Husband diagnosed this week, type 2, they said his blood sugar reading was 16 and he had low Ferritin. We went back today to the nurse and got leaflets and a diet talk - but she didnt know anything about the iron. Should I buy him iron pills ? Is this common with diabetes ? He also has pernicious anaemia & heart disease, but he has never had low iron in blood tests before.
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low ferritin
- Thread starter MING
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sugarless sue
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Get him to go to the GP and discuss this and if necessary the GP will prescribe iron tablets for him.Please do not go buying tablets without discussion with the GP!!
He's being difficult :mrgreen: had a bit of tantrums from him this week , he isnt handling this at all well. So he says today he doesn't care about his ferritin and he isn't going back because he's had enough of doctors.. :evil: I will phone the doc myself & explain all !
Spiral
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An observation... I did say on another post that you husband had to do most of the work with his diabetes (and his general health for that matter) himself. While I still believe that this is true - he has to get with the program otherwise he will do all kinds of things to sabotage your efforts while running you in to the ground (been there, done it, got the t-shirt) he does need some time to get to grips with this information and its implications.
Now, in my experience (personal and professional, as I work with people who have long term chronic illnesses) if someone really doesn't have a choice and there is a medical emergency the medics tend to say so pretty quickly. If they are discussing it with you, you probably have choices. If they are calling you to tell you that you need to get to the surgery to hospital straight away you have a medical emergency.
Your husband has been diagnosed with is a long term chronic health condition with very poor outcomes if he does not take some responsibility for managing it. Your rushing around and trying to solve all the problems isn't going to take any of his conditions away. He may need a bit of time to get his head around this news. In the meantime you are worried sick and working yourself in to the ground, which does not help anyone in the longer term.
You can't make him take the tablets, even by putting them in front of him and standing over him. This is what my dad used to do, my mum would get the stuff out and put them in front of him and at breakfast and at lunch time they would often still be there :? :roll: :cry:
I'd say that his being difficult about this is a pretty normal response to news that brings him face to face with his own mortality. His health problems do have an impact on you, and I'd say it is entirely reasonable for you to want to talk about this. It is great that you are so supportive as that will help him to manage them, but you can't make the decisions for him.
As a carer (what you are doing is caring), you need support too. Looking after someone is stressful and we sometimes try to make it better by getting really involved and trying to make it all better. I have found that talking to the doctors about the difficulties sometimes helps them to use a differnt approach to treatment, the doctor can also make sure you get the right support, especially if caring has an impact on your health - when I was caring my sleeping patterns went completly out of the window.
Now, in my experience (personal and professional, as I work with people who have long term chronic illnesses) if someone really doesn't have a choice and there is a medical emergency the medics tend to say so pretty quickly. If they are discussing it with you, you probably have choices. If they are calling you to tell you that you need to get to the surgery to hospital straight away you have a medical emergency.
Your husband has been diagnosed with is a long term chronic health condition with very poor outcomes if he does not take some responsibility for managing it. Your rushing around and trying to solve all the problems isn't going to take any of his conditions away. He may need a bit of time to get his head around this news. In the meantime you are worried sick and working yourself in to the ground, which does not help anyone in the longer term.
You can't make him take the tablets, even by putting them in front of him and standing over him. This is what my dad used to do, my mum would get the stuff out and put them in front of him and at breakfast and at lunch time they would often still be there :? :roll: :cry:
I'd say that his being difficult about this is a pretty normal response to news that brings him face to face with his own mortality. His health problems do have an impact on you, and I'd say it is entirely reasonable for you to want to talk about this. It is great that you are so supportive as that will help him to manage them, but you can't make the decisions for him.
As a carer (what you are doing is caring), you need support too. Looking after someone is stressful and we sometimes try to make it better by getting really involved and trying to make it all better. I have found that talking to the doctors about the difficulties sometimes helps them to use a differnt approach to treatment, the doctor can also make sure you get the right support, especially if caring has an impact on your health - when I was caring my sleeping patterns went completly out of the window.
:mrgreen: Spiral I know just what you're saying! (thankyou) If I read my post and wasn't me, :mrgreen: I would offer the same advice you just did. As long as I push he'll resist. And at our age sensible reality will triumph. I just wish it would hurry up! :mrgreen: I should step back and let him get it out of his system and then we can get on with it. But sometimes its hard to do that when there's only the two of us in here 24/7. However, I am not a nice enough person to go on liek this for long, sooner or later I'll snap and he can get on with it :twisted:
I wasn't so worried when he had the heart attacks - somehow this seems worse, bigger. I don't know why.
I wasn't so worried when he had the heart attacks - somehow this seems worse, bigger. I don't know why.
As the others suggest - you'd be best off asking the doctor about treatment rather than buying any supplements. When i had low ferritin my doctor prescribed a course of iron.
Also a lot of doctors just go on the haemoglobin and don't pay attention to ferritin but it is worth noting that some studies have been done that relate low ferritin to clinical symptoms namely tiredness.
Also a lot of doctors just go on the haemoglobin and don't pay attention to ferritin but it is worth noting that some studies have been done that relate low ferritin to clinical symptoms namely tiredness.
Spiral
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MING said::mrgreen: Spiral I know just what you're saying! (thankyou) If I read my post and wasn't me, :mrgreen: I would offer the same advice you just did. As long as I push he'll resist. And at our age sensible reality will triumph. I just wish it would hurry up! :mrgreen: I should step back and let him get it out of his system and then we can get on with it. But sometimes its hard to do that when there's only the two of us in here 24/7. However, I am not a nice enough person to go on liek this for long, sooner or later I'll snap and he can get on with it :twisted:
I wasn't so worried when he had the heart attacks - somehow this seems worse, bigger. I don't know why.
Because it is a long term chronic condition with very negative publicity. Only lazy greedy fat people who don't take care of themselves get T2, they have only themselves to blame, or at least that is what you'd think if you read the media. Also, the NHS has very low expectations of a diabetic's ability to change his/her behaviour and they paint a very negative picture, even if you do change your behaviour. Hardly motivating, a recipe for comfort eating, I'd say.
There is a school of though that says hunger and weight gain are symptoms of diabetes rather than the cause, the cause being your very poor choice in grandparents. This is the school I belong to, it is a far gentler approach, and I think it helps people to to take control, at least it has helped me take control. Especially if you understand the basic science (high blood sugar causes the damage that lead to the complications), and you can get some fairly immediate results by reducing your blood sugar.
I don't buy in to the inevitable progression of diabetes all the while increasing my medication and eventually going on to insulin. This is why I chose to bring my blood sugar readings under my control through adapting my diet.
Other pointers to improving health for me (in only 3-4 months) have been a reduction in the number of headaches I get - I was almost always taking paracetamol by mid-afternoon before diagnosis, weight loss and improved posture and higher energy levels and the hearburn and reflux have also gone.
I found the other members of this website and http://www.bloodsugar101.com helped me turn my diagnosis around. Caring is a hard job, be gentle with yourself.
