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Another One Of Those Conversations With GP

Jenny15 said:
Does your Mum take any medication for her arthritis? Has she been advised on all her options for managing the condition?
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I can't remember the medication she is on. It was well over a year ago now when she made a seemingly endless succession of visits to medical people, and we also looked online for solutions, and we came to the conclusion that she was at the end of what the NHS had to offer. We even considered, and still may consider pain-relieving drugs from, shall we say, alternative, sources.
 
AdamJames said:
I can't remember the medication she is on. It was well over a year ago now when she made a seemingly endless succession of visits to medical people, and we also looked online for solutions, and we came to the conclusion that she was at the end of what the NHS had to offer. We even considered, and still may consider pain-relieving drugs from, shall we say, alternative, sources.
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Its probably methotrexate.. that's what my old ma took for her arthritis. We recently weaned her off it as it's not really good for long term use but she's moaning about aches and pains.. but then she does live on sugar..
 
bulkbiker said:
Its probably methotrexate.. that's what my old ma took for her arthritis. We recently weaned her off it as it's not really good for long term use but she's moaning about aches and pains.. but then she does live on sugar..
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Thanks. The question made me realise that really I need to be more on top of what medication she is on. We don't live with her and she's still 'all there' mentally, but there could well be a scenario, sooner or later, when her medical care is in our hands to some extent. I'm going to make a point of writing down all the stuff she is on next time I visit. I'll also do some research on each type of medication.

Have you tried getting your mum off sugar or reducing carbs? I haven't worked out the details accurately, and I'm pretty sure my mum is going to be well over 50g a day, but we have successfully persuaded her to change her diet quite dramatically for a few months now. She often talks about making herself steak and mushrooms (and nothing else - no sauces etc) and really enjoying it now, whereas a few months ago it would have been putting a rice-heavy ready meal in the microwave. She also hasn't had any cream cakes etc for the same amount of time. It's hard to say if it's helping, but it certainly isn't making things worse!
 
bulkbiker said:
Its probably methotrexate.. that's what my old ma took for her arthritis. We recently weaned her off it as it's not really good for long term use but she's moaning about aches and pains.. but then she does live on sugar..
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I think Methotrexate is used for rheumatoid arthritis but if she has osteoarthritis then I imagine she'd be offered NSAIDs and paracetamol (which can be surprisingly effective if taken regularly several times a day).
 
AdamJames said:
At what age does one try less?
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Never surrender!

My experience is mixed. One nurse takes notes about how I lost 25% body weight and halved my HbA1c in 6 months (LCHF, more exercise, great ideas and support from this forum and the lowcarb forum). She passes this on to other patients so they can help themselves.

The other gets sour when I say:
* The NHS diet advice is literally poisonous (regular brown bread, brown rice etc). Do the tests and you wise up very quickly. Would you rather wake up at 5.5 or at 15+?
* That (self funded) home testing is the only way I could sift the good advice from the quackery about what enjoyable food wouldn't harm me.
* Given the amount I anticipate saving the NHS in avoided complication treatment costs by self management calibrated by self testing it is a bloody disgrace that I have to pay to do their job for them. She actually has the temerity in the face of evidence to debate with me the point of a type 2 self testing. Disgrace.

End of rant.

The NHS in general is wonderful. I really mean that. My late wife got 14 extra years through their work in another specialism.

But they wilfully p*ss away 20% of their budget treating type 2 complications when the correct advice and test strips on prescription might cost 5%.

I am incandescent that this is not obvious to those in charge.

How do we change this?
 
Bluetit1802 said:
Once a day monitoring is a waste of time and teaches you nothing at all.
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********. It turned my life around.

This is terrible advice with no place on this forum.

Edited by moderator for language
 
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AdamJames said:
You weren't to know this, but it so happens that I'm already narrowly avoiding entering a tailspin of self-doubt and self-loathing about just how awful and destructive and offensive my sense of humour is.
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From what I've read of it on this forum, your sense of humor suits me just fine, @AdamJames :)
 
Antje77 said:
From what I've read of it on this forum, your sense of humor suits me just fine, @AdamJames :)
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Very kind of you to say so, but it's the bits you don't read that are the problem, I can definitely get it very wrong :(

Anyway I love you too, and say hello to the dogs, cats and reindeer from me :)
 
AdamJames said:
Have you tried getting your mum off sugar or reducing carbs? I haven't worked out the details accurately, and I'm pretty sure my mum is going to be well over 50g a day, but we have successfully persuaded her to change her diet quite dramatically for a few months now.
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She's 92 has meals on wheels most of the week and mainly eats the desserts.. she refuses to eat anything green. Last time she had a funny turn the paramedics took her blood glucose and it was 7.9 . She lives on her own in a wardened block and when she comes to us she hardly eats anything so to be honest there's not a lot I can do and I'm sorry but she is not coming to live with me ever.. We got her off statins and methotrexate but then she started to have atrial fib so is now on meds for that and high blood pressure (which I'm pretty sure may be white coat syndrome). There comes a point where you just have to say what will be will be...
 
