JoannD has questions for you

she wrote:

I wonder if my DH could have had blood-sugar issues for years and not known it. He has a predictable pattern of being the nicest guy in the world until about 3:00 or 3:30 in the afternoon, and then he gets short-tempered and irritable. This shows up especially while driving - he becomes the King of Road Rage - being belligerent as all get out toward other drivers and then not having a clue why some of them come back at him. Trouble is, he also carries a loaded firearm and is willing to escalate the quarrel. If I can, I try to grab the guncase and try to put it between my seat and door, where he can't reach it, because he is clearly irrational at those times. I can't tell you how terrifying this is. A confrontation between two testosterone-poisoned males (and hey, I'm a grandma myself, and while I am a competent shot with a firearm, I'd just as soon not have to shoot anybody.) Why do they have to get crazy like this???

Well, I have a couple of questions first.  Has he been diagnosed as diabetic?  Does he test his sugar?  You probably need to get him to test on a regular schedule. If you think he's going low at 3 pm, then I'd suggest he test at 8 am, 11:30 am, 3 pm, 6:30 pm and bedtime.  If you can get him to do that for a week, you could probably determine a pattern and relate it to his behavior.

Road Rage is terrible. My hubby is equally guilty of it. I have been doing most of the driving for the last 2 years.  I just refuse to ride with him behind the wheel.  Some states do not allow diabetics to have drivers license.  I think that would be great for every state.  If your state doesn't have that law, you could always advocate for it.

then she wrote:

I honestly think that overeating is a form of addiction. My DH watched his father die of (among other things) uncontrollable insulin-dependent diabetes - the man smoked like a bad chimney, was a SEVERE alcoholic, and absolutely refused to comply with any sort of diet. My DH has resolutely stayed away from tobacco and alcohol all of his life (he says of alcohol "I'm afraid I might LIKE it.') But his main vice is food, and boy, does he shovel it in. He has multiple health problems stemming directly from being 100+ pounds overweight but short of putting him on a desert island somewhere, I don't know how to cut off his access to excess food. Some of you have commented on how your husband's personality and/or temper changes if his sugar is out of whack. My husband is normally one of the kindest, sweetest people I know, but when he is stressed or overtired, it's almost as if another entity takes over and he becomes angry, aggressive, and nasty to the point of viciousness, especially when driving. I guess I'll have to figure out how to set up my own blog so that others can comment on it. I really want to get some feedback from the rest of you because this is all new and bewildering to me.


My thoughts are that too much of anything can kill you.  Too much alcohol, smoking, eating, sugar.....probably doesn't matter what it is, if it's done to excess, it could kill you.  


And "we" probably can't cut of their access.  After all, these are grown men who need to make their own choices - even if they might die from those choices.  Did I mention here that my sister's husband's brother just died from alcohol at the age of 51?  You might think that was a wake up call to my sister's husband who drinks non-stop. Nope - he just drank more at the funeral.


To some extent, I think diabetes is just like any other thing out there. You don't control your glucose levels, you will have all kinds of side effects.  You might die.  You don't control drinking, smoking, eating....same end result.  


Some of us refer to a syndrome called the "roller coaster ride" where our spouses emotions seem to always be up or down, high or low, sweet or angry, excited or depressed....and it's the fact that we never seem to know where we are on that ride.  We can't predict when the next high or low will be.  And our spouses seem to have different reactions.  When my hubby is high, he is agitated, nervous, jittery, irritated.  When he goes low, he is very argumentative, combative, belligerent.  And somewhere in between the highs and lows, I get glimpses of that guy I fell in love with.


Anyone else want to make input?


Blogging is wonderful. It's therapy.  It's a record of what happens.  It can provide a history of the prognosis of the disease.  My blog has been helpful in finding dates of when issues first started.  It's even answered questions for doctors. No, hubby still doesn't know about it.  I just said, "I have kept some notes, let me go look at them and see what I can find."



So, hubby has now had diarrhea for 10 days.  He refuses to go see a doctor.  He is experimenting by eliminating various foods.  He stopped ice cream, cheese, milk as he thinks it might be lactose intolerance.  His glucose is still testing around 220. He still has the horrible fruity smell about him.  I got up this morning and sprayed febreeze all over the house.  Thank goodness for that stuff!!!  It does tone down the smell!  But I have had my moments this weekend when I thought I would get sick from the smell.  Guess I'll stock up on those plug-in air fresheners at the grocer tomorrow.  


I spent the day today teaching 2 friends of mine how to do ebay. One is age 70, the other is age 52.  Neither knew how to download a photo from the camera to the computer.  Neither had ever edited a photo on the computer. Neither had previously set up or used a paypal account. It was a very long, very frustrating day, but at the end of the day, each had listed one item for sale on ebay.  It taught me that there are some things worse than diabetes!  LOLOL!!!

DW