I got this from Mrs. N the other day. It was a little gift for baby Allison, a homemade quilt, and a card.

I had been seeing Mrs. N since I started working in this group. She was a 60-something year old woman, a dear old thing. Her primary doc sent her to me for management of her diabetes, because she was "a hopeless case" (her words). Despite being on an insulin pump, they were just not able to bring down her sugars. And she did not care for the huge expense they were paying for the pump.
And so I did the unthinkable- I had her get rid of her pump, and got her back onto the good-ole-Multiple Daily Insulin program. A cheaper and proven program, albeit not as fancy as the pump.

I can't say we've gotten her A1c down to 7% yet. However it did go from >14% to 12% to 9.8% to 9.0% to her most recent of 8.2%. She was supposed to have come in for a visit with me on June 24th. However you all know what happened to me that day, but as with the many other patients the clinic had to reschedule, she was very gracious about things when she was told my wife was in labor.

So when I did see her a couple of days ago, she gave me a firm hug and a kiss, and congratulated us for the beautiful baby. She also gave us the handmade quilt, while I proudly shared my baby pictures with her. Coincidentally that was the day Kristin brought the baby by to work to show to my colleagues, and it was a bonus that Mrs. N got to see Allison.

I have to say, one of the most rewarding aspects of this job is the relationships I've had the pleasure of forming. Unlike my alma mater (well, being a trainee probably had something to do with it too) where things were always very professional and formal, now that I'm out on my own (well as part of a group) I've been a lot more laid back with patients and have gotten to know them much better.

And in Mrs. N's case, this was one of the few cases in which I shared my email with a patient and told her to email me whenever she had problems with her sugars, so that we didn't have to adjust things only during our visits. And so, painfully slowly but surely, things got better. And when I gave her her report card of 8.2% this week, she gave me a bearhug.

It's things like these that make this job worthwhile.