His A1c is at 6.0. And he said everything else is normal.
But how can it be normal when he has so many lows and crashes....and HAS to be having highs to balance them out?
How I wish he would test himself on a daily basis, but I know that is too much to ask for. At least the "normal" A1c is a bit lower than last test.
Feet are still a huge problem. He has an overseas business trip this Saturday for a week and I worry about how he is going to cope with that.
I asked about his uric acid level and he said he did not get the result on that one yet.
He has stopped eating bags of chocolate. Especially since I told him that I needed his help. Today is day 73 for me with no sugar and no soda. And it does help that he's not keeping it in the house.
Now if I could just get him to stop eating bags of potato chips! :o)
It has been a very quiet, pleasant week here. Such a relief. And I'm planning out next week.....expect one of my sisters to come for a visit and a friend in the art world is coming to spend a couple of nights. Should be great fun!
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You said in there "How I wish he would test himself on a daily basis..."
Are you really telling us that he DOESN'T test his blood sugars several times a day??? Frankly, I'm astounded! And it's no wonder he's up and down like a yo-yo. How he's managed to get an A1c of 6.0 is beyond me. Unless, I hate to say this, do you KNOW it is 6.0?
My memory tells me that he's on insulin of some sort. I hope Lantus, or something similar either once or twice daily and NovoRapid or similar as meal time insulin.
And at least 4 tests a day. Fasting and then two hours after each meal.
I'm sorta lost for words now. I'm also wondering what his endocrinologist and other medical people are saying or doing.
Please, feel free to email me - trunkles@xtra.co.nz
Good point. No, I did not see the lab results in writing, I am taking his word for it.
And you are correct. He does not test at all. I'm pretty sure it has been months since he has tested at all. He says he can "tell" when he is having a low. And that's my argument that he just doesn't get. If he is having lows, then there has to be highs in order to have a normal A1c.....and he doesn't accept that. He says he just has so few lows that it doesn't make a difference.
I sort of have to laugh because even one low a day would equate to 1 high a day. But I have quit arguing this point with him. It's just not worth it.
Yes, he is on 3 shots per day. One in the am, one at 6 pm and one at 10 pm. But he is pretty irregular about that as well. The am shot can be anywhere from 6 am to noon. The pm shots often get combined at 10 pm or later. And I'm sure there are nights when he falls asleep and doesn't take that evening shot.
I know....beyond me!
OK, here is what he is taking:
Novolin R and Novolin N, but it doesn't show how much or when.
Simjastatin 80 mg/day fro cholesterol
Lisinopril 20 mg/day for HBP & kidney protection
Allopurinol 100 MG 5 x/day to lower uric acid
Terazosin 1 mg/day to help with enlarged prostate
colchicine .6mg/day for gout
Furosemide 20 mg/day for fluid retention
Fenofibrate 160 mg/day for triglycerides
Tramadse 50 mg/ea 6 hours for pain
And I found his testing strips. The RX was filled 9/14/06 for 100 strips. There's nothing newer than that....and it looks about 3/4ths full. So that should tell me that he is definitely not testing at all.
Sigh. I'm glad I have this week to not worry about it.
N and R are absolutely horrid insulins. It's very hard for anyone who is truly insulin dependent (not just using it to supplement a generous amount of naturally made insulin) to gain control on them. They both have huge peaks than trail off and to prevent lows and highs one has to maintain a rigid diet and schedule- and it's still not usually enough. If you do a google image search for Novolin N and Novolin R you should be able to find diagrams which show you the action profiles of these. They literally look like mountains and valleys. And all those mountains and valleys in insulin action correspond to mountains and valleys in blood sugars. Therefore, I suspect your husband may be eating a lot of junk because he is feeding insulin, may be eating a lot of junk because he is scared of lows, and may not be running high all the time despite what he eats because his insulin dose is titrated to the crappy diet. However, without knowing if the A1c is real (as Simon suggested) and without him testing at all, it's impossible to know. If his doses are titrated to a crappy diet, it's actually dangerous for him to change his diet a lot at once- it will result in huge lows.
N and R were used in the 1980s because there was nothing better. Now we have Lantus and Novolog (the US name for NovoRapid) like Simon said. Might be worth looking into. However, if his a1c truly in 6% and the doctor was crappy enough to prescribe N and R in the first place, switching insulins is gonna be a hard sale. You just need to empathize the huge swings.
Last time we visited the nutritionist together, she had him test 8 times a day for 5 days before we went in. She mapped all the peaks and valleys and showed him on paper that he was having too many highs and lows.
That's when they added the 3rd shot.
And that's when he quit testing. He said he would never go back to the nutritionist again. He was really quite angry about adding the shot.
He is part of a huge HMO, so unless he complains, or his lab work is bad, they are not going to make any changes and they are going to give him whatever is on their formulary.....regardless of what I suggest.
Trust me, I have near begged him to test. I have suggested a pump. I have printed out tons and tons of info form the web. It all just falls on deaf ears.
I don't really know that there is much else I can do. I'm not ready to threaten him with divorce....not that that would wake him up at all. He is the one who has to want to change and make a difference. I cannot do this for him. All I can do is try to gently make suggestions. He does eat an incredible amount of junk food. And he is overseas for this week, so I'm sure it's nothing but hotel room service, loads of candy bars from the vending machines, and tons of soda.
I will wait til he gets home to deal with all that. Sigh. For now, I'm having a very peaceful, quiet day. :o)
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