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Joined to help my Uncle

T

tenkai

Member
Messages
5
Type of diabetes
Family member
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi All

I've joined as last year my wifes uncle suffered a diabetic coma, he was at the time undiagnosed and undergoing no treatment. Since the incident last year late feb/early march) he has gone from injecting insulin to needing no insulin and being told he is pre diabetic.

However, before this incident he has suffered with depression and also health anxiety. He has not addressed these issues and turns to my wife and I for help. We have helped as much as we can (I myself suffer from depression and am on medication and counselling but am well on the mend at the moment). We have shown him this site but he hasnt even looked at it. We have found him local support groups and councillors, he hasn't used any. We don't know where to turn as he won't help himself and seems to fixate and wallow in his sugar levels.

He was recently at the hospital for a check up and told by the person he saw that he is not diabetic, that he is pre diabetic, and that he should not be testing him self as often as he does. Recently he was checking as much as 32 times in 2 days! I think his health anxiety is taking control and he is fixating on his levels. He has drastically lost weight and is now starting to look gaunt. He rang my wife this morning and said "my sugar levels are through the roof". When we ask him what they are, he says "they were 9 this morning but now down to 5.7". Same thing yesterday, we had 2 family partys at the weekend, one each day. He ate cake, we went for a curry, he ate what he wanted. Then yesterday he tells us his levels are "through the roof" and they we 13 in the morning and down to 5.7 at lunch.

So I have joined here to get some help and advice on how to best help him!

Thanks for listening!
 
Hi and welcome, hmmmm this seems a bit of a difficult situation, can you get hold of more of his readings the best testing regime is first thing in the morning and just before food and 2 hours after eating. Then we would get a better idea of his readings. ALS can you post what he eats in an average day.


Sent from my iPad
 
HI Crimsonclient,

I appreciate the response, I will try and get as much information as I can, I also going to try and get him to keep a food diary along with his readings. I spoke to him a moment ago and his reading of 9 was when he first woke this morning and has since had a bowl of porridge and a ham sandwich for lunch. I know the more information we get the better, so I will try and keep his readings and meals and update them on here.

Thanks again,
Al.
 
A glucose level of 13, especially if a fasting level sounds definitely diabetic. I am not sure how that would then drop to just 5,7 before lunch in a diabetic who is not on medication. Could it be that the 13 count was after rather than before breakfast. Even so I would probably consider it unacceptably high.

Have you seen these readings yourself or just been told about them by the uncle?

The uncle's behavior is not entirely rational/ sensible. He is obsessing about testing sugar levels but you state that he will help himself to cake etc, I,e the sort of food that will cause him to go high

One of the arguments put forward by doctors against issuing glucose meters to t2 diabetics is that testing may cause increases in anxiety. I would not normally agree with them but perhaps in someone with existing anxiety issues like your uncle they may have a point.
Perhaps his depression is the reason for his behavior.

First thing to do is to establish if he really is only prediabetic or if he is in fact already diabetic. His doctors will be able to carry blood tests to establish this.

Either way your uncle will need to take action to limit his glucose levels
- dietary changes, particularly reducing carbohydrate intake.
- increases to physical activity help
- as will loss of any excess weight, though you state that he is not overweight.

I would normally advise testing blood glucose levels early in the morning and before and after each meal to educate himself on how his body responds to varying types and quantities of foods.

I am not sure how helpful the above is but I wish you the best

Pavlos




Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
Just going on the readings so far I would say he is diabetic but I'm no hcp, the things you have planned on starting is a good idea then we can help with diet and other advice however different people have different ways on here and there is no right way or wrong way, it all depends on the individual


Sent from my iPad
 
Hi All,

Ive just spoken to my uncle again, and this is one of the problems I have, he rings my wife and says his sugars are "sky high", she asks him and he says his waking sugars are 9, when I ask him is he sure, he checks the machine and "oh no" they were actually 7.7.

So, the readings I got out of him were;

sunday evening 13, (this is after eating a large curry, cream cupcakes, other party food)(PS this is not his normal diet)(and no alcohol, he never drinks)

then before bed sunday 7

then monday morning 7

monday mid morning 5.8

tea time 5.2

this morning 7.7

before porridge this morning 6.2

I will try and and get more accurate timings and food diary out of him.

Thanks again
Alex.

 
Hes using a freestyle lite, I had a sneaky look earlier! His bloods this afternoon were 3.2!
 
3.2 that is a hypo!!! I'm not at all familiar with that meter can it be connected to a PC?


Sent from my iPad
 
Apologies, its an abbott freestyle optimum, i think it can be connected to a computer from my web searching. my uncle reckons his bloods went form 3.2 to 5.2 within 30 mins this afternoon, is this possible? Im sorry for all the confusion, but this is the info Im getting!
 
I'm going to presume your uncle has a laptop or PC get him the connecting kit so he can download all his readings and there is normally an email info tab somewhere on the software and get him to email it to you on a daily basis so you can keep an eye on things better


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