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Concerned for mother

C

chocoholic

Well-Known Member
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United Kingdom
I'm concerned about my mother. She is 77 and is on medication for high blood pressure for years. For a while now, she has not felt right and today when I went to see her, she said she was up 4 times in the night to go to the loo and feels constantly tired and light-headed. For a while I've wondered if she might have type 2 diabetes and asked her to get her doc to check. She said he has but finally, she allowed me to check her BG with my own test kit today. About 1 hour after her having just half a bowl of cup-a-soup(that's all she fancied eating), her reading was 8.7. She had an appointment with the doc. late this afternoon and sadlyi couldn't go with her as had to get back to my home town to pick hubby up. I got her to tell doc. about the 8.7 but he just smiled and said she does not have diabetes. He has stopped all her 3 blood pressure tablets instead, which in itself worries me, stopping them all in one go, just like that but please can someone tell me if 8.7 can be right after something which I estimate had about 11 carbs in it? It sounds too high to me but different sites say different things.
 
Can you phone the doctor yourself and tell him you are worried about your mother. If he sees someone there checking up, he might get his act togwther.
 
I think they'd just say they can't comment because of patient confidentiality, hanadr. Usually, she has excellent service at her country G.P's but mum insists he has checked her for diabetes. Do you think that 8.7 random reading is a possible non-diabetic reading? I think Mum thinks I'm paranoid and I think she'd be really angry if I phoned her G.P. anyway. I wish I lived just round the corner from her, 'cause I'd call in and do several tests over a whole day.
 
Choccie

Try googling the blood pressure meds that your mum has been taking to see if they can cause blood sugar levels to elevate. Some of them do as well as having a diurectic effect which will explain your mum getting up in the night to use the loo.
 
I had no idea that could happen, iHs, so thank you for that. That might explain my worries away. Spoke to my mother again earlier and she sounded much brighter today.I could tell things were really getting to her yesterday.
 
Technically you are only diabetic if you have had at least two *official* tests of over 11.1 (or 7 fasting).

Anything out of the fives is probably worth monitoring.

So there's a big grey area where you go from truly normal to truly diabetic, including "prediabetes" where you *could* do something to control the progression before it's too late.

IMO she is definitely in that prediabetic category and would do well to behave as if she was already diabetic. That way she may never cross the diagnostic threshold. This may well serve to reduce her BG and improve her lipids too.

Watch out for symptoms from the sudden lack of BP meds, especially beta blockers should never be stopped without tapering
 
Hi chocoholic,
I think I have been on every blood pressure tablet known to man, have now found a combination that works.
If your mum was on a medication that caused her to pass urine more frequently then this would have been prescribed as a morning dose. The diuretic effect usually lasts for 4 - 6 hrs so it would be unlikely that this was affecting her throughout the night. As Trink says, be careful if it was a beta blocker, it is unwise to suddenly stop taking them.
Does mum have a follow up appointment. Her high blood pressure cannot be left unchecked and may not cause her any symptoms other than a headache.
Hope your worries for mum are soon sorted,
Take care,
Catherine.
 
Mum's been on BP tablets for 27 years and now takes three different ones. I shall be phoning her every day to check she is okay and she's back to see the doc. in a fortnight. I was surprised he didn't phase the tablets out rather than stop them all in one go. Generally , he seems like a good doc. and has been monitoring mum's B.P. closely for months.
 
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