Hi all,
Posting this in regards to my father, whom we are all worried about.
Has been Type 1 since he was 21, and is pretty poorly managed in his old age, as he is 62 now. An endo once labelled him the worst-managed diabetic he had ever seen in over 25 years of his career. And that was when he was 'healthy looking'. Dad smokes like a chimney and has a sweet tooth, etc. I'd hate to see his HbA1c. Currently, he lies about going to the doctor and claims they say he's OK but just that he needs to stop smoking and start exercising. Which is complete BS because he is already skin and bones, and looks ghostly.
When he and my mother were married, she took good care of him, and ensured (through nagging) that he looked after himself. He looked great and weighed around 79kg, despite his poor medication and lifestyle regime, and he would hypo probably 6 - 10 times a year. Once a month I'd say. Since my parents' divorce however, dad has been taking significantly less care of himself and it shows in a HUGE way.
He's now weighing in at a grotesquely sickly 61kg (at 168cm). And he looks like a prisoner of war. He is literal skin and bones. He WAS hypoing more than ever, once a week and sometimes even nightly, until his new partner threatened to leave unless he sorted himself out, so I assume he's now just keeping his sugar purposely high.
I've been living with him for 6 months, and I can see his daily habits. The hypos have stopped. He eats a lot of sugar, though he medicates. He claims, that he can eat whatever he likes so long as he medicates for it, starting a chain reaction of sugar spikes and drops and sugar spikes to bring up his blood sugar etc. It's a nightmare. But only he can fix himself, we've all tried, and we know that. He is probably somewhat delusional, maybe even brain damaged from all the hypos, but it is what it is. Can't choose your family, right?!
Meanwhile, he continues to drink full strength Coke and eat donuts, cake and raisin toasts etc etc. It's enough to make you cringe. He literally lives on sugary foods, but just eats a lot less of them, so his calories would be, I imagine, quite low. He'll eat sandwiches for lunch and probably pasta for dinner, with nothing but junk in between, maybe the odd banana.
His sugars are constantly high when testing. Anywhere from 13 - 25. I convinced him to come get blood tested with me (I'm on TRT due to a damaged pituitary) so I will have his entire hormone panel including HbA1c soon. He still avoids the doctor, as I imagine they'd want to admit him to hospital. I'm amazed he's still standing, and doing manual labour every day. I imagine he's in a lot more pain and discomfort than he leads on, but he's too proud to admit it. He's often very tired, grumpy, and sometimes not with it mentally.
What I wonder most however, is WHY the severe sudden weight loss has occurred? He's been poorly managed for most of his life, but let's say even for the last 10 years, he physically LOOKED well, but only as recently as the last 2 or so has he turned into a matchstick.
The type of severe weight loss he has, apparently, is reminiscent of an undiagnosed Type 1 with severe ketosis from a lack of insulin. However, he still medicates and I've seen him with my own eyes, and insulin is anabolic.
My understanding of hormones from my own treatment would perhaps suggest that, he may have severely low testosterone (which is also anabolic) and this has caused insulin resistance, which, combined with his sugary diet has put his body into a wildly catabolic state where even though he is medicating, the insulin is not actually working as it should.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
I'm going to drag him to an endo by the balls when these blood tests come back. But I'm expecting both a state of ketosis and sugar through the roof, and (probably) insanely low testosterone, meaning he would likely need TRT too - which HELPS balance blood sugar and insulin of all types.
There's no cleaning up his diet or regime. He's too stuck in his ways, and only HE can change it. I just hate to see him look so damned awful.
Posting this in regards to my father, whom we are all worried about.
Has been Type 1 since he was 21, and is pretty poorly managed in his old age, as he is 62 now. An endo once labelled him the worst-managed diabetic he had ever seen in over 25 years of his career. And that was when he was 'healthy looking'. Dad smokes like a chimney and has a sweet tooth, etc. I'd hate to see his HbA1c. Currently, he lies about going to the doctor and claims they say he's OK but just that he needs to stop smoking and start exercising. Which is complete BS because he is already skin and bones, and looks ghostly.
When he and my mother were married, she took good care of him, and ensured (through nagging) that he looked after himself. He looked great and weighed around 79kg, despite his poor medication and lifestyle regime, and he would hypo probably 6 - 10 times a year. Once a month I'd say. Since my parents' divorce however, dad has been taking significantly less care of himself and it shows in a HUGE way.
He's now weighing in at a grotesquely sickly 61kg (at 168cm). And he looks like a prisoner of war. He is literal skin and bones. He WAS hypoing more than ever, once a week and sometimes even nightly, until his new partner threatened to leave unless he sorted himself out, so I assume he's now just keeping his sugar purposely high.
I've been living with him for 6 months, and I can see his daily habits. The hypos have stopped. He eats a lot of sugar, though he medicates. He claims, that he can eat whatever he likes so long as he medicates for it, starting a chain reaction of sugar spikes and drops and sugar spikes to bring up his blood sugar etc. It's a nightmare. But only he can fix himself, we've all tried, and we know that. He is probably somewhat delusional, maybe even brain damaged from all the hypos, but it is what it is. Can't choose your family, right?!
Meanwhile, he continues to drink full strength Coke and eat donuts, cake and raisin toasts etc etc. It's enough to make you cringe. He literally lives on sugary foods, but just eats a lot less of them, so his calories would be, I imagine, quite low. He'll eat sandwiches for lunch and probably pasta for dinner, with nothing but junk in between, maybe the odd banana.
His sugars are constantly high when testing. Anywhere from 13 - 25. I convinced him to come get blood tested with me (I'm on TRT due to a damaged pituitary) so I will have his entire hormone panel including HbA1c soon. He still avoids the doctor, as I imagine they'd want to admit him to hospital. I'm amazed he's still standing, and doing manual labour every day. I imagine he's in a lot more pain and discomfort than he leads on, but he's too proud to admit it. He's often very tired, grumpy, and sometimes not with it mentally.
What I wonder most however, is WHY the severe sudden weight loss has occurred? He's been poorly managed for most of his life, but let's say even for the last 10 years, he physically LOOKED well, but only as recently as the last 2 or so has he turned into a matchstick.
The type of severe weight loss he has, apparently, is reminiscent of an undiagnosed Type 1 with severe ketosis from a lack of insulin. However, he still medicates and I've seen him with my own eyes, and insulin is anabolic.
My understanding of hormones from my own treatment would perhaps suggest that, he may have severely low testosterone (which is also anabolic) and this has caused insulin resistance, which, combined with his sugary diet has put his body into a wildly catabolic state where even though he is medicating, the insulin is not actually working as it should.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
I'm going to drag him to an endo by the balls when these blood tests come back. But I'm expecting both a state of ketosis and sugar through the roof, and (probably) insanely low testosterone, meaning he would likely need TRT too - which HELPS balance blood sugar and insulin of all types.
There's no cleaning up his diet or regime. He's too stuck in his ways, and only HE can change it. I just hate to see him look so damned awful.
