Diabetic Mother-In-Law

[TilliamWe]

So, my mother-in-law is diabetic and has TONS of candy and sugar loaded snack cakes all over the place. On Christmas, my wife says, "Mom, why don't you check your sugar?" My MIL says, "Why?" My wife says "Because you are slurring your speech!"

And the meter says... 321!!!!!!!

So what does she eat for lunch yesterday? a 12 pack of Santa shaped chocolate covered marshmellows! Yep, slurred speech again!

So for all you diabetics out there, please don't be like my mother-in-law!

 

[Tyme2fish]

Re: Diabetic Mother-In-Law

I was diagnosed as Type I (insulin dependent) in June of 2008. The diabetic patient has to make a BIG change in eating habits.

The holidays are certainly difficult with all of those sweets and candies, cakes, and cookies all around the house. Yes, I'll indulge in ONE small cookie and then be careful of the calories and carbohydates that I consume that day.:redface:

It seems your mother-in-law needs to take or retake a diabetic education course on how to self-manage her condition.

Best of luck to her and you.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Diabetic Mother-In-Law

i agree but some just can't and won't leave it alone. i live with one. i get rid of all of it. and she sneaks the big Hershey Chocolate bars in and hides them.

 

[TilliamWe]

Re: Diabetic Mother-In-Law

Oh Tyme, what you say seems perfectly logical, but unfortunately my MIL is logic challeged! This eating is an everyday thing, not just holidays. Which diabetes is it that you get cause you are fat and eat too much? That's what she and my FIL have.

My MIL is the type of person that is extremely open to suggestion, and if she hears something once, she'll accept it as the gospel truth. Like, she only uses hand sanitizer to "wash" her hands, no soap and water!

About two years ago, I was giving my FIL and MIL a hard time about all the candy they had in the house (that they were trying to feed to my then 2 year old!), when I said "Maybe you shouldn't eat that, you are diabetic, afterall." To which my father-in-law jokingly replied, "That's okay, I'll just take two pills this time." To this day, MIL thinks that's acceptable and has said it as a fact more than once! CRAZY I tell ya!

 

[df909]

Re: Diabetic Mother-In-Law

I'm a retired firefighter/paramedic and I'd go on diabetic calls often. It amazes me how many diabetics refuse to take care of themselves. We have a family friend that has missing toes, is almost blind, and is on dialysis (kidney failure).

Not to sound like a know-it-all, but maybe some people need to be reminded about the problems associated with diabetes. With a heart attack or many strokes, when you have a problem you're dead- so you don't really have anything to worry about anymore. But...with diabetes it's a slow, unhappy death if you don't take care of yourself. I bet some pictures of recent toe/leg amputations might help.

On the other hand, my MIL has diabetes that's hard to control, but she's doing great. Good luck to all of you.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Diabetic Mother-In-Law

do not let kids or grand kids ride with them when driving, just let them endanger themselves and the rest of the world. many diabetics get pull over for suspected DUI.

 

[captmello]

Re: Diabetic Mother-In-Law

I have type 2, so I do not take insulin. I don't know what pills your inlaws are on but I take a couple different pills each day. I am 39 and not overweight. I have to constantly resist temptation or I will suffer as I get older.

Diabetes runs in my family. If cancer hadn't killed him, My grandfather would have lost his foot from not watching his diet and testing his glucose levels. He died at 61. He was one of the good guys, however he didn't take care of himself.

At some point diabetes will catch up with your inlaws and they will start loosing limbs, organs, and die. And there isn't much you can do about it.

Diet, by the way, isn't the only thing. You also need exercise.

I think a diabetic education class is a great idea. I took one and it was very helpful.

Sadly, as you know, you can lead a horse to water...

 

[df909]

Re: Diabetic Mother-In-Law

That's a good point about not driving with someone that has uncontrolled diabetes. I've gone on many persuits that ended up being a person with a blood sugar of 40 that had no idea why they were in handcuffs and had no idea why their car had flat tires and little spikes poking out of them.

There's really no difference in the way a drunk and a person with a diabetic emergency drive.

 

[TilliamWe]

Re: Diabetic Mother-In-Law

Thanks for the driving warnings. I wouldn't trust my MIL behind the wheel if I checked her sugar level myself!

I don't give my FIL a hard time about the candy now, and really haven't, cause he was diagnosed with colon cancer almost 8 years ago at age 48, and has been Stage 4 for 6+ years. He'll be leaving us before spring, as he is bed ridden now and stopped seeking treatment for the cancer (it spread to and camped out in his lungs starting in about 2003) over a year ago. So if he wants to slip into a diabetic coma as his last act, I am all for it!

