Newbie here

[Missingpart]

Hi, newbie here, i don't personally have diabetes but my father in law has, he's not being well cared for by the Nhs and that's why I'm here, he recently had a heart bypass, and whilst at hospital they checked his sugar levels and they were 17.9 and he'd not eaten for over 24 hours! He was told not to eat banana grapefruit and that was it, I mentioned to his gp last week that he'd not had anything checked for over a year and I asked about a drug I had read up on, and she just totally dismissed me :-( anyways, I guess I'm here to learn more about things so I can in turn help my father in law, because honestly I don't know where to start, I know there's plenty of info on the net, but I am also aware that places like this are the best place to be with people like yourselves that deal with this everyday!
As a starter question (nothing like jumping the gun sorry) is this high figure something that requires immediate attention?
Your thoughts would be very much appreciated
Kind regards to all xx

 

[Northerner]

Hi Missingpart, welcome to the forum 🙂 Sorry to hear about the lack of good care your FIL has been receiving. Hospitals should have a specialist diabetes team (or at the very least a specialist nurse) who should check on all diabetics to ensure they are getting the correct checks and that they are being looked after appropriately, it doesn't sound like this has happened in your FIL's case. 17.9 is a high reading, although fact that he was in hospital after an operation would make him stressed, which can raise blood sugar levels. Certainly, if he hadn't eaten it is is far above normal, but also these were unusual circumstances. Does he test at home? If so, what levels does he normally wake up to?

What medication, if any, is he on for his diabetes? If Type 1 he should be on insulin - do you know which sort, and how many injections a day? Has he been diagnosed long? What was the drug you had read about? Certainly, he should have had at the very least an annual check, but given his health I would have expected at least 6 months or even 3 monthly check ups. He should be getting at least the first 9 of the following checks (others may not be applicable):

http://www.diabetes.org.uk/upload/About us/15 measures checklist.pdf

Sorry about all the questions! If you can give us a few more details about his current treatment and confirm whether he is Type 1 or Type 2 we can give some suggestions for resources that should help 🙂

 

[LeeLee]

Hello Missingpart, welcome to the forum. I can't add much to Northerner's list of questions, but this might help clear up the puzzle about fruit... ripe bananas are high in natural sugar, and diabetics have to take care with the quantities of all types of carbohydrates they they eat (not just sugar); assuming your FIL is taking a statin for cholesterol, grapefruit juice and whole fruit can react badly with it.