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Poorly mum

BlooTwo

BlooTwo

Member
Very worried about my poorly mum. Wasn't sure quite where to post this, but ...
My mum was diagnosed with Type 2 16 years ago and has always managed her condition very well. She had never spent a day in hospital in her life, until last week, when she was admitted (age 85) with sudden onset of severe heart failure, renal damage and unstable diabetes - blood sugars had been up in the 30's over the course of a week or so..
They've struggled to stabilise her blood sugar this week, and put her on Humulin 1 15 units at night. She's not eating anything at all, and just having a glassof milk daily, instead of meals. Blood sugars are still running at the 15mmol mark.
Surely, the minute she were to eat anything, this would go up significantly?
The nurses keep trying to make her eat something, but she has zero appetite. Yesterday one fed her a dessert, which sent her blood sugar off the scale again.
Today a nursing assistant tried to force a pot of fruit puree on her. This seems to be asking for big trouble to me, no? Surely they shouldn't be giving her stuff like that?
 
At her age they should really give her anything that she is willing to eat.

I think stabilising her heart problems are more important in the short term than worrying too much about BG levels.

Clinical guidelines for BG control are remarkably relaxed once you get into your 80s.

At the moment I am with the nurses. Unless your Mum has significant fat reserves to coast along on then she needs to eat something and anything which she finds tasty is a good bet. Desserts are usually a good bet because they are easy to eat and can be acceptable to people who feel too ill to even contemplate a main meal.

Counter intuitively, if she starts eating almost anything then her BG should stabilise. Not eating tends to send the body into panic mode. If they can encourage her to eat then they can match what she eats with insulin. T1s do this their whole life.

Deepest sympathy for you and your Mum; it is very hard when someone is taken into hospital. However I wouldn't worry too much about what they are offering her. If you know any foods which are her special favourite then you could bring them in for her and encourage her to eat them.

There are some nice things for T2s like sugar free jelly and double cream which can be a treat, easy to eat for an invalid, and also good for BG control.

Somewhere here is a recipe for truffles which are 70% dark chocolate, double cream and butter. Very moreish, and also very diabetic friendly. I will dig the recipe out and edit it into this post.

Edit: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/182606/chocolate-truffles which are indecently good with very little sugar. Mostly cocoa and fat.
 
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Really feel for you. I’ve got an 87 year old diabetic mum who has increasingly poor kidney function and dread her being hospitalised again, Trouble is that they don’t seem to be able to feed diabetics properly do they? In addition they are probably trying to offer food that they think may be easier to eat and to tempt her.
I know it’s difficult but probably most important thing is to get her medically stabilised and th3n worry about her food.
When mum spent three weeks in hospital as she improved and got some appetite back I used to bring her in treats to fill her up and not affect her bgs such as full fat yoghurt,soups in flask, sugar free jellies cheese and good quality chocs etc. She didn’t enjoy the hospital food.
Sending you a hug it’s a difficult place to be in but try not to be too concerned about the diet angle they will monitor her bgs and here’s wishing her a good recovery.
 
I see. Thank you both very much for the reassurance and kind thoughts. I just panicked when I saw the fruit puree today, but she refused to even contemplate it anyway..
Mum is actually very poorly from the heart perspective and it doesn't look good for the longer term, so I suppose in the scheme of things the BG is low priority anyway.
She has no appetite, absolutely zero, and is refusing everything offered - I had already tried tempting little things that she would normally love, but she can't face anything at all and actually, she's even gagging on her tooth brush when she cleans her teeth. It's very distressing for the family, as you can imagine.
 
Berries can also be good. Blueberries and strawberries are easy to eat, moist and tasty, and not too high in sugar.

You know your Mum best, so think of things to tempt her. A variant on the traditional cheese and pineapple on a cocktail stick could be a bit of cheese with a strawberry. Pork scratchings and nuts might be harder to eat.

Best of luck!

