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Mums diabetes

That’s ridiculous @mumsdaughter ! She’s on insulin and she should be provided with a glucose meter so she/you can check her blood sugar and keep her safe. I suggest you phone her GP and ask to speak to the Practice Manager. You don’t have to make a complaint but you can express your concern, ask when she’ll be given a meter, etc. That should speed things up.
 
mumsdaughter said:
It shows. The info has been great.
@inkais being a wealth of knowledge. Even if at the moment it's highlighting I've been making a lot of unintentionable mistakes. Whoops. It will all be adjusted ASAP
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@Inka has a wealth of information and I 100% agree not having a means to monitor your BG if you are on insulin is madness GRRR
 
An important thing to mention is that if your mum has had high sugars for a while, normal blood sugars can feel like hypos because the body has got used to running higher and so the normal blood sugar feels ‘low’ to it. This can cause the body to falsely give the symptoms of a hypo (they’re called false hypos) which is another reason why your mum should have a glucose meter - so she/you can check if she’s actually low. In the early days of insulin use, it’s normal to do quite a few tests while you get the insulin dose right and work out what’s happening.
 
@inkai. Sorry I've not worded things well. She has a monitor. I meant the pod thing that I don't know the name of. Libra or something...I'll be asking about why we aren't testing after food tomorrow as they said only to test in-between if she thinks she's having a hypo. By that time the sweat outline and wet hair give it away though.
 
mumsdaughter said:
@inkai. Sorry I've not worded things well. She has a monitor. I meant the pod thing that I don't know the name of. Libra or something...I'll be asking about why we aren't testing after food tomorrow as they said only to test in-between if she thinks she's having a hypo. By that time the sweat outline and wet hair give it away though.
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Oh, that’s ok then. She doesn’t need a Libre (the pod thing) and a good glucose meter is sufficient. All ‘unusual’ or low results on a Libre need to be checked with a fingerprick anyway.

Yes, sweating is a definite hypo sign, but do test to check her blood sugar. If she’s actually hypo at 1.5hrs after breakfast, she either didn’t eat enough carbs and/or had too much insulin.
 
mumsdaughter said:
@inkai. Sorry I've not worded things well. She has a monitor. I meant the pod thing that I don't know the name of. Libra or something...I'll be asking about why we aren't testing after food tomorrow as they said only to test in-between if she thinks she's having a hypo. By that time the sweat outline and wet hair give it away though.
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If you/she have a compatible phone then she could apply for a free trial of a LIbre from Abbott by looking on their website. That would provide some good evidence to show the diabetic nurse as to what is going on 24/7 with your mum's glucose levels.
You should ask what her HbA1C result was.
Do you or they know what it was that triggered the deterioration in blood glucose levels that now requires insulin rather than the metformin and presumably diet.
 
Inka said:
If she’s actually hypo at 1.5hrs after breakfast, she either didn’t eat enough carbs and/or had too much insulin.
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I know what one I put my money on. Unless wheatabix and hovis have went carb free in secret...
 
Leadinglights said:
You should ask what her HbA1C result was.
Do you or they know what it was that triggered the deterioration in blood glucose levels that now requires insulin rather than the metformin and presumably diet.
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I'd never heard of that test before.... they may have mentioned it the first time around but once the doc said if she makes it until the morning she has a chance, I sort of blanked out. No idea what triggered the change. She was I ketosis I remember that as they thought at first she would have kidney problems. I actually think it may have been a kidney infection that started this all as she did end up having to get a drain put in and heavy antibiotics after she got out one time.
 
mumsdaughter said:
I'd never heard of that test before.... they may have mentioned it the first time around but once the doc said if she makes it until the morning she has a chance, I sort of blanked out. No idea what triggered the change. She was I ketosis I remember that as they thought at first she would have kidney problems. I actually think it may have been a kidney infection that started this all as she did end up having to get a drain put in and heavy antibiotics after she got out one time.
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An HbA1C test is used to diagnose diabetes, to monitor ongoing management and determine suitable medication. I would expect that she would have had that on a regular basis to make sure her medication was keeping her blood glucose at acceptable level. It measures in simple terms the average blood glucose over the previous 3 months and well managed condition the level would be below 48mmol/mol.
This is a different test from the finger prick testing which just show that moment in time and it will go up and down throughout the day and night usually in response to food and exercise but other factors as well. The range for somebody who is well managed would be 4-7 fasting and before meals and no more than 8-8.5 2 hours after meals. As you rightly say many who are Type 2 will manage their condition with diet and a variety of oral medications but for some people those do not work well enough and they may then need insulin either instead of or as well as.
People who are Type 1 will always need insulin but sometimes they may have oral meds as well, it is a very different condition being autoimmune.
Sometimes people are assumed to be Type 2 but are actually misdiagnosed and tests will show they are actually Type 1 which is not just in children or young people but can develop in mature people, I have a friend who was diagnosed as Type 1 at nearly 80 years old after treatment for 2 years as Type 2 did not work.
There are a few other situations when people will become diabetic, damage or removal of their pancreas or steroid induces diabetes and again they will have specific treatment requirements.
You may find a look at the Learning Zone (orange tab at the top) will be helpful.
I also suggest you ring the help line number at the top
 
