So, your doctor decided to risk her licence and law suit from you, by
recommending you weird, dangerous and not endorsed by American Diabetic
Association  regimen of treatment?
Troll.

<<She said she was surprised that I'd been testing as often as I had
(my
original orders were for three times a day, I've been doing eight as a
minimum). She did look at my fingers and confirm that I was doing no
harm with the extra testing, so I'm happy about that. >>

I would like to worn you, and not to change your testing or medication
regimen on advice
from people you don't know.  This "test eight times a day" theory is
"home made" and
recommended to you by people who have no medical education and no clue.
It is based on
"testimonials" of less then dozen people, some of them with
complications of diabetes, that
may or may not be true, and, even when true, may depend on other
factors, like genetic make
up, type of diabetes, age of onset and so on, and was never proven or
even assessed by
medical professionals.
This is just their opinion and in now way is supported by medical
establishment.
In contrary, American Diabetic Association (ADA) recommends lower
number of testing, one-two
or less, for stable diabetics on pills and 3-4 for diabetics on
insulin. This numbers will
be followed by your doctor and adjusted  according to your condition,
diabetic  medication
you take, other medications you take and laboratory results.
Till new, "noninvasive" Glucometers, be available, you will be using
invasive procedure to
check your blood sugar. And, though, it is very important to test and
be informed about your
blood sugar levels, testing is not save or harmless. As any invasive
procedure it has it's
risks, like infection, bleeding and, by repeating stress, inducing
neuropathy, with bleeding
(bruising) more common, but infection much more dangerous.
Numbers of testing, recommended by ADA are not just "dreamed up", but
based on scientific
research and balance of benefits and risks of testing.
Before you even think about changing your testing and/or medication
regimen on advice from
"somebody from Internet", please, please, check with your doctor or
Diabetes Educator and
read this:
1)Frequent testing do not improve blood sugars.
"the frequency of self-monitoring was not related to glycemic control"
http://tinyurl.com/9ds79
2)"Tight control of diabetes" in not the same as "testing eight times a
day", as some will
try to confuse you. Tight control is  about diet, exercise and your
medication.
http://tinyurl.com/9k84p
3)As a diabetic, you prone to infections, of skin, among others. Every
time you penetrate
your skin, you risk contamination.
"Diabetes Sets Stage For Heightened Risk Of Infections"
http://tinyurl.com/cvjco
4)There are many instances of infection, even when people don't test
unreasonably often.(by
increasing number of test 4 to 8 times, you increasing probability of
infection 4 to 8
times,respectively).
"Japanese Doctors Warn of Dangers of Blood Sampling from Fingers"
http://tinyurl.com/ay34g
5)People have been hurt following ignorant and irresponsible advice
from this board.
http://tinyurl.com/bj3je
6)You don't need and can't  make your "personal" "Clycemic Index"
charts. They exist, easily
available, and you can't do them better then they done, for example, at
laboratories of
Sydney University. And if you go to the extreme,as some suggest here,
of stabbing your
finger of more then thirty imes, do all tests right, for each food item
(14.000 on Sydney
University chart), you will get numbers that will correlate with
"university" chart. Duh!
http://tinyurl.com/9ab6u
I would recommend you to go to American Diabetes Association web site,
where you can get
information that you can trust.
http://www.diabetes.org/home.jsp
There is, also, message board, endorsed by ADA and moderated by health
professionals, so all
"get rid of diabetes quick, easy and for sure" schemes are weeded out.
If you have
questions, you can ask there.
http://tinyurl.com/7vtuy
You are up for a long haul. Choose your advisers carefully.
Good luck.

Next time you can surprise your doctor even more, by telling her, that
instead 1000 mg of Metformine regimen recommended by ADA,  you decided
to increase dose by eight times and taking 8000 mg a day. She will
touch the place were your liver used to be, and will tell you "Calm
down".

first hurdle down Chris....... you can make it and
you are doing well........ i bet your Dr was
pleased about your testing and how seriously you
were taking the diagnosis, but they also don't
want us to become obsessive......... i think a
little obsession at first doesn't hurt at
all......... especially if you are logging
everything to see how foods affect you and what
you can or cannot eat............

moderation is the key

come join us in chat..... let off steam or ask
questions
take care
kate

Chris J it sounds ike you had a very positive experience.  I hope you
feel that way each time you go to the doctor.  

You are really doing great for a newbie.

Loretta

--
In tribute to the United States of America and the State
of Israel, two bastions of strength in a world filled with strife and
terrorism.

Hi, Chris --

I don't think I said, "Hi!" yet, but I have been following your posts
and this is wonderful news.  I'm especially glad that your fingers
aren't gangrenous from all that testing!  LOL!  

I'm pretty new here, too, so can't really tell you anything the more
experienced people haven't, except that you DO need to "calm down" and
take a deep breath -- I hope this good news from your doctor helps you
do that.  Personally, there's nothing worse than being in a panic, and
you can't effectively evaluate everything that's being thrown at you
that way.  :-)

For me, it was kind of like a first grader being dropped into an
advanced Calc class mid-term.  And I didn't have anywhere near the
scare YOU did, so I can only imagine how it's been.  

You seem to have a lot of common sense and you're using it to your
best advantage.  And I wish you the best of luck.  :-)

July Goals:    BGL normal range; Not hungry, don't eat
Weight:        21 pounds gone (whoop!)
Measurements:  8 inches gone 06/19/2005
Cholesterol:   145
FBG:           <100 since 07/01/2005  A1c 6.8!

Sounds like a totally positive experience.  I'm with the doc.  I think your
progress is fantastic.

You also do seem calmer from when you first started to post.  There's sooooo
much to learn.

Sounds like you have a "keeper" for a doc - good news and
listen to that last piece of advice:-)

Cheers Alan, T2, Australia.

Good - that sounds like a quack worth keeping! I'm glad. Hope the dietician
is good too.

Nicky.