax a little.
Excuse my ignorance but I didn’t know glucose levels could get that high. What an awful oversight.
They go waaaaay higher than 369. But the dr should have been on the phone ASAP. I got the call at 170 something.
The answer is no, they should not be let off the hook. They should be hanged, drawn, and quartered. But is it worth your time, frustration, stress, cortisol levels, etc to attempt to get them to pay better attention at work? I mean, you could file a complaint, but in my experience it does absolutely nothing except get it off your chest, which is what your doing right now 
I got the call after another blood test done 2 months later. My BG was 594. So, if my urologist didn’t order my blood work to help track down a kidney stone problem, how much longer would I have lasted?
Almost 600! That’s pretty bad man. I feel for you. You would have probably had some irreversible nerve or organ damage if that had gone on for a long time. But thankfully the body is pretty amazing at healing itself if given the chance.
I’m curious, what was your diet like back then?
My T2D Dad also suffered from frequent kidney stones. His blood sugar would always shoot up when he was trying to pass one and in lots of pain, like way into the 400s. His nephrologist told us that pain tends to make blood sugar go really high. I’m wondering if they didn’t dismiss that 369 reading because of the extreme pain you were in, at the time. Strange… I still would have expected them to ACKNOWLEDGE it. YIKES! I’d be pissed, too.
Fun fact: the Guinness World Records says the highest blood sugar reading ever recorded was 2,656 mg/dl
Maybe that will make you feel a little better 
