Diabetes Yo Yo

It was a bit of a rough night. The morning started way too early for my liking, although our two year old seemed okay with it. (UGH!)

When my husband tested his blood sugar last night, it was in the 240’s. We kind of expected it to be high, because we had jasmine rice at dinner. We rarely have rice, but last night I was hankering for this for dinner. I will be having it for lunch today too. It was hard to stop at just one bowl. 🙂 At about 2:30AM, I heard my husband’s c-pap machine turn off. At 5:45, I don’t notice it, but my mind must have known it was the wrong time. I sat up, put my glasses on and asked what was going on. I asked if he had a low blood sugar and he said he thought so. He sounded a little slow, so I got up to check it for him. 57!

In the course of four and a half hours it went from 240 to 57.

This does not reassure me about his upcoming business trip!

After bringing his blood sugar back up to the normal range, covering the sheets from his sweat fest, and laying back down, I couldn’t sleep. First he was snoring. Then that two year old wasn’t interested in going back to sleep. I was going over “Where did we (I) go wrong?” And I couldn’t stop thinking about how to prepare him for his trip, to ease my mind and to help him in the case of a low blood sugar.

I told him that he had to wake up to test each night he is gone, no matter what. I am going to make sure he has some Squeezable apple sauce, pbj’s, and small sodas available. And I am going to pray A LOT.

(What are some other ready to go snacks he could have available?)

Parents of kids with diabetes, how on earth do you survive time away from your kids? I feel like a control freak, or that I am being really annoying about this. We’ve survived time apart before, but still I worry.

By the way, I went to the library yesterday and brought this home:

Just a little light reading for the kids’ summer break. 🙂

Back to that low blood sugar, what’s the deal with rice anyway?

Have You Tried Essential Oils?

Ahem. I might step on a few toes today. That is not my intent, but sometimes the suggestions given to my husband are crazy, even if they are well intentioned. Nobody likes to see a friend or a loved one suffer from a disease that *might* be cured or managed. My husband has heard some zingers. These are a few of the suggestions he has heard from others regarding his diabetes and the reason(s) why he is not/ has not/ will not try(ing) them.

1. Have you tried essential oils? No. His doctor doesn’t really recommend essential oils has a viable method of controlling his diabetes.

2. I heard that okra in water will cure diabetes. No. I think if this worked, we would all know about it and there would be an okra shortage. (Source: http://www.diabetesdaily.com/blog/2014/03/why-okra-will-not-cure-your-diabetes/)

3. If you just had more faith, your diabetes would be cured. Do I believe that God COULD cure diabetes? Yes, but so far He hasn’t. My husband said that he was approached at a family wedding by an aunt who thought she could cure him with her faith. This many years later, he’s still diabetic. This has become an inside joke for us though. When his blood sugars are whacked, I tell him to get “in the word”. I’ve heard it’s a cure for all that ails ya. (Don’t hate us, we’re believers. We also think we are funny)

4. Medifast.  I can’t tell you how many times Medifast has been recommended for my husband for weight loss and diabetes control. I have seen Medifast work wonders for some people. I am not discounting that it’s a great product for some people; however when we looked into it we were told that my husband needed to check with his health care provider before starting this program. In fact, straight from here is this: If you have type 1 diabetes, it is essential to discuss Medifast with your health care provider or diabetes specialist before you start any of our plans for weight loss. He has been seeing the same doctor for 15 years. He has a good relationship with him. He asked him about Medifast. His doctor said that he did not think this was a good option for my husband. Rather than leave the people hanging that had recommended this to us, I politely informed them that his doctor did not recommend this route. These were the responses:

• “What? Really? I have never had a doctor say no before” (There’s a first time for everything?)
• “He obviously doesn’t understand what it is. Let me give you information to take with you next time. In fact, do you want me to come with you?” (no)
• “That’s weird. Our doctor said it was okay for my diabetes.” (ok)
• “Why would he say no? That doesn’t even make sense!” (none of your business)
• “If his doctor said no, he has a good reason. Honestly, I sell it and wouldn’t recommend it for your husband.” (smile)

5. What about an insulin pump? Yes. Yes. Yes! We have looked into this before, but at the time, the cost was prohibitive. Now my husband has double coverage. I just checked his benefits and BOTH insurances cover the insulin pump! He has had some major medical expenses in the past two years and our out of pocket costs have been minimal. It looks like this will be the case for the pump. He has an appointment with his doctor soon and we will be asking about this again!

Did I step on your toes? I hope not, but when you are a diabetic (I am not) you have heard it all…. for the most part. To keep our patience, we try to remember that people are just trying to help because they care. It’s actually the people who are offended that we are not taking their suggestion that test our patience. We have learned to say “Thank you” rather than give the reason why what they said will not work for him. If you are diabetic, what are some helpful/ unhelpful things you have heard to cure or manage your diabetes? 

ETA: Out of all these things, the only one he has tried is prayer, although he isn’t praying that he’s cured. He’s praying that he manages well. So he can’t say without a doubt that none of these will work to manage his diabetes. 🙂

P.S. in an earlier post I talked about how my husband’s insurance only wanted to cover 100 test strips a month. We talked to a different pharmacist the last time we filled his test strips and she knew the work around/ coding needed for insurance. They just needed to know that he had a condition that required the test strips, because people like to fake diabetes, you know.