I haven’t been to the doctor in a while. Not just my endo, which was October of last year, but any other doctor. This week I am setting up appointments with all the different doctors that I need for yearly check-ups. The problem is that I don’t even have names of doctors to go and see down here in south Florida. Even though I have been living here for 5 years, I was always using my doctors from back home in PA until last year when I wasn’t able to travel up there as much because of work related reasons. I haven’t even had a general health physical / check up in almost 4 years.
I have just set up an appointment to go see an Ear Nose and Throat specialist because my ear is still clogged and it’s been almost a month. I am still coughing every so often, so it was freaking me out. I was concerned that I had something more serious then just a simple clogged ear that Mucinex D is going to help with. Stacey gave me a heads up about getting it checked out because it could potentially be mono and I don’t think that I want to deal with that. I never had mono, but my girlfriend has had it and she has been sick for a while as well as her mom, so who knows.
The other appointment that I set up is a dentist appointment. I don’t have any delta insurance, so it is going to be expensive. I tried to get private dental insurance and I told them I was diabetic and at least they didn’t hang up on me and tell me that they couldn’t help me, they actually gave me a quote, $350 a month for insurance. Umm..no thanks. It would make sense if I have to get all kinds of work done to my mouth, then I think I would pay for the insurance. My first initial visit is going to cost $160, and that is just an evaluation and x-rays. Then I can come back for a cleaning which is going to be approximately the same price, a little lower. So that is $300 right there, but I won’t have to go back for at least another 6 months, so it just makes more sense for me to go without the insurance. Type 1 diabetes and your teeth I know are important because of all the additional risks I have for being diabetic. I don’t mind spending the money on things like that.
My endo appointment has been scheduled and is at the end of this month. Before I get to that visit though I have to get blood work done, and I’m sure it is going to be a lot because I haven’t had any done since September of last year. I know right now that my A1C is going to be bad, I’m guessing around 8-9. After my initial A1C at diagnosis of 14.7, 6 months later it was down to 9, I haven’t gone abouve 7.5 in 5 years so that is going to be rough for me to handle. I have made changes to my diet and also added more walking into my life to at least get some exercise because I wasn’t getting any at all.
While at the endo, I will be asking for a referral for a family doctor because I would like to get a physical or check-up once a year to make sure everything is going good. I have slacked big time in this area of my diabetes management, but I am taking control of things again, my diabetes was starting to control my life a little, but not anymore.
The final visit that I need to make is for my eye doctor. I just re-ordered more contacts because my prescription expired in about 2 days before I ordered them, so I am right on pace for the once a year eye doctor appointment.
Well, I am really far behind on work, so I need to catch up, so have a great day everybody.
Have you checked out dental schools in the area? Might be a good stopgap for routine cleanings, etc. if you can’t get to the dentist more often. They run a low-cost clinic at one of the bigger universities up here which was great when I was a poor student.
Good luck!