Mother

[alisonz]

Can anyone here give me some advice/tips on whats what please?
My mum is on insulin and was taken into hospital last week (not D related) and my brother informs me they are giving her insulin 4 times a day. Now I am a little bit thick when it comes to T1 stuff but is this right? I assumed you had insulin when you eat, or around then, sory if this shows my ignorance but I'm just trying to understand why she would need it 4 times.
Any help/tips/advice/information is greatly appreciated.

 

[Northerner]

If she is being given insulin with her meals ( fast acting insulin to cover the carbs in food she eats) she'll also need a slow-acting insulin that will deal with her liver's output of glucose, so it's perfectly normal - it's what I do every day 🙂

Hope she is out of the hospital soon and recovers well 🙂

 

[margie]

I would say it depends on what your mothers normal insulin routine is.

Is your Mum type 1 then as Northerner says we would have a background injection once or twice a day and then short acting insulin with food.

Type 2s have insulin too and their regime can be different some just inject background.

I would expect that your Mother's insulin injections to be the same number as she has at home - do you know how many she normally has?

 

[alisonz]

Thanks for that Alan its put my mind more at rest. Apparently mother doesn't seem to have been doing that and my brother has been "doing his nut" because this is what the hospital have been doing.
I have been trying to contact her doctor with no success and wanted to show that I do know roughly about it before I ask them if this is what they have been doing.
Have to say I worried when she was first taken in as she kept saying she couldn't walk. I'm very conscious of D related leg and feet problems but this doesn't seem to be the problem in this case thank goodness.
At least tomorrow I won't appear too ignorant now

 

[alisonz]

Margie thanks 🙂 It seems maybe another wrong assumption from me (you'd think I'd know by now lol) I have a feeling mother is T2 on insulin. To be honest she plays on any illness and "us girls" tend to tune her out. Its only because my brother is kicking up about it that we feel we ought to ask and see whats what.

 

[trophywench]

They are likely to be using whatever means are expedient to keep her BG 'in range' Alison.

If your BG isn't 'in range' then you ain't going to fight or heal any concerrent illness. As Northie says. 4 jabs a day. Some take 5. Normal. But even Northie would be on a sliding scale ie a medical-type insulin pump if he had to have an op with a general anaesthetic.

When your BG is too high, especially when it's caused by illness rather than a miscalculation in prior dosage - it DOES need extra insulin to bring it down again too. eg normal background insulin, normal bolus insulin for whatever you eat, plus 10% of yesterdays total insulin administered every 2 hours, or 3 x as much as you'd normally have when your BG increases above X or Y. (Just a couple of odd examples there, to illustrate the point - not 'Your mother will need'.)

I'm sure you'll find whatever they're doing is being done in Mum's best interests - NOT to make her worse!