Be Well Prepared for Your Diabetes Appointment

When you are suspected of having type 2 diabetes or have already been told you may have it then you will be asked to make an appointment with your primary care physician who will make the actual diagnosis. You also may be referred to an endocrinologist, a dietitian, a diabetes educator, a podiatrist and an ophthalmologist. If by chance your sugar levels are extremely high, your doctor may end up admitting you to the hospital for extensive treatment to get the levels down.

Your appointment may be brief even though there is a lot to cover, so it's very important that you go very well prepared. You need to be able to gather as much information from your medical team as you possibly can in order for you to better understand the disease. Below are some things that you can do in order to prepare yourself for your appointment.

Things You Can Do

* Be sure that you know of any pre-appointment restrictions. For instance, if the doctor is going to test your blood sugar levels, or if they are going to ask you to not eat or drink anything 8 hours prior for that glucose test or 4 hours for a pre-meal test. So, when you make the appointment make sure if there is any fasting that will be needed.

* Make sure to write down all the symptoms you are having and this includes any that may not be related to the disease.

* Make sure to have a friend or family member go with you to your appointment. When you have to learn how to manage your diabetes it is going to require that you absorb a lot of information and it can be overwhelming trying to remember it all while you are at your appointment. So, if you have someone else with you, they can help you to remember some of the things you may forget.

* It's also a good idea to bring a notebook and pen with you to make sure that you write down all of the important information that really needs to be remembered.

Questions You Should Ask

* When it comes to monitoring your glucose levels you should ask the doctor how often you need to monitor your blood. This will be different for each patient. Also make sure to ask what your goal is.

* Ask the doctor what kind of lifestyle changes you have to make, such as what kind of diet changes will you need to make. Ask them how you can learn more about counting carbohydrates in your foods. Ask if you will need a dietitian to help you with your meal planning. Also ask them how much exercise they think you should get each day.

* Ask the doctor if you are going to have to be required to take medicine and if so, what will it be and how much will you have to take. Find out if the medicine will need to be taken at certain times of the day. Also ask if you will need to take insulin.

* Ask what the symptoms and signs are of having low blood sugar. Ask how you can treat the low blood sugar. Then ask what the signs and symptoms are of high blood sugar and how that can be treated. You should also ask if you would test for ketones and how you do that.

* Another good question to ask if how often you need to be monitored for any complications and what specialists you will need to see.

*Ask about any available resources if you have problems paying for your diabetes supplies.

* Also ask for any brochures or other printed materials that you can take with you to learn more about diabetes. You should also ask about any good educational websites as well.

Never be afraid to ask questions. It's important to your health.

What You Can Expect From Your Doctor

The doctor is more than likely going to ask you a lot of questions as well. You need to be ready to answer them as honestly as you can. Here are a few questions the doctor might ask.

* Do you understand your treatment plan?
* Do you feel confident that you can follow your treatment plan?
* How do you think you are coping with your diabetes?
* Have there been times where you think you may have experienced episodes of low blood sugar?
* What is your daily diet like?
* Do you exercise? If you do, what kind of exercises do you do? How often do you do these exercises?

Being well prepared and answering all of your doctor's questions as honestly as you can is going to benefit you in many different ways and will make living with diabetes a lot easier.