HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Ver Upset & Worried/Scared

Support Forums
>
Diabetes
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 4/28/2010 5:45 PM (GMT 0)
When I took my bllod sugar earlier, my mom says, "I should let you take mine! Haha!!" I had taken hers before about a year or so ago and it was normal as can be. Anyhow, I said that she really should let me take it and so I did and it was 238! I took it again to be sure and it was 220! Now my mom's trying to laugh it off, saying "well, I'd just eaten a pretzel rod and drank some coffee with coffee-mate in it." I STILL DO NOT believe this is a regular number! When a doc put me on metformin over 2 years ago, it was because I'd walked into the office with a 214 reading after drinking a coke a bit earlier!

My mom is 63 and has no health insurance. She hates doctors and feels that most of them are jerks (in some ways I agree with her, but...) She won't go to the low-cost clinic because of the way they had mistreated me (AND HOW!!!) I don't know what to do. I can not make her. I REALLY REALLY CAN'T. shakehead

I had noticed that she'd been saying at night how her feet are so hot/burny. She's lost some weight slowly...

I'm truly afraid and am so scared and it's not helping my anxiety either...that won't make her seek help either. sad

jl

Posted 4/29/2010 1:44 AM (GMT 0)
jl, as you know, high blood sugar is serious.  Your mom needs to listen to you and understand this can be harming her health in many many ways if her blood sugar is elevated like this.  Does she qualify for Medicaid?  In the meantime, let her read some of our threads here about diabetes.  She needs to understand that many people with uncontrolled high blood sugar may end up with heart disease, kidney disease, blindness, neuropathy.  Show her our stickies at the top of Diabetes for information about diet if she doesn't believe you.  Tell her you are correct to warn her about her high blood sugar.  Bring her here and let us talk to her!  I'm nearly her age, so we can have a 'talk'! 
Posted 4/29/2010 2:45 AM (GMT 0)
Tell her about my brother in law, who died from a massive heart attack at age 50 because of poorly controlled type II diabetes. Tell her about how it didn't kill him immediately, but left him in a vegetative state for a month before, mercifully, he moved on.

Your mother and I are the same age, jl. I feel like I've got a lot more good times ahead of me, and I hope she does also.
Posted 4/29/2010 6:24 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Y'all!
I took her reading this evening and it was 102. The previous test might've been faulty from the blood being in a "blood blister" on her finger. She gets them a lot and they're hard to see, but she showed it to me...
I will be taking her blood sugar readings several times over the next few days.
Believe me, if she does have diabetes, there's nothing more I can say or do to make her go to a doctor. She knows the dangers well. She wants me to do the right things for my diabetes and has conceded that she'll be more careful as to her carbs. She did pretty well today I might add. I'll let y'all know how it goes the next few days. I hope and pray for the best!
Thank you both!
jl
Posted 4/29/2010 11:46 AM (GMT 0)
It's a tough problem jl. My dad (a little older ... 81) has been a type 1 for a lot of years now. He's way overweight and been through a heart attack and a stroke but refuses to change his diet. He even advises me to go get some insulin ... then you can eat anything you want. His doctor is old school too so just ups my dad's dosage and throws a few more pills at him when he complains of low or high episodes.

It's like being tied to a tree and watching a train wreck ain't it?
Posted 4/29/2010 5:38 PM (GMT 0)
My mom's reading was 172 at noon. She'd eaten some pretzels, sugar and coffee-mate in her coffee and some popcorn cakes about an hour or so earlier. I don't know what to think anymore!
jl
PS-Thanks for all the words everyone! :)
Posted 4/30/2010 4:31 PM (GMT 0)
janetlee,
Start taking her readings before she gets out of bed in the morning. Those will be more accurate. Also, please explain to her that eating pretzels is worse than eating chocolate. There is no fat to hold off the carb absorption and the flour is ground fine and mixed with water to make a paste that starts to change into glucose as soon as it hits the saliva in her mouth. Instead of rice cakes and pretzels (actually two of the worst, high glycemic index foods other than corn flakes that she can eat) try talking her into some cheese and peanuts or peanut butter on an apple.

Another crunchy snack that she can have is cheeze crunchers. We make them from the square "cheese food" slices that you buy at the grocery store. If you put them on a piece of parchment paper and cook them in the microwave on high for about 40 seconds to a minute. They turn into crunchy squares of cheesie goodness that taste like cheese puffs and are super low carb. (Kinda high sodium but you don't need to eat 5 of them!)

Good luck with your mom.
Posted 5/2/2010 6:00 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks, Jeannie.
Her readings seemed to be in the normal range the next times I took them. Her fingers bleed so badly when they're pricked and she gets blood blisters easily. Mom is the type of person that will not look for anything wrong. In a way, I'm the same, so I can't be overly judgmental. She has a very real dislike and distrust of doctors and such. EVen if she was diagnosed with diabetes, she wouldn't do anything except eat better. No meds, etc.
So I've decided to my best not to dwell on this and leave it be. Really, I haven't much choice. But thanks to all for the words of advice and encouragement.
jl
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply