{"id":2185,"date":"2009-05-06T07:55:08","date_gmt":"2009-05-06T05:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.breigh.com\/wordpress\/?p=2185"},"modified":"2010-05-30T23:06:52","modified_gmt":"2010-05-30T21:06:52","slug":"it%e2%80%99s-all-inconclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/archives\/2185","title":{"rendered":"It’s All Inconclusive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well the blood work<\/a> came back and the only thing that showed up was that my glucose was high.  I phoned the doctor and was surprised when All In Your Head Doc<\/a>\u2019s wife answered.   She was the \u2018nice\u2019 one (if you use a really wonky scale of what is nice, I mean).  Here\u2019s the conversation:<\/p>\n

\u201cHello this is *Name*Birthday* calling for the results of my bloodwork\u201d
\u201dAh yes, let me see\u2026 yes, your glucose is high, so we will make an appointment to talk to you\u201d
\u201dOk, umm, so what does that mean?\u201d
\u201dWell, it means you could be diabetic but we will have to do more tests.  You should lose weight."
\u201dOk\u2026\u201d
\u201dDo you not speak Dutch yet?\u201d
\u201dWell, yes, some\u201d
\u201dYou have been here a long time, this is bad!\u201d
\u201dUh, ok, well I like to do these things in English so I know exactly what is happening\u201d
\u201dYou should speak Dutch by now!\u201d
\u201dSO ANYWAY, about that appointment?!\u201d  *Gives middle finger to phone for a few seconds*
\u201dYes we will book a double appointment so you can talk to my husband and find out what is going on.\u201d
\u201dGreat, yup see you then!\u201d<\/p>\n

Jesus, well any good mood I may have been having before that phone call was pretty much obliterated.<\/p>\n

We made an appointment for later in the week.   I got off the phone and was too busy being annoyed that she wasted time while talking about my health to scold me about not speaking Dutch with her.   Once I got over that it sunk in.  Possibly diabetic.  Well it makes sense I guess, I do need to lose weight and my father, his father, and loads of others on that side of the family have diabetes.  Crap.<\/p>\n

I spent the week preparing myself for the big double appointment.  I saw lots of lectures about my weight, info on diabetes and what I need to do.  It would be a lot to take in.   A double appointment, how long is that?  The last time we were there for about 30 minutes for goodness sake.<\/p>\n

I spoke to my mother, who has a decent amount of experience with Diabetes from dealing with my dad.  She ran the numbers of what is considered high or dangerous, what is acceptable and what numbers I should be shocked by.  So I went into the meeting at least somewhat prepared.<\/p>\n

I went, and here\u2019s what was said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour bloodwork came back and your glucose is a little high\u201d
\u201dHow high was it?\u201d
\u201dWell, it was 7.2 we consider anything between 4-7 to be normal. You are .2 over and it\u2019s possible that the injection I gave you in your foot the day before may have affected it by .1 or .2\u201d
\u201cUm, so doesn\u2019t that put me in the normal range?\u201d
\u201dYes, but you are on the high side of the normal range which puts you at risk<\/em> for diabetes in the future\u201d
\u201dRight\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

At this point I\u2019m sitting there pondering what is going on.  Obviously, over the years I\u2019ve not been as active as I could.  I\u2019ve also gone through some shitty times where food was my one source of comfort.  I gained weight, and yeah\u2026 a fair bit of it too.  I knew a change in habits was necessary, I\u2019ve known it for a while now, but I\u2019m not like can\u2019t move, smash the window and get me out with a crane when I die fat.   Besides, if I fall within the normal range, and don\u2019t actually HAVE anything\u2026 what is causing the symptoms I went to him with initially?!   I still have no real answer, but I still will have to sit through lectures about things already knew anyway.<\/p>\n

There was no lecture though.  I assumed with the booking of a double appointment, that meant they\u2019d have some kind of info for me about what exactly is going on.  So not the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cOk, so you\u2019ll need to change the way you do things. Eat less and be more active\u201d
\u201dRight\u2026 great\u2026 so your wife said that more tests need to be done to find out for sure?\u201d
\u201dWell, no\u2026 \u201c *Enter some weird explanation here that I\u2019ve forgotten already, because I was too busy boggling over how two doctors who are married and work together 24\/7 can not even get their facts straight between them*
\u201dOk, I thought she said that in order to be sure it wasn\u2019t a fluke and to find out if there really is a problem with glucose \/ diabetes that two tests needed to be done\u201d
\u201dSo, there is a place here in Rotterdam that you can go to that will help you with your lifestyle change.  Here is their card\u201d
\u201dRight, ok\u201d
\u201dI will send you for more bloodwork, you can call me 3 days after for the results\u201d
\u201dOk\u2026\u201d but I thought he said I didn\u2019t need it\u2026 hrmm.
\u201dBye\u201d<\/p>\n

There were a few little bits I\u2019m forgetting but that was basically the entire conversation.   Wow, do I feel informed!  When my husband was urging me to go to the doctor, I said these exact words.<\/p>\n

They are just going to say they don\u2019t know, it\u2019s inconclusive, they can\u2019t help me\u2026 but I need to lose weight!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not sure I was that far off, this seems like a lot of needles and frustration to go through for such predictable and useless results.  Like with my infertility problems, hair loss and everything else.  They always say I MIGHT have something, but they aren\u2019t sure, tests are inconclusive\u2026 but lose weight!<\/p>\n

Yes, I know I need to lose weight.  What I DON\u2019T know is why these other things are happening.   I see people more overweight than me all the time, they have full heads of hair and most of them have children.  In fact, I can\u2019t remember the last time I saw a balding, childless fat woman.   So infertility, hair loss and everything else isn\u2019t just weight related.   If they could say, this is happening because this happens in your body because you are overweight.  FINE, I get it!  They don’t do that though, it’s like they never know what they are doing and my weight is the obvious fall back choice so they have SOMETHING to say.<\/p>\n

Ugh, now I\u2019m ranting.  Anyhow, the card he gave me is for a physiotherapist?  I\u2019ve never been to one but when I think of them I imagine people you see after you break a leg, not someone who is going to help you with getting motivated about making a big lifestyle change, or helping you figure out how.  Maybe I\u2019m wrong, I don\u2019t know.  I just hope it\u2019s not another case of me going somewhere, making the effort just to be told I\u2019m in the wrong place, they can\u2019t help me, etc because that happens far too often.<\/p>\n

I need to call back today for the results of the 2nd set of blood work, but I\u2019m not exactly sure why I\u2019m going to bother, they won\u2019t tell me much.   In any case, I\u2019m reconsidering my decision not to go to the clinic in Den Haag.  At least there I\u2019ll be able to speak to them in my own language, where I can explain myself and have things explained to me effortlessly, without the added lecture on my language skills.  I think I\u2019ve come pretty far in regards to speaking Dutch over the years, but that doesn\u2019t mean I don\u2019t have the right to do the important things that need<\/em> clarity in my own language.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well the blood work came back and the only thing that showed up was that my glucose was high.  I phoned the doctor and was surprised when All In Your Head Doc\u2019s wife answered.   She was the \u2018nice\u2019 one (if you use a really wonky scale of what is nice, I mean).  Here\u2019s the conversation: …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,6,19],"tags":[325,144,33,57],"class_list":["post-2185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","","category-life-in-nl","category-tantrums-rants","category-weightloss","tag-diabetes","tag-dutch-doctors","tag-netherlands","tag-rants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2185"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4972,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185\/revisions\/4972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}