@Leadinglights I think I'll be calling the helpline tomorrow. Wish I'd looked for this site months ago. I'll have a look around the help zone in the morning start getting my questions sorted out. Going to ask to actually physically see the diabetic nurse because I don't think the info is being passed on and from what I've read most ppl actually see a RL person. Mum is getting worried that she will get a lecture at the hospital because she's put on weight instead of losing it because she's eating constantly trying to avoid hypos. She has a heart problem they are trying to diagnose. Weight increase means another change of meds then waiting...and if the weight goes up again..another change..but the nurses don't seem to care as it's not in their scope of work.
 
mumsdaughter said:
I know what one I put my money on. Unless wheatabix and hovis have went carb free in secret...
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You wrote “she takes her insulin” in your first post. Is your mum injecting her insulin or, as implied later, are the nurses doing it? It could well be that her morning dose needs reducing. Why won’t the nurses do that? Type 2s on mixed insulin are usually given a little sheet with instructions about how to increase or decrease insulin according to specific blood glucose readings.

If they won’t reduce her dose and you/she can’t at this time, then you could move her 10.30am snack to her breakfast, making her breakfast larger and then give her a less filling mid-morning snack if needed, eg biscuits. This might help the hypos.
 
Inka said:
You wrote “she takes her insulin” in your first post. Is your mum injecting her insulin or, as implied later, are the nurses doing it?
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Mum physically does it but under supervision from the nurses. She ignores my help because I'm not diabetic and couldnt possibly understand/advise. Talked with the nurse this morning and told her I wasn't happy and said I'd be taking it further and suddenly an appointment is being made to see the diabetic nurse. They have said more than once we can't change the dose without being told to. Also this nurse said I can write in her book when she takes her hypos despite other nurses saying no I just need to inform them.....
 
mumsdaughter said:
Mum physically does it but under supervision from the nurses. She ignores my help because I'm not diabetic and couldnt possibly understand/advise. Talked with the nurse this morning and told her I wasn't happy and said I'd be taking it further and suddenly an appointment is being made to see the diabetic nurse. They have said more than once we can't change the dose without being told to. Also this nurse said I can write in her book when she takes her hypos despite other nurses saying no I just need to inform them.....
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I hope that appointment is soon but in the meantime chatting with the helpline may give you some pointers on the questions to ask. If you jot them down that can help as it is easy to forget what you want to ask and need to know.
 
I do feel for you, it sounds like the medical team are not very helpful at all! There’s some good advice here though. What struck me though, is that you were saying that your mum thinks she will be told off for putting on weight - so then between you you need to make it blatantly clear to them that if someone could just help her reduce her insulin doses, she wouldn’t need to be snacking all the time to avoid hypos, and then her weight would stabilise. I’ve just seen your latest post about an appointment with the diabetes nurse so I hope that goes ahead as soon as possible, good luck. Assuming that your mum is capable there is no reason at all why she shouldn’t learn how to adjust her own insulin doses, most people who have had diabetes for a while just get on with it on their own and only see the nurse for occasional checkups or if they have a problem that they don’t know how to sort out themselves.
 
As an aside. Do you have medical power of attorney for your mum? If not it might be worth talking to her about setting that up given her various health needs. She still retains say as long as she has mental capacity but it means the doctors can give you more information and you can have a say in how she’s treated. She’s not giving up any independence having it but is future proofing her care and making like a little easier for you to advocate for her.

Also make sure you’re registered with your GP as a carer. There isn’t always a lot of support but it should be in your notes as you will have an extra burden and that can impact your health and mental health.
 
Hopefully seeing the diabetic nurse gets some things sorted. Feel like I'm in constant fear she has a hypo when I'm not with her. Can't leave the house unless someone is here as they seem to suddenly hit her. I don't think she'd manage altering her dose as needed. She can't keep track of her tablets that are the same everyday. Time will telling suppose. At least I feel like I've got a bit of knowledge from the group and honestly it's given me confidence that I'm not just an overbearing daughter, my fears have been correct.
 
mumsdaughter said:
Hopefully seeing the diabetic nurse gets some things sorted. Feel like I'm in constant fear she has a hypo when I'm not with her. Can't leave the house unless someone is here as they seem to suddenly hit her. I don't think she'd manage altering her dose as needed. She can't keep track of her tablets that are the same everyday. Time will telling suppose. At least I feel like I've got a bit of knowledge from the group and honestly it's given me confidence that I'm not just an overbearing daughter, my fears have been correct.
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As far as the tablets are concerned does she have a segmented box with days and time which the meds can be put in once a week.
Some pharmacies will prepare blister packs of the different meds with time and day.
 
Leadinglights said:
As far as the tablets are concerned does she have a segmented box with days and time which the meds can be put in once a week.
Some pharmacies will prepare blister packs of the different meds with time and day.
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She's on the wait list to get the pharmacy to do this. But her meds are constantly changing which won't help I expect. At the moment I make ones at home in the little boxes a week at a time and she just takes each day out at a time.
 
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