Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Onward and Upward!

So, remember my emails?  And my Faustman joy?

Well, all that took a slight detour when they couldn't access any HbA1C records before 6/2011.  They emailed me.  Did I switch doctors?  Where are those records?  Where can I find them?



That was when I was in the Protege study, and as they were running A1C records for the study, my endo didn't feel the need to repeat them.  I gave them the info, but was feeling fairly defeated, Charlie Brown, because really, I didn't know what the protocol is for studies giving up proprietary medical info.  Since I wasn't actually a patient at the clinic running the study, they couldn't just access the info from the computer, and I don't know if anyone was willing to dig through 3-5 year old records to find 2 or 3 A1C's.  I had told my endo what the A1Cs were, so surely they were in the chart notes, but I didn't know if chart notes were sufficient.  Especially chart notes that just wrote down what the patient told them.  I could have been a dirty, rotten, stinking, liar for all they knew.

Plus, there's that whole "I was in another drug study" thing I had to contend with, and typically, drug studies don't like patients who have been in other studies, it tends to ruin the 'general population' dealio they've got going.

BUT I HAD THE PLACEBO!  I SWEAR!  (I really did.  I was fairly ticked about it, too.)

(And while I knew this would come up, it's not like I wasn't going to tell them I was in a study, I was worried I had derailed this before it even began).

After that, there was radio silence.

And today, a box shows up.  I look at the return address.



I have made it to the urine portion of the study.  To gauge c-peptide production, I am to pee once a week, into a cup, after drinking a Boost, and send it back to them.  This is a box of shipping materials and Boost drinks. I must be fasting for 8 hours before drinking the Boost, and empty my bladder right before drinking it. Did you know they could test c-peptide in urine? Well, they can.

I've never been so excited to pee, store, and ship urine.  In fact, I do believe this is the ONLY time I've ever been excited to pee, store, and ship urine.

Let's see if I still have one or two beta cells, shall we?