Today's Endo Visit

Was not so good, not so bad.

My weight was down a teensy bit from three weeks ago at my other doctor's office. That's not good news, but not horrible news.
I received a seasonal flu vaccine in my left shoulder, and a pneumonia vaccination in the right shoulder, and had blood drawn for an A1c and TSH (expect a post on that topic on Monday or Tuesday).
I had my feet checked for neuropathy and didn't do too great but not horribly. I wanted them checked partly because I check blood sugar on my toes and would stop if there was evidence of neuropathy After he did the check, the endo said, "Well, that's not such strong evidence of neuropathy, but you probably should stop checking the toes." So.... I think that I do have neuropathy in my feet. I felt the filament just fine, and I could tell if he was bending my toes up or down, but when he touched a vibrating thingy to my big toes in turn and asked me to tell him when the vibration stopped- I couldn't tell. I think that means I have neuropathy, but on second thought I'm not sure. Maybe I should have the conductivity test done... but why bother? The doctor wants me to stop with testing on my feet due to risk of infection. I asked him if my immune system is really compromised with my level of blood sugar control. He said no, BUT since my blood sugar control isn't guaranteed to stay stable and can get worse fast (and did get a lot worse this past spring for a couple months), it's just overall best not to risk it. Feet are too vulnerable, he said. However, I am not fully convinced.
We also discussed switching me from Lantus to Levemir. He said that studies show that Levemir is more consistantly bioavailable than Lantus, meaning less daily variation in how the drug works. I told him I would think about it... and I am. Have any of you switched from Levemir to Lantus or vice versa?

Both my most favorite and least favorite part of the visit is the blood draw. It's my least favorite because it hurts, but it's my most favorite because we sort of chit chat. I know autistic people aren't supposed to like small talk, but I do. I love how you can discover odd and unexpected things about people. I asked my endo what prompted him to go into endocrinology and he said it was working at the University of Michigan when Jerome Conn decided from the evidence that hyperaldosteronism existed and set about proving it. This was back in the days when they couldn't image these things, which is what they now do, and nobody was sure that there would really be such a thing. When the very first patient was sent into the OR on Conn's suspicion that he had an aldosterone producing tumor on his adrenals, the hospital caferia was abuzz, waiting to see if the guy really did have a tumor- and he did!

I just looked up Jerome Conn and his syndrome, and it was discovered in 1955! I didn't realize my endo was that old. That means my endo has been practicing medicine for over fifty years. My father was born in 1955.