Visiting the doctor

Thursday:

Finally I got to see my doctor and talk about my prediabetes.

She didn't really have anything to say that I haven't already read about and talked about here, but it was good to check with a professional (doctors know everything, right! But I do have a bad habit of self-diagnosis). I need to lose weight (10 kg would be good, 20 kg even better) and exercise for at least half an hour every day. To achieve the former she talked about maybe seeing a dietician, joining Weight Watchers, or getting meals home-delivered from one of the weight loss companies.

Something she didn't bring up was spreading carbohydrates out over the day and not eating too many carbs at once to avoid a blood sugar spike. The prediabetes book I read also didn't mention this, but it seems to be in all the diabetes literature including what I was given when I had gestational diabetes. That and eating low GI foods were an important part of managing it, and from my understanding it's the high blood sugar levels that do the damage to your body. So surely it is important for prediabetes too, if to a lesser extent? Anyway, I mentioned I'd been eating carefully and checking my blood sugar levels and the doctor seemed to think this was a good idea.

[I have actually stopped doing this, I'm now pretty clear on what my carbohydrate limits are so I don't see the need to check my blood four times a day at a cost of about 50 cents per test. I will continue to moderate my carbohydrates, and maybe check occasionally to make sure I'm still on track.]

I asked about my previous glucose tolerance test, I did have one two years ago as well as during and immediately after my last pregnancy. In 2010 my blood sugar two hours after the glucose was 5.8 mmol/L which is well within normal limits. It's good to know the prediabetes is only recent and hasn't been damaging my organs for several years.

The doctor weighed and measured me, which was a bit funny. Last visit the other doctor weighed me and got exactly the same as I'd been at home that morning. Today these scales put me at a kg heavier, which is always unpleasant, and then she measured my height at 154.5 cm when I would say I'm 152 at the absolute most! That is a whole inch difference. Very odd. I doubt very much that I am still growing at my age.

So, no new advice, but I now have a doctor telling me it is very important I lose weight, if I needed any further motivation.