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Sugar level over 8.5! What's the damage!

A

aaron_mky

Member
Messages
18
Hey all,

It has been a while since I have last posted here on behalf of my mum. Long story short, my mum has been diabetic for 30 years, and 3 years ago we had a major breakthrough of omitting glicazide off her medication. Furthermore my mum had an accident (non diabetic related) where she stayed in hospital for a few days, and forced to eat a low carb diet due of the lack of diabetic choices, which consequently made her sugar level between 5 & 7 throughout the day! (Which is a good thing and made her realise that she can keep her sugar level low!)

I honestly thought the breakthroughs above would give my mum the motivation to continue losing weight and hopefully get off the medicine once and for all. ATM she is taking Metformin and aliglobin 2.5mg.

However these past few months have been quite stressful, particularly from a son's point of view, due to her not taking her diet and sugar level seriously. We are at a stage now where her sugar level is constantly over 8.5 (post meals) and sometimes hitting double digits, which she does not think is a problem and is good for a type 2 diabetic, although she experienced lower sugar level in the past. Unfortunately, her excuse is that she doesn't enjoy eating healthily and that life is short, so she wants to continue eating noodles, rice and processed meat.

I am getting to a stage where I want to give up and let my mum enjoy the rest of her life, and furthermore we have been arguing falling out a lot because of this. However I know that if I stop monitoring her, her diet will get worse.

Apologies for the long winded thread, I guess what I am asking is:


1. Is sugar level between 8.5 and 10 (post meal) acceptable for type 2 diabetes and if not, are there any videos or articles I can show to my mum on what damage it's doing to her body. The more morbid the better!

2. Am I overreacting and treating my mum harshly.

Thanks
 
Your Mum sounds very compos mentis, happy and contented.
From what you have posted your Mum appears to know what she is doing and and the directions her life will follow.
Enjoy with her the life she has and wants instead of trying to scare her into a life of possible unhappiness.
Life is short and becomes even shorter with age.
 
aaron_mky said:
1. Is sugar level between 8.5 and 10 (post meal) acceptable for type 2 diabetes and if not, are there any videos or articles I can show to my mum on what damage it's doing to her body. The more morbid the better!

2. Am I overreacting and treating my mum harshly.
Click to expand...

Well, I'm T1 so maybe not the best to judge, but while that range is higher than normal it's not that much so. As a T1 I know that the risks of complications go up with blood sugar levels, but that sort of level, for a T1, is still relatively low. (The folk who get the complications are generally running much higher, though all of these statistics are about levels of risk, rather than certainties of whether you do or don't get complications.)

How old is she and how is her non diabetic health? My T2 dad's 89 and frail and he's probably running at similar levels to your mum, and I'm not worried at all, though last christmas when he came to stay for 3 months I did get him on slightly lower carbs which has made him feel healthier and lose some weight (1.5 stone). He's mostly kept that up at home, though I'll only really find this out in a month's time. As he still wants to lose weight (a whole half stone) we'll probably continue the lower carb this coming Christmas.

But honestly, monitoring someone's diet sounds depressing and potentially destructive to your relationship. You can give her options and encourage her to go low carb but if she doesn't value the benefits then you can't really make her eat sensibly.

Good luck.
 
aaron_mky said:
1. Is sugar level between 8.5 and 10 (post meal) acceptable for type 2 diabetes and if not, are there any videos or articles I can show to my mum on what damage it's doing to her body. The more morbid the better!

2. Am I overreacting and treating my mum harshly.

Thanks
Click to expand...

How old is she?
 
aaron_mky said:
I am getting to a stage where I want to give up and let my mum enjoy the rest of her life, and furthermore we have been arguing falling out a lot because of this. However I know that if I stop monitoring her, her diet will get worse.
Click to expand...

Like you, I spent years worrying about my dad, the bars of chocolate in the fridge, the boxes of red wine, muesli and honey on toast was what he considered as a healthy breakfast.
Sadly he died last March, from a chest infection he got in hospital after being admitted for a very minor stroke, he was 92.
 
I understand where you're at with this.
My mum has had t2 for probably 25 yrs. She's now early 70s. She has a carer x4 a day. In and out of hospital. Bad control of dbts been on insulin and tablets for years.

It's really hard. She's too set in her ways to try and make her change completely. I've had to come to terms with the fact that I need to do what I can to support her, get her thinking about her diet etc but she's a grown up.
I live 2 hours from her and I can't supervise her meals etc.

All I can do is ask the right questions of both her and HCP.
 
I bet I could frighten anyone into a life of low carbing - my grandmother was type two and we moved in to live with her and my grandfather so my mother could nurse her as she spent three years in bed before she died.
It was dreadful. Absolutely dreadful.
I was only a youngster, it was over 60 years ago, but I can still remember the first couple of years. Towards the end a door was added to seal off the front of the house.
 
What's the damage?

That's impossible to answer.

I think you just have to accept her choices and how she wants to live. It is her choice after all. That doesn't make it any easier for you having to watch, but none of us want someone watching over our shoulder each time we eat something. It's not fun for her or you, I'd imagine. You just have to find a way to enjoy time together. Accept the way things are, it may or may not help to lift a burden off both of you, but you don't want it to become a wedge. Life is uncertain, unpredictable and sometimes shorter then we want it to be, but it can be fantastic at times too and those are the times to really embrace. Enjoy it while you both can.
 
aaron_mky said:
Hey all,

It has been a while since I have last posted here on behalf of my mum. Long story short, my mum has been diabetic for 30 years, and 3 years ago we had a major breakthrough of omitting glicazide off her medication. Furthermore my mum had an accident (non diabetic related) where she stayed in hospital for a few days, and forced to eat a low carb diet due of the lack of diabetic choices, which consequently made her sugar level between 5 & 7 throughout the day! (Which is a good thing and made her realise that she can keep her sugar level low!)

I honestly thought the breakthroughs above would give my mum the motivation to continue losing weight and hopefully get off the medicine once and for all. ATM she is taking Metformin and aliglobin 2.5mg.

However these past few months have been quite stressful, particularly from a son's point of view, due to her not taking her diet and sugar level seriously. We are at a stage now where her sugar level is constantly over 8.5 (post meals) and sometimes hitting double digits, which she does not think is a problem and is good for a type 2 diabetic, although she experienced lower sugar level in the past. Unfortunately, her excuse is that she doesn't enjoy eating healthily and that life is short, so she wants to continue eating noodles, rice and processed meat.

I am getting to a stage where I want to give up and let my mum enjoy the rest of her life, and furthermore we have been arguing falling out a lot because of this. However I know that if I stop monitoring her, her diet will get worse.

Apologies for the long winded thread, I guess what I am asking is:


1. Is sugar level between 8.5 and 10 (post meal) acceptable for type 2 diabetes and if not, are there any videos or articles I can show to my mum on what damage it's doing to her body. The more morbid the better!

2. Am I overreacting and treating my mum harshly.

Thanks
Click to expand...
It's not healthy... But it's not extreme either. Maybe when she gets her next eye check and they see some background retinopathy, that'll jolt her back into following a diet that is more suitable. (People tend to freak out at the prospect of going blind). But for the moment, there's not much else you can do. It's her life, her body... She decides, I'm afraid.
 
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