Doctor Kerfuful

Gah Fucker, another surprise at my supposed appointment. Or lack thereof. Apparently I didn't have an appointment today and I didn't have the sheet of paper to show that I had in fact booked one. And now I can't find it at home, but we won't even address the possibility that I made it up. So in the end, no doctor.
Rather, I was asking the nursing station if I could at least get a copy of my test results so I could see just how bad I'm doing and self-diagnose my estimate on x-years to live. I ended up booking the very next available appointment - Friday October 27'th at 9:30am (for the record). I wanted to get a new requisition for more bloodwork which I can do before that appointment, but one of the nurses was telling me that I didn't need to, the current bloodwork was fine. I was getting a little bothered about the whole situation, specifically being told that I wasn't going to get a second chance to improve my HA1C result. [Please take the time to read this little blurb and inform yourself of my terminology]
The nurse took control of the situation and grabbed my file and told me to follow and she would see what exactly the requisition was for. She then mentioned that it wouldn't be too important to get it redone for my appointment (since I haven't had it done in a year anyway) but she offered to go over the results with me. All of the normal blood tests were ... surprisingly normal. Blood counts are good and my cholesterol was fine- I was expecting that to be high due to fatness and inactivity. My HA1C was 8.3. This was an increase from the previous time I had the test done. The nurse was happy with the positive direction of the change, and only commented that while it was not an ideal number, it was a beneficial change. According to a table of absolute risk related to HA1C and diabetes complications, I am now 10% less at risk for serious complications than I was last year. Conversely, I am 13% more at risk for complications than someone who's diabetes would be considered 'under control'.
While she was happy with the positive change, I am certainly not happy with these figures. I am 23% at higher risk of .. hmm let's see - amputation, blindness and kidney failure than someone in ideal control of their condition (the CDA aims for diabetics to have an HA1C of 6%). That means that if the average diabetic in good control doesn't lose a limb... I'm guarunteed to lose one! eek!
While I exaggerate, the concern is still there.
The nurse and I actually talked for about half an hour. She was the nicest person ever. We didn't even have an appointment, but she gave me her time and advice and was more helpful than I could have expected. She reinforced that I need to take the time to understand how my body and metabolism work. She suggested my first step to be to take a few weeks or a month and be SUPER regulated and organized and write down everything I eat, my insulin levels, and my sugars before and after I eat and anything else that can effect my metabolism. This way I will be able to analyze trends in my sugars. With these trends and info, I can calculate how much insulin I need to take for the amount of carbs I eat. Mumbly mumbly, there's a lot to calculate over the next while.
She convinced me that I should just use the bloodwork I got done for my appointment in October, and then after that i will get a 3-month A1C, whether I have an appointment or not so that I can see how effective my efforts have been. My personal goal is to have that result be at 7.1. I won't expect myself to be in normal control range, but I want to see a significant improvement. I plan to have an appointment with the Doctor in the summer, before I leave for wherever I hope to be moving to. The goal/requirement for that appointment is to be well within the normal control range so that I can feel good about starting a new section of my life, in which I will have my health in check!