My MIL is only 56 years old, gets NO exercise and eats like a 10 year old kid when their parents are away. My parents are 67 and 64 respectively and would have run circles around my in-laws even when the in-laws were only 45! It's very sad. My wife is losing her dad, who she is taking care of, and then her mother doesn't even try to take care of herself. I have a bad feeling that me wife will be the one who has to care for her mother when she starts falling apart.

Sorry for the whine fest guys, but it's been about 8 weeks of my wife at their house 7 days a week, 8 hours a day. It's getting rough, and then to see my MIL just be so stupid, well it pisses me off!

 

[DocJones]

Re: Diabetic Mother-In-Law

That's a good point about not driving with someone that has uncontrolled diabetes. I've gone on many persuits that ended up being a person with a blood sugar of 40 that had no idea why they were in handcuffs and had no idea why their car had flat tires and little spikes poking out of them.

There's really no difference in the way a drunk and a person with a diabetic emergency drive.

I worked in Nephrology for 14 years. About 70% of my dialysis patients were diabetics. When I had a patient that was flagrently non-compliant, I would take them one of the dialysis units to talk to some of the patients. Tough Love, but the message was received loud & clear. Find a unit near your home, call them, and I'll bet they'll agree to a tour. If there's any problems, ask her Doctor to set it up. Good luck,
Doc

 

[thefairlaneman]

Re: Diabetic Mother-In-Law

Yo A person can require insulin that has type 11...Type 11 is the kind you develope and can sometimes can not be treated with pills. At that point they still have type 11. I am surprised anyone with diabetes wouldnt know the differance.

 

[JB]

Re: Diabetic Mother-In-Law

Most non-diabetics have no idea what type 2 can do to destroy quality in one's life.

Elderly persons are at least tempted to sometimes partially defy it and agree to a shortened, but higher quality life.

Drastic changes in lifestyle, diet and exercise are hard to make but wise management of each and a bottomless pocketbook can make an otherwise miserable life at least tolerable.

If you think that Medicare parts B and D take care of everything you clearly don't understand.

 

[eaglejim]

Re: Diabetic Mother-In-Law

Well this thread hits home on a couple different levels,first I have been a diabetic (type 2) for 11 years,I walk 3to 4 miles almost everyday I take vitamins only cut out meat(for the most part)when I was told about my condition I weighed 230lbs and this year I have stayed between 177 and 183 mrseagle leads this horse to water everyday it is tuff but well worth it but you got to want it,if MIL doesn't want to feel good their nothing you can do.
Mrseagle lost her mother last year due to the reason we are talking about(and other stuff) and it started out she was over there in the mornings and 7 years later there were nights she did not come home or she was going over at 2am and she was there on her last day on earth trying to give mouth to mouth,and just like you the had every bad food in the house and her Dad to this day has jelly beans,cookies,pies etc all over the place,and then he gets to shoot up to try to even it out,so now every morning she goes over to make sure he is alive.It is sad to watch all this but it does motivate me not to become anything like them.

 

[TilliamWe]

Re: Diabetic Mother-In-Law

...It is sad to watch all this but it does motivate me not to become anything like them.

I hope my wife finds the same motivation, cause she is well on her way, too, unfortunately!

Thanks for the info all. A good read.

When my FIL dies (within 2 months, I am guessing) my wife already has her doctor on alert to begin testing her for dementia and getting this diabetes under control. She has not really talked to her doctor in about 4 years, because she and my FIL do "couples appointments". So by the time the Stage 4 colon cancer patient with chronic pain from the 6 lung surgeries gets done, she either forgets to tell the Dr. her ills, or just hides it from him.
Where are we leading this horse again?

 

[SuzukiChopper]

Re: Diabetic Mother-In-Law

I have said this before and I will keep on saying it over and over and over and over again to anyone that has Type 2 diabetes. GO ON INSULIN!!!!

Type 1 diabetics are already insulin dependent because type 1 is complete pancreas shutdown. With type 2, your pancreas still produces small amounts of insulin and if you're disciplined enough you can still control your sugars with either diet/exercise alone, or diet/exercise/pills. They key word being DISCIPLINED. I was diagnosed type 2 and for the first couple years had a tough time keeping things under control. Jumped hard in to exercise and diet and lost over 100lbs while building muscle mass. Still didn't help. Fact of the matter is that your pancreas still will completely shut down if you don't give it the help it needs.

