Diabetes and the elderly

Hello all! I have posted on other forms here at the healing well site and have always received great advice so I'd like you all to help me help my Mom!

My Mom is 82 and has been diabetic since 1997. In 2011 she was changed from Actos to Metformin and shortly after that she began having almost non stop diarrhea and until she could have a colonoscopy, her doctor took her off metformin just in case it was a factor. She was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis. While being treated for that (she's in remission now) her blood sugar was mostly normal so her dr. decided not to put her back on metformin.

I have always checked her sugar one to two times a week and while it is always over 100 it usually ranged from 113-140. There has never been a pattern of it being over 140. Since July her blood sugar has been ranging higher than normal. Only 2 readings have been over 200 in almost 3 months but her numbers have been between 130-190 these last 3 months. Mom is in pretty good health except for osteoarthritis in her knees. Due to her knees she is not nearly as active as she once was and has gained some weight. I hate for her to have to take more medicine at her age. We will probably make an appt. to see her doctor in the very near future but I would like your opinions please. I need to add that every 5-6 months she gets steriod shots in her knees for the osteoarthritis. She has not had a shot since May and I checked her BS for several days following her last shots and her BS was never over 135 at that time.

Sorry for the long overview. Thanks in advance for any tips, comments, opinions and/or advise. I welcome it all.

Thank you for your reply, Lanie. No, Mom does not check her own blood sugar. She is very forgetful too so keeping a food journal will be pretty hard for her to do! I have found out that she is eating cocoa puff cereal too much, as in 2-3 servings a day between meals! She has a really good appetite! I hate so much to deprive her of the foods she loves but I also want to make sure she stays healthy. I think she is overeating carbs. Her knees are painful and she will get more shots on October 7th to help with the pain. Since pain can contribute to raised blood sugar, I'm thinking about waiting until after that appointment to take her to her PCP about this.

Mom has done really well laying off high carb foods. However, I have been checking her BS prior to her eating breakfast and it has been ranging between 140-154. Changing her diet does not seem to help at this point.

Tomorrow she gets shots in her knees again for her osteoarthritis. I will check her BS during that time as often as I can. I am a bit worried about it going sky high following these shots.

As a side note, I am wondering if her cholesterol meds is whats causing her BS to be higher. If memory serves me correctly, the last time she got the shots she had only been on cholesterol meds for about a week. Her BS was never over 135 following those shots. This past April, she had a check up, blood work, etc. and while there was no concern about her BS, her cholesterol was elevated but not terribly so (I've forgot what it was). The doctor struggled with whether to put her back on the meds or not and decided to put her on a low dose generic lipitor. It has just dawned on me that may be the reason for her BS being elevated lately. Any thoughts on that?

Also, what do I do if her BS goes really high following the shots? I am waiting to take her to the doctor for BS evaluation about a week following the shots. Any words of advice would be greatly appreciated.

I'm 67 but have been diabetic since 1992. I have found as I am getting older that my medications aren't working as well as they did and I'm in the process of finding a better combination of meds. I have Crohn's disease and was given Metformin and also got diarrhea. But this is supposed to be a good medication. Other meds you can get hypoglycemia events and that happens more in the elderly. So I spoke to my doctor about how I possibly could take it.

He told me to cut the pills in half. DUH! I did and took 1/2 pill in the morning before breakfast for one week. The next week I took 1/2 in the morning and 1/2 in the evening before dinner. So far so good. The third week I took a whole pill in the morning and 1/2 in the evening and the fourth week I took a whole pill in the morning and in the evening. I didn't get diarrhea that way so you might ask her doctor about this.

Below is something I checked out when I started having my numbers go squirrelly on me. This will help explain what is happening. Then, adding steroids to the mix isn't helping matters. Hope this helps.

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"Will my diabetes get worse as I age?
C. Ronald Kahn, M.D. President and Director, Joslin Diabetes Center:Type-two diabetes is affected by processes that occur in normal aging. Part of it is we do tend to gain weight even if we don't necessarily eat more partly because we are more sedentary. And being less active, gaining a little more weight will make your body more insulin resistant. So that's part of why type two diabetic patients often see a gradual progression in their disease.
C. Ronald Kahn, M.D. (cont.):A second thing is that the pancreas is trying to compensate for this insulin resistance by making more insulin. And eventually as we get older the pancreas also is less good at compensating. It just can't always keep up with the challenge. So yes, the answer is that for people with type-two diabetes usually there is kind of a gradual decline in the ability of their body to respond and often they need additional medications as they get older. Not everybody, but some do, especially if you've had early onset type-two diabetes, this is ..you've got a longer period to go.
C. Ronald Kahn, M.D. (cont.):So we need to keep following people with type-two diabetes. You can't assume that the medicines you got two years ago will be working this year or next year. You need to keep following it, just like a type-one diabetic would monitor their sugars to a certain extent, a type-two diabetic needs to do it. Maybe not four times a day, maybe not even twice a day for every one, but they need to be monitoring it with some frequency, so that they have a sense of yes, they're on the right track, and if they're not, to do more to try to get on the right track."
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I check my blood sugar at least twice a day to see how foods are affecting me. I'm trying hard to stick with more fresh fruits and veggies but you do have to watch the fruit. Strawberries seem to work well for me but just a few grapes send my BS soaring. Along with what Lanie suggested, you might try stuffing a little celery with cream cheese....if she can eat celery. I can with my Crohn's but the UC might cause problems. Another yummy snack is take thinly sliced roast beef or chicken, spread a little whipped cream cheese on it and wrap it around an asparagus spear. You can cut these in fourths so she thinks she is getting more. And of course you can top it with Cocoa Puffs! LOL. Just kidding. LOL. It is difficult coming up with healthy snacks when you have digestive disturbances. I WILL say that your Mom is blessed to have you!

Sherrine

Good luck with the appointment. I hope everything goes smoothly. Meters! Meters are never 100% accurate 100% of the time. According to the federal agency that oversees this kind of medical equipment, meters can have up to a 10% variance in accuracy (high or low), so it's rare that we'll get the exact same reading twice in a row especially if we're using two different meters.

It's always a good idea to take the meter(s) with you to an appointment and if lab work is done for blood sugar, then test the blood sugar on your own meter at that time and then compare the results to the lab work.

I hope everything goes well.

I'm glad she has some relief for her knees. By the way, has she tried any of the pain relief cremes like Bengay? When I've had bursitis in the hips, I found that Ultra Bengay (or the generic store brand) really helped.

Good luck and I hope she's doing better.

I'm sure that's really painful. I hope the shots do give her some lasting relief.

I would have expected her blood sugar to be higher because of the shot! Great! I hope she does well now. Come back any time and keep us updated!

Welcome Kdragon09. Yes, 139 is too high for fasting, however, considering the situation here, I think they're lucky it's not higher. If you read the beginning of the thread, you know that his mom has had steroid shots for arthritis and that will always send blood sugar very high.

Kdragon, how about starting a new thread and introducing yourself!