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I am a little in shock!

Donnadoobie

Well-Known Member
Messages
157
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
My daughter’s husband, who is slim and an active cyclist, he can’t drive so cycles everywhere, 34 but with a dreadful diet. My daughter says he lives off milk and cake! He began to feel really tired some months ago and has recently developed a terrible thirst and weeing a lot ( you know where this is heading). My daughter is aware of diabetes symptoms, I am pre diabetic and she has PCOS which has caused her to also to be pre diabetic, so advised him to go to see the doctor. He went last week and the took a blood test to check his Hba1c. They Had some test strips in their house and his morning blood sugar one day last week was 20.6.

last night they were able to go into his notes from the doctor online and found that his Hba1c test result was 102! I was honestly so shocked by that number, I have never heard of a result so high. He sees the gp on Wednesday.

I think he will struggle. He is a VERY picky eater, low carb won’t be something he will take to easily ( both he and my daughter are aware of low carb as it is how I eat). Seriously shocked and worried for them both. I have said I will help if they ask but my attempts at dietary changes with my own husband and daughter go unheeded mostly, so don’t want to push them there unless they are ready for it.

Has anyone on here had such a high A1c? What did you do to bring it down? Can anyone give me advice. Will he need insulin? Or will Metformin work? Daughter is on metformin due to her PCOS, even though she is pre diabetic.

It actually gives me no pleasure to say ‘ I told you!’ Each time I have been proved right about diet ( husband now type 2, daughter pre diabetic and now son in law!).

Any help or advice will be appreciated.
 
Hi @Donnadoobie it must be so worrying having to stand by a watch. My hba1c was 109 a couple of years ago before I took control and it did take ages before I realised I didn’t want to be on insulin and there was something I could do about it. I don’t like many fruits and vegetables so knowing they were doing me harm was a plus for me. I mainly eat roast cauliflower and sometimes broccoli now. Would your son in law eat meat - ribeyes, chicken, pork, lamb, eggs and cheese etc? This is what I live on most of the time and my hba1c is down to 54. There are a lot of YouTube videos of people who are carnivore and have been for years.
 
Sorry there's so much of it going around! But yeah, do keep from bludgeoning them with dietary advice. If they know you have solutions that might work for them, they could come knocking. And they might not. I know my family hasn't, they all just think I'm nuts for "depriving" myself of treats... I figure tough, I got diagnosed in my late 30's, I'm going to be needing this body to function somewhat, for a while yet. Complete strangers, like people in my late mum's apartment building, were very interested in The Nutritional Thingy, and are currently in remission. People who know me won't take my word for it, people who never met me asked for information through my mom during a birthday party with other neighbours. Some want help, some can implement changes, and for some, well, medication's basically their go-to, and that's fine too, really. Not ideal maybe, there being drawbacks like side effects and possible increased dosage over time etc, but...

Horse, water, drink, you know?

Just make yourself available. Can't do much more than that.
Hugs,
Jo
 
I have read into the carnivore diet, it may be something he would do, he eats meat. Thank you.
 
With the sudden onset of symptoms, him being relatively young for a T2, is slim and active, and has an hba1c in the higher levels of diabetes, I hope his HCP is aware of the possibility it's not T2 but T1.
There is no way to tell what type he has from the information he has at the moment, it's just that with T2 presenting in a non typical way, the guidelines advise ruling out T1.
Donnadoobie said:
They Had some test strips in their house and his morning blood sugar one day last week was 20.6.
Click to expand...
If I had numbers this high, I'd want to test for ketones.
DKA can happen with too little insulin, and it's an emergency needinghospital treatment immediately.
The risk of developing DKA is very small, but because it's such a dangerous condition it's good to be aware of the possibility. He can ask for ketone strips with his nurse, or he can buy some ketostix over the counter for urine testing.

Should he develop nausea, throwing up, a belly ache, a funny smell on his breath (pear drops, acetone), or a funny way of breathing, seek medical help right away, better safe than sorry.
 
Update on my son in law. He went to the GP yesterday and was promptly sent to the hospital where he spent the whole day having test. Ketones were seriously high and they were going to keep him in overnight but they came down to a ‘dichargable’ level.

He has been diagnosed with Type 1 and sent home with a lot of info to read and insulin to inject 2x a day and has to test ketones and glucose levels x4 a day.

I am shocked ( but not shocked)at how little info he has been left to read himself and not really been told anything meaningful. When my daughter was given Metformin she was told she would be put into a diabetes course, she is still waiting for that 6 months later.

Thank you for all your replies, I really appreciate it.
 
Very glad to hear they caught it right in time to prevent DKA!

Now a very steep learning curve will start for him and his family.
The quickest way to learn is to read, read, read. And test a lot. The better he knows what his BG is doing, the easier it is to find the right insulin doses.
Thankfully, the internet is full of information, and there's less misinformation on T1 than on T2.

I hope he'll get to see his hospital team (endocrinologist, diabetes nurse) soon, they are the ones to provide additionl information and help him adjust his doses.

See if he wants to become a member of the forum so he can ask questions and read how other newly diagnosed and long timers are handling their T1.

Good luck!
 
It's great to read that your son in law has got the correct diagnosis of Type 1,
Yes, it is a learning curve and he may have only been given a little information at the moment but it is common for HCP to be wary of overburdening someone when first diagnosed.
I hope that he has a follow up appointment planned, especially as 2 x insulin injections a day is an old-fashioned way of managing Type 1 with little flexibility. That said, it is not uncommon to start that way to keep things simple and bring down BG slowly.

You say your daughter is still waiting for a diabetes course 6 months later - I went on the DAFNE course for people with Type 1, 12 years after my diagnosis. Unlike other conditions, because the way diabetes affects us differs so much, we are the experts in our condition not HCPs.

Is your son-in-law interested in joining a forum?
There is this one or the Diabetes UK one (which I find has slightly greater Type 1 bias).
 
Oh, that could've gotten so bad, so fast.... I'm glad he got help! I know, it's not as extensive as it could have been, maybe, but I agree with @In Response : they might not have wanted to overload him. A diagnosis can be traumatic, and then everything just goes in one ear and out the other anyway, more often than not. So they might've just given him some time to process his condition and the close call he had with both high blood sugars and ketones present. But odds are he will get more information, sooner, than your T2 daughter, as he'll need to manage the shots, and those really need to be done right.

I am so relieved he got the insulin he needed, and before things got too bad to come back from. And yeah, do invite him over to the forum. I'm useless for T1's and other variants, but a lot of people here will be able to assist him just fine. Not just with the practical stuff, but also with the emotional consequences. (In other words, is he wants to vent, this is an excellent place to! )

Hugs,
Jo
 
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