Kidney Failure and denial

Yesterday, we were at his parent's house and his dad asked him how his diabetes was. He said, "just fine".

His dad said, "why are you having surgery on your foot then?" and he replied, "I have a bone spur that they want to remove.

This morning, we are on the road to our final destination, he cell rings and it's his doctors office. Well, it is the surgeon's office. They are calling because they are concerned that his creatin level is way too high from the pre-op lab work and they want him to call his regular physician's office. He told them he would do that.

He hung up and I asked him what that meant? He said, "I'm going to die."

And I said, "No, seriously, does it mean dialysis?"

And he said, "well, it could".

It's now 6:42 pm and he did not call his doctor's office. So I gently asked if he was going to do that in the morning, and he said, "sure".

So I'm trying to get inside his head and figure this out. (OK, I KNOW that's not possible, so I'm just making notes to myself again).

He told his dad that his diabetes is just fine. Because he has said that diabetes is a disease of the pancreas, not of the kidneys.

Kidney failure has nothing to do with his diabetes. It is a result of the pancreas not producing insulin, and the kidneys wearing out. (Truly, I think this is how this man thinks).

I have yet to figure out why his doctor had him reduce the insulin shots from 3 per day to 2 per day, but there has been a direct increase in the number of morning screaming matches between us. (More on that one later and ok, not really screaming matches....but he is definitely irritated in the mornings!)

His foot surgery is to remove a bone spur. Well, I swear it's calcified gout....will be interesting to hear what the doctor tells me as I plan to be right there and will be asking a whole lot of questions.

I also plan to get another appointment with the diabetic nurse and the nutritionist as soon as we get back home as I really want to know why the changed his insulin. Everything was going pretty calm. And now it's not.

But my main concern is why this guy cannot see that ALL of this is related to diabetes. And that he could prevent so much of it if he would just take better care of himself.

I know I am not ready for him to be on dialysis. I just know it will be my hell on earth.

DW