JonM1 said:
********. It turned my life around.

This is terrible advice with no place on this forum.
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Really you found testing once a day useful?
How? Most of us test multiple times to see the impact of various foodstuffs on BG levels not sure how you could do that testing once a day..
 
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bulkbiker said:
Really you found testing once a day useful?
How? Most of us test multiple times to see the impact of various foodstuffs on BG levels not sure how you could do that testing once a day..
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I am going to say, at the beginning of this journey, that i found testing once a day to be more useful than nothing at all. Maybe @JonM1 is not yet a regular tester?
 
bulkbiker said:
She's 92 has meals on wheels most of the week and mainly eats the desserts.. she refuses to eat anything green. Last time she had a funny turn the paramedics took her blood glucose and it was 7.9 . She lives on her own in a wardened block and when she comes to us she hardly eats anything so to be honest there's not a lot I can do and I'm sorry but she is not coming to live with me ever.. We got her off statins and methotrexate but then she started to have atrial fib so is now on meds for that and high blood pressure (which I'm pretty sure may be white coat syndrome). There comes a point where you just have to say what will be will be...
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I'm not surprised she hardly eats anything when she visits you if she likes sweet stuff. Your house is probably like a food desert to her. Very importantly spelled with one s in this case :)

To be honest I'd been taking the view 'what will be will be' with my mum for years, and am still surprised she's sticking to this new food regime. Mind you I think she's been sneaking biscuits in under the radar. She's always bought biscuits for the dog which we know were definitely for the dog, but I'm pretty sure she's getting them more frequently these days.
 
AdamJames said:
Very kind of you to say so, but it's the bits you don't read that are the problem, I can definitely get it very wrong :(

Anyway I love you too, and say hello to the dogs, cats and reindeer from me :)
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I think most of us get it wrong somewhere. I have been put in my place several times! Keep up the excellent posts.
 
AdamJames said:
She's always bought biscuits for the dog
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Haha, my father used to buy biscuits for his white rat. And tea and milk, as he claimed his rat needed a cup of tea with milk in the morning and a biscuit in the afternoon. Must have been a British rat , I guess.
My father didn't drink tea at all, and hardly ever used milk.
 
JonM1 said:
********. It turned my life around.

This is terrible advice with no place on this forum.

Edited by moderator for language
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Can you explain how and why testing once a day helps anyone still trying to normalise their blood sugars? Is this what you do? If so, when do you test and if the levels are higher than you like, has it shown you why?
 
AdamJames said:
I'm not surprised she hardly eats anything when she visits you if she likes sweet stuff. Your house is probably like a food desert to her. Very importantly spelled with one s in this case :)

To be honest I'd been taking the view 'what will be will be' with my mum for years, and am still surprised she's sticking to this new food regime. Mind you I think she's been sneaking biscuits in under the radar. She's always bought biscuits for the dog which we know were definitely for the dog, but I'm pretty sure she's getting them more frequently these days.
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Our house isn't quite as you make it out to be. I may eat keto but hubby has a cupboard with popcorn, honey roast cashews and chocolate in it. The freezer has haagen daaz as well as sirloin steak and Oppo aplenty so it's not quite as you may expect.
As for mother she used to feed our dog sweet biscuits until she got caught out.. it did not end well. She was in the dog house for months..
 
bulkbiker said:
Really you found testing once a day useful?
How? Most of us test multiple times to see the impact of various foodstuffs on BG levels not sure how you could do that testing once a day..
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I only test once a day because I'm on a consistent diet avoiding all carbs where poss. I find testing fasting glucose every morning very useful. We don't all use the same methodology.
 
BrianTheElder said:
I only test once a day because I'm on a consistent diet avoiding all carbs where poss. I find testing fasting glucose every morning very useful. We don't all use the same methodology.
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Yes I know that but someone posted very forcefully to a previous thread which I think they had misread..
 
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