February 7, 2023
PHOTO: My new blood glucose-monitoring system isn't working.After about seven years, I finally had an appointment this afternoon with an endocrinologist who is actually an associate with the endocrinologist I saw the last time. My primary doctor was prescribing my diabetes medication (an injection of a long-acting insulin in my belly twice per day and a blood glucose-reducing pill twice per day). My new endocrinologist wants me to continue with these two prescriptions for another 14 days. During that time, I was to be on a system called "FreeStyle Libre 2" that monitors my blood-glucose levels 24 hours per day using an app on my cell phone and a disk with a plastic needle affixed to my upper right arm. The disk is about the size of two stacked quarters. The levels are also linked to a computer program at my endocrinologist's office. This is so I do not have to alternately prick my fingers once every morning to get my fasting blood-glucose levels. Anyway, the new monitoring system is not working. I scan the disk, but I just get error messages on my phone that it's not working, to try again in 10 minutes, or that I need to affix a new monitor to my arm. Two nurses, my wife, and I had difficulty setting it up in my endocrinologist's office this afternoon. It is supposed to take one hour before it starts. The ability to scan started after my wife and I got home, but it just doesn't monitor my blood-glucose levels. I will call my endocrinologist's office in the morning for instructions on how to proceed. (My eventual prescriptions will probably be the same long-acting insulin with the addition of a combination immediate-acting and short-acting insulin, also to be injected into my belly, and maybe the discontinuation of the blood glucose-reducing pills. I used to take the two insulins without the pills, which seemed to work well for me.)
UPDATE (February 8, 2023): I'm going back to my endocrinologist's office around 1:30 p.m. today to get a new sensor applied to my right arm and a monitor to use it with instead of using the app on my phone.
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