What to do with conversations like these when someone Is diabetic?
My mother is diabetic. Tonight she took her blood sugar before going to bed. It was 165 -- a bit low for her pre-sleep glucose. I suggested she get a snack before retiring. She asked me if I knew what to do if she died during the night. I said yes, but wouldn't it be easier to just get a snack. She said that she didn't want anything to eat because it made her fatter, which made her sugar go up.
This last week has been the worst. Her logic is so twisted now that I have difficulty getting her to do what she needs to. She tells me she won't do something Earlier this evening she had taken her blood sugar -- why I don't know, since it was after dinner. She told me it was 195, so I needed to call the doctor's office. I told her that it was Saturday night. She asked me what difference did that make. I should call him unless I wanted her to die. I reassured her that 195 was not a bad after-dinner glucose, but she didn't believe me.
So now I wondering if she think normal is high, and if she will be endangering herself with hypoglycemia trying to get it lower. And I'm also worried about the effect that the stress of caring for her is having on me. We have an appointment with the geriatric clinic at the University on Monday morning. I hope that they will be able to help her or at least help me get through this.
Calling about a sugar of 195 would not have made sense, but I if I had not been able to avoid diabetes by diet and exercise with weight loss, I'd be opting for fairly tight control too, to stave off complications...find out some parameters, find out a target hemoglobinA1c range and hopefully get the level of concern into a saner perspective.
I can't think of a worse combination than diabetes, dementia, and combative behavior. My mother has occasional glucose peaks of around 300, but it is not often and we can usually bring it down fairly quickly with diet and exercise. At her age, if it is under 200 during the day I don't worry. Her doctors have also been comfortable with it. I do worry about the nighttime hypoglycemia, though. Last night I couldn't sleep until I heard her get up to go to the bathroom and check her glucose.
Is there a chance a sign or poster might help? "If blood sugar is over 200 then .... At bedtime, if blood sugar is below 175 then.... "
Keep good snacks on hand - cheese w/apples, Greek yogurt, etc. My mother in law manages to keep hers in decent control with morning pre meal readings averaging 140. She only tests in the morning before breakfast.
She will have problems with hypoglycemia if she takes her evening diabetes meds and does not eat a proper evening meal. We have to remind her regularly NOT to take her evening 'sugar pill' if she doesn't feel like eating supper. They forget and take their meds no matter what - or at least my MIL does (most of the time).
Before that he was a greedy eater, and he's becoming a greedy eater again. He has regained 25 or so pounds. He's early enough in the disease that he can go out and get what he wants, and he is not very biddable. He dislikes fruit. Fortunately, he does like cooked vegetables, so that's a way to fill him up with health. Later, he'll have a dish of ice cream. An hour later, he'll want a second one, because he doesn't remember the first one.
I think my strategy will have to be 8 (healthy-ish) mini-meals or snacks a day, because he does love to nosh. I get demoralized just thinking about it. I know, I'm a wimp.
I've lost my mom and some dear friends to this disease and its complications...it is so common people do not think much of it, my mom for many years just gave herself a little insulin twice a day and did not even check her sugars, did not eat well or exercise, and once even said to me that you can't really manage diabetes, you just live with it! This is genuinely not true..we eventually got my mom on good enough management that we saved her from losing her chronically infected toe or even her foot after the third or fourth episode of cellulitis, but too much damage was already done to heart and brain to reverse those things, which were what cost her her independence and ultimately took her away from us.
You say you are worried about the effect the stress of caregiving is having on you. Considering the posts of yours that I have read over the past year, I have that concern too. You are young, by my standards, and can have many years ahead. Please do not let caregiving harm your health any more than it already has. Even at a distance and with my mother in an ALF, the stress she causes affects my health. I have been struggling with various bugs since August, having had a very difficult summer with her. Before that I was doing well. I managed the stress better physically in my 60's but once I hit the 70's things have been different. Could your mum live another 5-10 years? Could you keep caregiving for that long, with her health and yours declining? Please give this serious thought. I am concerned for you. ((((((((hugs))))))).
If it's the very word 'needle' that sets him off, this may not relate. But too many sources that should know better say things like "Diabetics have to inject insulin INTO THEIR STOMACH." Which would mean a big long needle doing something dangerous.
The fact is that what's used is the fat layer that covers most people's abdomen (aka 'ugly belly fat'). Really, fat at any location can be used, if it's thick and soft and floppy enough. Insulin needs to go into fat rather than into the muscle like ordinary shots. So the insulin needles are very small, very short. Even so, the person pinches up a wrinkle of fat to put the shot into, so there is no possible danger of it going through the fat into tissue below.