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77 year old Mum uncontrolled blood sugar and cataracts HELP

T

Traceyhills21

Member
Messages
6
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Hi
My name is Tracey and my 77 year old mum has been trying to control her blood sugar ever since she had pancreatitis
two years ago. She has been prescribed 48ml of insulin once a day metformin one twice a day and still her
morning BS is around 8-10 and afternoon (2 hours after eating) around 20-28.

She has very bad cataracts that require surgery but they will not do the op until her blood sugar is at least single digits.
She cannot see a thing to the point it is getting dangerous (controls on over, taking meds, and giving herself sugar test and insulin injections.
The diabetic nurse has said about trying fast acting insulin but does not think the district nurses will be prepared to come to give it twice a day at the correct time (just before eating) She has said if the fast acting insulin does not work "she gives up" and does not know what else can be done. Any advice would be great because I am scared I am going to lose my mum to either an accident(almost burnt her flat down with the over controls) or from organ failure due to constant high blood sugar.
Thank you for taking the time to read
 
Before my dad went into a home he was fixed dose-mixed insulin twice a day where he had to eat either right before or within 10 minutes of his injection. He used to have the district nurse come and do this, also because he was struggling they call mid afternoon just to check his levels. He too is blind but also very infirm.

I organised it through his GP - they put him on the " domacillary (spelling?) care registerer " and he was given a care plan
 
Hi and thank you for your reply.
Mum is in sheltered accommodation but the carers an not permitted to give injections or medications.
I think the diabetic nurse is planning the same insulin as your dad was on but the district nurse come at no
particular time so will be tricky for eating.
Did the insulin work for your dad???
 
Is your Mum T2 or T1. Info regarding diet if T2 may be helpful.
Glenn
 
Well we are not really sure as our GP says it is pancreatic diabetics which is Type 3 but then the nurses say they have never heard of this but don't actually say which type she is ??????
 
I do all of mums shopping so I know exactly what her diet is. No not pasta or rice or beans, only low carb bread (small amount)
occasional few boiled in skin new potatoes but not jacket or mash.
she has a few strawberrys or raspberrys a week and one orange a week. no sugar at all except very small amount of alternative sometimes on porriage. she eats lots of fish and veg and that is about it.
she drinks lots of water and a few cups of no sugar tea
 
How about having a chat with her GP? In my area district nurses will go out twice a day to do insulin though wouldn't be able to guarantee a time and she may need to wait for breakfast and dinner till they've been. I know when I worked in the district team which admittedly was a long time ago, insulin calls were always the first of the day but I think they get the hcas to do them now. Clearly she needs to have a different regime to the one she has now and your GP can help you sort it out for her?
 
It's almost impossible to find a care agency that will give injections that's why it has to be a district nurse - dad's now in a nursing home. It worked well for dad it had been his regime for years and he carb counted religiously until he started with dementia. I used to do all his shopping too after mum died, that's how I knew he wasn't coping - either not eating at all or eating the full fridge in one day.

It became better for a while once the nurses started, for obvious reasons they can't give an exact time as who knows what they are going to find when they do their visits but they were always in an hour window, - dad was using ready meals by now or I would batch cook meals for the freezer then he could microwave them in a few minutes once he'd had his insulin. Does your mother cook her own meals? Can she pre prepare them?

strangely enough it's a year ago today that dads health took a turn for the worst, he had a little stroke and went into hospital for a couple of days, things snowballed from there with his health and he never got back to his own home
 
I know exactly what you mean and have been through the exact same with my Mum. The district nurses tried this 'We can't come to the sheltered accommodation twice a day' routine on us and I can tell you this, we did NOT allow them to get away with that when the only alternative would have been for Mum to leave her flat and go into a Nursing home simply to get insulin administered.

What they meant was that it would have been a nuisance for them. The NICE guidelines and every written policy of the NHS state that ALL efforts must be made to keep a person independent so please look them up and be prepared to fight and quote! It follows the same principle as trying to keep a person in their own property.

I am not saying it is easy (in fact we got them coming in 3 times a day initially!) and as someone else said, their timings were sometimes out. I think it is disgraceful that your Mum is on a regime that does not work for her (fixed insulin once a day simply because that is more convenient for THEM), makes my blood boil.

Please, please challenge them over this and threaten to make an official complaint if necessary. Believe me, they most certainly CAN do it they just don't want to and meantime your Mum's health is suffering. Hope I haven't ranted too much. x
 
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