Edit: just seen your response. Is she drinking? One thing that people may miss is that diet drinks like Slimfast do contain an awful lot of goodness. As they are designed to replace food, they have all sorts of good stuff in them so mixed with milk or water they can bee a very good supplement.

So if she is drinking milk every day then mixing in some Slimfast (or equivalent) could give her a boost.

There is always Guinness as well which used to be a staple for new mothers at one time. I remember my wife being given this after the birth of our two.

Edit 2: might a small nip of alcohol (whisky or brandy for example) settle her stomach and encourage her to eat? I find it helps to cure nausea for me (well, that is my excuse and I'm sticking to it!).

Edit 3: (I will stop soon) If she is drinking full cream milk then she is getting a lot of goodness anyway.
 
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BlooTwo said:
I see. Thank you both very much for the reassurance and kind thoughts. I just panicked when I saw the fruit puree today, but she refused to even contemplate it anyway..
Mum is actually very poorly from the heart perspective and it doesn't look good for the longer term, so I suppose in the scheme of things the BG is low priority anyway.
She has no appetite, absolutely zero, and is refusing everything offered - I had already tried tempting little things that she would normally love, but she can't face anything at all and actually, she's even gagging on her tooth brush when she cleans her teeth. It's very distressing for the family, as you can imagine.
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Trouble is that when they are at this age they do get quite ill quite fast and take a while to get better. My mum didn’t eat for most of first week but they had her on a glucose drip maybe if your mum continues not eating they’ll replace her fluids and food this way as they did with mum which may be easier until she’s able to eat and drink again. I know they insisted she drank a certain amount before they removed the drip. I think fluids are vital take good care of yourself during these very distressing times. You could always ask if this is planned if she’s gagging so much? I know additional problem often is finding anyone to discuss things like this but it’s worth ferreting someone out and asking them.
 
They did put her on a drip last week, because 'centrally' she was dehydrated, but peripherally, she's overloaded (massive oedema), so it was taken down after a couple of litres.
As you say, very poorly, very quickly. I don't expect miracles. But it was a shock to me how quickly it all went belly up.
 
LittleGreyCat said:
Berries can also be good. Blueberries and strawberries are easy to eat, moist and tasty, and not too high in sugar.

You know your Mum best, so think of things to tempt her. A variant on the traditional cheese and pineapple on a cocktail stick could be a bit of cheese with a strawberry. Pork scratchings and nuts might be harder to eat.

Best of luck!

Edit: just seen your response. Is she drinking? One thing that people may miss is that diet drinks like Slimfast do contain an awful lot of goodness. As they are designed to replace food, they have all sorts of good stuff in them so mixed with milk or water they can bee a very good supplement.

So if she is drinking milk every day then mixing in some Slimfast (or equivalent) could give her a boost.

There is always Guinness as well which used to be a staple for new mothers at one time. I remember my wife being given this after the birth of our two.

Edit 2: might a small nip of alcohol (whisky or brandy for example) settle her stomach and encourage her to eat? I find it helps to cure nausea for me (well, that is my excuse and I'm sticking to it!).

Edit 3: (I will stop soon) If she is drinking full cream milk then she is getting a lot of goodness anyway.
Click to expand...
She's only drinking water or milk. She never drank alcohol previously, and doubt she would try it now. She just refuses everything except milk. The dessert she had yesterday made her feel very unwell, she was barely conscious by the evening.
 
BlooTwo said:
They did put her on a drip last week, because 'centrally' she was dehydrated, but peripherally, she's overloaded (massive oedema), so it was taken down after a couple of litres.
As you say, very poorly, very quickly. I don't expect miracles. But it was a shock to me how quickly it all went belly up.
Click to expand...
Take care and be kind to yourself x
 
Have you thought about ice lollies or ice pops for her to suck on? That's all my Mum could manage when she was very poorly and it helped keep her hydrated. You could try milk lollies or yoghurt lollies too
 
I'd think, with someone this ill, if there's anything she fancies to eat, let her have it. All the best to the both of you!
 
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