The next steps....

Looking at her photo on the last post..man we should have noticed how pale and sick she looked.  In this society though, even her old doctor (a pediatrician) said her BMI looked awesome and she looked fine.  In reality she was TOO thin..had lost too much weight too quick, etc and so on.

So after the call..we took her in for a blood test that is called an A1c.  We were not even worrying about our deductible at this point (that would come in week 2).  To explain an A1c- this is a test that looks at a person's red blood cells for the last few months.  It basically looks at your glycated hemoglobin (who knew that the Animal Phys class and cell bio would come in so handy for me?) Glycated is a fancy name for coated in sugar and your blood cells have a better memory than most people.  So you can get a snapshot of what has been going on in the past.  They use this test for Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics.  The Mayo Clinic  offers a good overview on what this test was all about.  Suffice it to say that a normal A1c is usually around 6.5%.  Katie's came back at a whopping 12.1%.  This is not funny at all...but we both chuckled at our first appointment with the endocrinologist when the nurse was explaining her A1c was so high it was off the chart! (The red area is where she SHOULD be!)

I apologize for the wordiness- eventually we can be shorter in our posts...but it's hard to get it all down. This is ultimately going to be where I direct all family and friends so I can stop repeating myself 20 times a day too!

So after the A1c test our lovely doctor (the new one - who was mine for a few years now) Dr O. told us it was most likely type 1 Diabetes and we needed to see an endocrinologist immediately.  She only liked one endo in our whole area (outside Chicago).  So we left with a prescription for a glucose monitor and a referral to Dr. K.  We still hadn't gotten the A1C test results when we left her office though.

It's a bit like falling down the rabbit hole.  Literally.  I'm in the middle of doing my thesis research and this diagnosis came on the tail end of a grueling set of days- hours in the field in heat, labwork for 12 hour days and then straight into researching this disease!

So I call Dr. K only to find out the earlier they could see Katie was in AUGUST.  Oh heck no.  They just tell me her blood sugars fasting are 298- ---- 298 people.....it's supposed to be around 70 for her age and health!  Can you imagine the damage that would happen.  Dr. O was amazed we had tested for this disease b/c with most people they see them when they are wheeled into the ER in a coma.  Yes a coma.  So to be able to figure it out and quickly in their eyes was amazing.  So I explain to the office I can't wait until August and I would take ANY appt no matter what.  She found one for this coming week- July 9th.  I went back to Dr O and they came out to talk to me and reassure me.  They called with the A1c numbers a few days later and said it was super high and we could NOT wait until 7/9/13 for an appt.  So they called for me.  This was because the secretary there said sometimes they will squeeze them in if the general doctor calls up and requests.

Thank heavens for Dr. O's office.  They rocked with this.  So they got us in 6/26.  It was hysterical because when we met Dr. K- he kept saying how did we get in.  I said..well I called..and he's like NO..how did you get in THIS week....I'm leaving for Vienna on Friday for 10 days.  Talk about divine intervention!