I finally went to my nurse/coach/teacher and said that I wanted to go on insulin because not only was I taking so many damn pills I was sometimes forgetting a dose here and there, but I also wanted some freedom in my life to still enjoy candy/ice cream/pastas/etc here and there. It also turned out to be CHEAPER and I'm on the expensive crap (novo rapid and levemir). I ended up getting basic advice on what I should be doing, just like when I was taking pills.... but they forgot to mention about becoming sick and after a week of having a boil (infection) that was the size of a kids fist, I ended up in ICU for a week and was told that if I had gone to sleep that Friday night, or waited 3 more hours to go to ER... I would have been dead.

My first question when I was able to think again was "but I was feeling so crappy, I never ate anything.... why do I need to take insulin?". I got schooled and learned a ton. I think the most profound thing the one nurse said to me after I asked her if I could take too much insulin and cause my body more harm was.... "How much insulin does the pancreas produce in a normal human to overcome sugar spikes?"... "I don't know", I said.... "Exactly, neither do Doctors", was her response. For some reason Type 2 diabetics have this built in fear of going on insulin because it makes them feel like they failed. This is caused by Doctors early on wanting to keep them on pills, not going the insulin router, and making it seem like it would be a failure to end up on insulin. My thoughts, GET OVER IT!!!!

My Aunt and one Uncle (different sides of the family) were diagnosed with Type 2 and two years after I started on insulin, I tried to convince them to re-think what they were doing. They never did and this year my Aunt had a stroke/heart attack while driving and the Doctor finally forced her to at least start taking the slow acting insulin. The fast acting is next for her. My uncle had the same thing happen because he hasn't been able to control his sugars.

Sorry for the long rant but this is something that I am adamant about and I want to see all diabetics of every age live the life they should be living and not have this disease make it any worse for themselves. Personally, my next goal is to go on an insulin pump and now that I'm 100% sober and will not EVER drop back to drinking every day ever again, I'm going to lose some weight!!! To conclude, insulin is a naturally occurring substance in every single person's body (that doesn't have diabetes), which is a whole lot more then can be said about those damn pills the Doctors try and feed us early on.

 

[eaglejim]

Re: Diabetic Mother-In-Law

Well SuzukiChopper all I can say is some people do have the discipline to fight diabetes I myself are one of those people and will fight not to ever go on insulin every case is different and I guess it depends on what you can live without and that list is long can't remember the last time I had icecream (the real stuff) or a regular glass of milk or an oreo heck it has been 2 years since I have had hamburger.Just changing your eating habits and a lot of exercise can help out a lot.Last year I lost a friend to this and he never changed a thing, ate what he wanted took his meds and he was gone at the ripe old age of 53 so that must not work either.This is just from my experience and everyone is different

 

[TilliamWe]

Re: Diabetic Mother-In-Law

... everyone is different

But we all agree that a sedentary 56 year old woman with a sugar level of 300+ shouldn't be eating chocolate covered marshmellows for lunch and taking two pills at dinner?!

 

[eaglejim]

Re: Diabetic Mother-In-Law

Agreed,I guess you need to lock her cabinets :redfaceutside of that freewill thing,changing is hard to do and so is watching

 

[wajajaja02]

Re: Diabetic Mother-In-Law

THERE ARE SOME GOOD MEDS AVAILABLE FOR THOSE WHO ARE COMPLIANT WITH their DIABETES MEDS, AND THERE IS A SURGICAL CURE.
byetta for type 2 will help you loose weight and levels out the curve of your blood sugar, you take it with your glugophage, it works. very well but it is expensive... 280 a month b4 insurance. been on it for 3 years and my a1c is perfect 6.25 and I dont diet, and I lost 50 lbs.
/Again for the compliant, type 2, insulin or not there is the DS or duenal switch surgery, this is a weight loss procedure, but it malasorbs and changes the hormonal system to the effect of curring diabetes, this has been proven over a 20 period, to qualify you need to be 100lbs overweight. I will have this surgery in July just to cure my diabetes.
anyone wishing more info feel welcome to email me.

 

[HondaPower]

Re: Diabetic Mother-In-Law

My MIL was a type 1 diabetic and would eat what ever she liked, mostly sweets. She died at age 59, what a waste. She was a fantastic person with a great sense of humor, but decided she would live her life her way. We tried relentlessly to get her to change her ways but to no avail. For those facing a similar situation keep trying and don't give up.