My son was diagnosed at age 18 - not a great time to be told to limit alcohol and sugar etc! Since diagnosis he's very rarely had a reading of less than 25; mostly his monitor simply says 'high', indicating that his blood/sugar level is too high for the monitor to read. He's become more and more disillusioned with the whole 'eating sensibly' thing, as it really doesn't seem to make a difference, and is now in the mind-set that diabetes will kill him, so why should he bother looking after himself.
He has regular hospital appointments, and his consultant tells him his levels need to be lower (let's face it, he knows this already!) but otherwise he's offered very little support from the medics. He was offered a DAFNE course, but not locally; he works full time and was unable to take the time off at the time the course was offered (he rents a house and wouldn't get paid for the week off, so worried about his cash-flow!)
Just to add a further complication, he occasionally develops allergies to insulin, so something that works one week may suddenly stop working the next, making him feel very ill in the process.
Recently I've noticed that he's turning his back more and more on the fact that he has diabetes; his friends tell me that he's no longer testing, often doesn't take his insulin, and apparently has missed hospital appointments. I challenged him about this, and he simply said 'what's the point?'.
I'm terrified that he'll be found in a coma or worse, but when I try to talk to him about looking after himself, he becomes angry, and simply won't discuss the subject with me.
Has anyone else had similar experiences? I'd really appreciate any advice on how to support him and encourage him to look after himself.
He has regular hospital appointments, and his consultant tells him his levels need to be lower (let's face it, he knows this already!) but otherwise he's offered very little support from the medics. He was offered a DAFNE course, but not locally; he works full time and was unable to take the time off at the time the course was offered (he rents a house and wouldn't get paid for the week off, so worried about his cash-flow!)
Just to add a further complication, he occasionally develops allergies to insulin, so something that works one week may suddenly stop working the next, making him feel very ill in the process.
Recently I've noticed that he's turning his back more and more on the fact that he has diabetes; his friends tell me that he's no longer testing, often doesn't take his insulin, and apparently has missed hospital appointments. I challenged him about this, and he simply said 'what's the point?'.
I'm terrified that he'll be found in a coma or worse, but when I try to talk to him about looking after himself, he becomes angry, and simply won't discuss the subject with me.
Has anyone else had similar experiences? I'd really appreciate any advice on how to support him and encourage him to look after himself.