My mother has a plethora of health problems, most of them stemming from bad choices — high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and Type II diabetes. She has to self-monitor the blood pressure and check her sugar every morning.
So, last week she goes in for blood work so the doctor’s office can keep an eye on how she’s doing. Before her appointment she checks and her sugar is good at 124. She goes on to the doctor. They draw blood but the urine sample isn’t forthcoming so they send her home with a little cup. After lunch the cup goes back and later that afternoon she meets with her doctor. Doc tells her that her blood sugar level reading is 190 and they’ll need to consider insulin injections. Mother has the freak out and I must agree that things are heading south when she’s looking at daily injections instead of that nice little pill she pops now.
“I told him we’re not even going to talk about those shots. I don’t want to do those shots.”
He gave her two weeks of monitoring the blood sugar levels twice a day and then he’d meet with her again. I explained that he’s not trying to upset her or be mean. I then went into my rah-rah spiel about how it wasn’t up to me or him or anyone else, but it was really up to her. I suggested exercising more than she has been and keeping a closer eye on her food choices and blah, blah, blah. I should just make a tape of myself and play it back for her periodically since we have this conversation…oh, maybe once a month. And I did ask her what she had for lunch and it was the same thing they have every day, a ham sandwich.
She says she doesn’t understand how the reading went from 124 (hers) to 190 (theirs) and quite frankly I’m a little stumped by this as well. It really doesn’t make a lot of sense to me but I tell her to just keep monitoring it daily and if it was a mistake and her numbers look good it will all be a moot point, the doc will drop the injections issue and she can keep taking her pill.
But she cannot let it go. She calls me once a day for the next five days, worrying this like a dog with a bone, sure that somewhere along the way they came up with a faulty reading. She thinks they mixed her results up with someone else’s. The tech reading it read it wrong. They wrote the info in the chart wrong. 
She even calls the doctor’s office to talk about this but they, mercifully, are closed.
I tell her she’s driving me crazy, herself crazy and now she’s about to start on driving her doctor’s staff crazy. THEN she asks me to call my friend who is an RN and ask her if they take the blood sugar readings from the blood work or the urine sample. Hmmm. And this would be a critical question, why?
“Well, after I left his office that morning when they drew the blood, I did stop by McDonald’s and got me a sausage biscuit and an apple pie. And then I had a glass of apple juice.”
For a diabetic with high cholesterol and high blood pressure this translates to the following equation: White bread + high fat + high sodium + more white bread + sugar + more sugar = disaster.
“And you ate this before the urine sample?”
“Well, yes.”
“And you got a sausage biscuit AND an apple pie…why?”
When she answers her tone is a mix of defiance and exasperation, as if I’m a simpleton. “Because I wanted both of them.”
:wallbash::wallbash::wallbash::wallbash:
For five days she’s managed not to mention this little salient fact. It wasn’t that she hadn’t told me the truth, she just hadn’t told me the whole truth…the part that put the responsibility back at her feet. :cursing::fryingpan:
“Well, I think that solves that mystery, don’t you?”
You are some kind of saint. Don’t you just want to let your mom have it with both barrels? I would have went off the deep end. I do understand how it is, trust me. My mom has taken sides with my niece recently over an incident and my brothers & sisters are on the other side. It’s not a pretty picture right now. Anywhos, have a grand Tuesday. :thumbsup:
Comment by Ginger — July 24, 2007 @ 6:49 am
Jen, you need to call her doctor and find out what her A1C level is. (It’s a 3 month average, so it tells the overall state of your levels–not just what it’s been after you’ve had an apple pie.
Comment by Rhonda — July 24, 2007 @ 7:50 am
You’re a saint, Jen. I’d have moved and not left a forwarding address by now. But ultimately it IS her choice to make lifestyle changes or keep on with the sausage biscuits and end up with injections.
Comment by Marilyn — July 24, 2007 @ 8:27 am
Ginger and Marilyn, I am far removed from sainthood. Food is to her what a drink is to an alcoholic. I just get exasperated.
Rhonda, I’ll definitely write that down and have it checked.
Comment by Jennifer — July 24, 2007 @ 8:52 am
Its amazing how many people wander around thinking juice is a healthy beverage and a sausage biscuit (we won’t even touch the apple pie) is a smart way to start off the morning. Fresh squeezed juice, maybe, but that concentrated stuff they give you at most restaurants is apple flavored sugar syrup.
My grandfather, god rest his soul, was too stubborn to take his medicine or watch his diet. My grandmother didn’t help, either. After having severe diabetes, both legs amputated, kidney failure, and dialysis several times a week, he’d still eat pie. (Grandma brought it to him, of course, shame on her, but he’d nag her if she didn’t.) I guess at that point, it was a “why not?” but he had so many chances to make it better and wouldn’t.
Its all about choices. All the nagging in the world won’t make them change their ways if they’re not ready to.
Comment by Andrea — July 24, 2007 @ 9:08 am
Jen, my husband worked for the company that developed the inhaled insulin. While getting it under control with diet and exercise is the better choice…if she isn’t willing or able to do that you might ask her doctor about that choice. It isn’t for everyone but…
Comment by Kira — July 24, 2007 @ 10:07 am
You’re right, Andrea, nagging doesn’t help. I should know. I’ve elevated it to an art form. :fryingpan:
That’s good info, Kira. I’ll mention it to her.
Comment by Jennifer — July 24, 2007 @ 12:14 pm
Juice is not good. It raises your blood sugar quick. That’s why, when you have a LOW blood sugar attack, that’s what they give you to bring it up quickly. Not to mention the pie and biscuit.
Give a pitch to her about fiber. When I was type II and I ate beans and other high-fiber foods that take a long time to digest, I could tell the difference in my bg readings. See if you can convince her to take that ham, dice it, cook it up in a pot of beans and have THAT for lunch instead of a sandwich.
Comment by Raven Hart — July 24, 2007 @ 4:52 pm
RH, at the risk of sounding uber negative, at 73 and 81, they are creatures of habit. They have a low-sugar cereal and skim milk for breakfast every morning at the same time. Lunch is a low-sodium ham and cheese sandwich on sugar-free wheat bread at high noon. Supper is the only real variant.
Comment by Jennifer — July 24, 2007 @ 8:41 pm