While I'm sure I know what my basals will be, my Diabetes Educator still wants me to document everything for the last 2 weeks - food, insulin and many blood glucose tests during the day and night. She wants the evidence, so I have to be hyper vigilant about writing everything down. I'm just not that kind of person, but I have to be.
Having recently swapped to my iMac as my main computer (PC for many years before that), I use Diabetes Logbook X to record when I'm home, and when I'm out, the equivalent for the iPhone, which hooks into the Mac and updates the records on the iMac. It's really easy to use and is in a format I'm used to and like. The reporting is also fairly comprehensive and very easy to read for someone who isn't used to the software.
I've had a persistent cough for a couple of weeks. I went to my doctor last week and he decided I had some strange fungal thing going on and gave me some medication. His conclusion just didn't sit right with me.
After doing some research on something completely different I came across the following:
The most significant side effect with ACE inhibitors is a relentless cough. If you develop such a cough while taking these drugs, tell your doctor and ask to be switched to a newer drug in the ARB family. These ARB drugs, which include Cozaar, Diovan, and Avapro work in a way that is similar to ACE inhibitors but they do not cause the troubling side effects.
How conincidental it is that I was put on an ACE inhibitor just before this cough started? Fungal, my ass! I am so anti-doctors and this is yet another thing that validates what I think. Why didn't the doctor connect the symptom with a medication he just put me on a couple of weeks ago? Too concerned about dollars and getting me out the door, I suspect. If I can make the connection reading just one article which states that this is a common side-effect, why couldn't he? He's the one with the degree and the experience!
I've long believed that despite what some doctors think - that they don't want us doing any research on the internet - we truly need to. As long as it's done in an intelligent way and from a very trusted source. We need to be very sure of our facts before we go running to a doctor. Something as obvious as the ACE inhibitor thing, shouldn't have needed any research, but the state of our medical system and the apathy and dismissiveness of some doctors, actually requires it! And we pay handsomely for the privelege of seeng a doctor for the 10 or 15 mintues we're allowed.
Pity!
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