When I opened my e-mail at work this morning, the blood test results that I was planning to e-mail my endo about first thing were already there. This was a series of blood tests my insurance company required before I can go on the pump. The first thing I saw was "A1C - 6.8".

"Kick Ass!" I thought, and saying something more work appropriate outloud. I was down from 7.9 in October, which was down from 9 three months before that. I was definitely doing good, definitely on the right track.

The actual test my insurance required was a C peptide. This measures the amount of insulin my pancreas makes. The less insulin you make, the lower your C peptide level.

For the last three years, I've been living life as a person with type 2 diabetes. My c peptide result of <0.1 shows otherwise. Essentially, I make little--very little--insulin. (READ MORE)

Michelle Kowalski

I keep saying that my new diagnosis doesn't change anything, but it does. It just does. I can't put my finger on it, and many of the things that are going through my mind as being "worse" than having type 2 are likely just unfounded fears. (READ MORE)

I’m not afraid of needles, but I must admit that I’m a little fearful of the bloodwork I’m scheduled to have in a few weeks.
 

Since I finally found an endo practice that I enjoy (yes, I know I still haven’t blogged about it yet!), they naturally want their own bloodwork. Which is great. And fine with me. It’s just the type of bloodwork that’s being done that’s leaving me a little uneasy.
 

I know it shouldn’t. And, really, I’m not uneasy I’m just kind of … I don’t know… just nervous? anxious? curious?
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I've always loved my hair. I used to say it was one of my best features. Once I understood and appreciated my curls, I learned how to take care of them. Throughout college and before having kids, I had long (mid-back length), curly hair.

I started cutting my hair shorter around the time No. 1 was born. I would go back and forth between wanting it short and wanting it long. The Mr. has always liked my hair long, and I think for the most part I prefer it that way.

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I must admit that when I went to bed Monday night I was a little nervous, a little anxious, a little excited about my endo appointment Tuesday morning. In fact, when my fasting was well above 200 on Tuesday I wondered if my nerves had anything to do with it. 

Tuesday's appointment was a follow up for labwork and an ultrasound on my thyroid that I had about 10 days ago. I was pretty sure the lab work (much of which was antibody tests to determine if I am truly type 1 or type 2) would show that I am type 1, but there was still a little part of me that doubted I was right.

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What would you say if you had the symptoms of a common medical condition, but if after a year, none of the usual therapies worked?

What would you say if your doctor insisted that he had correctly diagnosed the disease as something chronic, but not necessarily debilitating, and was giving you medicines that all should be working?

Now, what would you say if there was a less-common form of that medical condition that had all the same symptoms, but was caused by a completely different disease -- one that was immediately life-threatening -- and which required a different form of therapy? What would you say if your doctor refused to consider the possibility of that less-common disease? And what would you say if there were two common tests that could confirm whether or not the less-common diagnosis was correct, but your doctor refused to order them?

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