My son, aged 22 was diagnosed 8 months ago w/type 2 diabetes and he is not properly taking care of himself. His sugar level stays past 450-Hi. He is admitted at least 3 times every month into the hospital.
I am afraid for him. With him knowing what he can and cannot have, he still eats what he knows is not good for him. His appearance has changed dramatically. He looks like he is at a late stage of cancer. I explain to him that he does not have to look like that or be that ill. He states he knows this but does nothing to change. He has his blood count kit, that he does not use a continuous basis. I am at my wits w/his behavior, it's like he's giving up. He use to be in the entertainment industry but because he is now sick he had to leave his group. I feel that he is going through a stage of depression but he will not open up to me. I asked his doctor can I have him committed because he does not properly take care of himself, but was told that being he is an adult, that cannot be. Your son needs to take care of himself and take this disease seriously. He may be going through denial, many do. He is really setting himself up for kidney disease, blindness, heart attack, stroke, amputations, all sorts of bad things. If he gets his disease under control, he stands a much better chance of living a longer, healthier life. Depression is common when people are first diagnosed with diabetes. Your son needs a lot of support, a nutritionist to help with his diet and a doctor he can depend on. Drastic weight loss can be common with type 2. It is the disease causing him to lose the weight. If he gets control, it will stabilize. Your son needs to see pictures of patients that have not controlled their disease and see all the amputations there are, not to mention those that are all but brain dead from severe strokes. Enroll him in some diabetic education classes and go with him. The more he knows about diabetes, the easier it is to control. In all probability, your son has caused irreparable damage to himself. This self-destructive behavior is common amongst diabetics. I speak from experience.
It won't immediately lead to death, but it could lead to other severe conditions such as, amputated limbs, diabetic coma, organ failure,or other diseases.
He needs to straighten out. He's obviously hurting you and he is well aware. I pity you. Sorry. I think it would be better to take a psychological approach.
His diet should be strictly controlled.
Please go through this guide if you have time.It gives everything a diabetic patient wants:cure,confidence,sweet...
http://www.diabetescare.co.cc/
hope it helps Unfortunately the doc is right, since your son is at his majority.
You're going to have to exercise a little tough love. Since he won't take care of himself, inform him that you aren't going to carry him.
I'm sorry. Yes, diabetes can lead to death. It is the 3rd leading cause of death worlwide. Show him the statistics. any one can die from uncontrolled diabetes , Yes, he can die at a young age if he does not take proper care of himself & his diabetes. It causes heart failure, kidney failure, neuropathy, hearing loss, loss of eyesight, etc. etc. He can go on dialysis but the diet gets even stricter & he could die while taking a treatment. It lowers the b/p a lot. Now the bad news... you can not make him take care of himself. He is the only one who can do it. All you can do is let him know how much you care & support him. You may even have to use tough love & tell him off to let him know how selfish he is being. Good luck Dear friend, diabetes is a serious disease when not properly managed. A dis-compensated diabetes will lead to countless other serious health problems that may include blindness, kidney failure, wounds that will not heal, amputation of lower extremities and death. I suggest that you take him to see for himself the deleterious effects of this disease when not properly managed. You can find afflicted patients in local nursing homes. Do not give up on the idea of showing him how he can became! Diabetes is a complex thing. Being in my teens, it can be very difficult to accept that you have a condition (not an illness) that will never go away, and you just want to feel 'normal' A lot of girls tend to stop insulin injections to stop themselves gaining weight, and a lot just refuse to take on board their condition and ignore it. This can be very VERY serious. Consistently high blood sugar can cause permanant nerve, brain, kidney, and eye damage, as well as a hyperglycaemic coma.
This is an awful situation to be in, and I can only recommend that you see your son's diabetic consultant or nurse, or perhaps refer him to a psychiatric doctor for a consultation? I'm aware there is a stigma attached to seeing these sorts of consultants, but it is for his own good. Remember that many diabetic charities have helplines that can at the very least, offer you support on a problem that I'm sure many others suffer from as well.
I wish you&your family all the best
x I can see how much you are worried for him and love him, that said he is a big boy and this is a 24/7 condition that can wear you out. He has to do this for himself. No you can not have him committed for not caring for his diabetes the same way you would if it were you. Our kids don't always make the choices we want them to make but we still have to let them make their own choices. Hopefully your son will wake up and do the right thing before he develops diabetic complications that could worsen the quality of his life, and in the case of heart disease end it in some cases. Neuropathy is not a fun thing to have and being blind would slow down even the the most active.
Just be there for him to listen to and when he asks for advice give it then. Maybe he's a little depressed. At levels of 400+, he's at a pretty imminent threat to himself. You could, and you'd attempt this with a mental health facility with the help of an endo, argue that his behavior is an imminent threat to his life and thus he is suicidal.
If that doesn't work.. unfortunately, you can't MAKE people behave a specific way. Talking to his doctor about getting him on insulin may be an option, though, because again.. levels these high are very, very serious, and need to be corrected- if he's not going to get 'on board' with a diet, at least try to get him 'on board' with a once-daily injection of basal insulin that might buy him enough time to live to realize the mistake he's making.
Drag him to education classes, have him meet other patients, especially those his age who are controlling their glucose. Wow It sounds like your son is totally going to have the same thing happen to him that did to me and it almost cost me my life.
It was CAUSED by the diabetes but it wasnt directly because of my high blood sugar. I was losing a lot of weight and not having any negative symptoms, or so I thought from my high blood sugar but I was peeing a lot, and always thirsty. I was also getting cramps like charlie horses etc and stiff neck / back that I thought was from an old car accident or football injuries and just didn't tie in. In retrospect it was really stupid but when its you and you still think your immortal you just don't put two n two together. I'm not suicidal or stupid and usually I am pretty well put together but in this case I was so off in my thinking and understanding of what was happening to me.
All the weight loss seems like a dream come true when you start out that heavy and I was trying to eat well and was exercising so I just thought that was why but a big part of the weight loss is coming from "Ketosis" or from his body consuming itself for energy since it isn't using the sugar floating around in his blood. It will continue as long as he has a lot of fat to burn off but then it starts eating his muscle tissue and damaging who knows what else as well. Actually is eats more fat than other things but even from the start its doing harm and using up good tissues as well.
When I was finally hospitalized it happened because i went to a back doctor for my "muscle" pain but it turned out to be my kidneys about to fail and I ended up rushed in an ambulance to a hospital nearby in Seattle and spent three days in the ICU they told my friend, who drove me (because I was in bad shape and thought I was OK but she insisted because she could see what I couldn't, that I was in big trouble) that if I had taken an Ibuprofin and a nap Id be dead, if I had tried to drive myself that day I wouldn't have made it and again... Id be dead, If Id have been on one of my business trips in China... yup, Id be dead. I was very, very lucky to survive this. 3 days in the ICU and the rest of a week in recovery under close supervision with up to 8 IV bags at a time. It wasn't a diabetic coma or any actual high blood sugar thing it was DEHYDRATION caused by my having flushed too many of my water soluble vitamins and minerals for too long and the extended time I was in diabetic acidoketosis (sp?) that got me there. They said they never expected me to make it past the first night. My parents flew all the way across the country to be there with me, I only remember parts of the event, only one of the two ambulances I rode in that night... etc etc...
YES, he can absolutely die. No, we don't "get it" when its happening to us (I don't know why as I am usually pretty "body aware" ie, I can totally feel low blood sugar attacks coming on or when my BS is high whatever, but denial? I don't know but I was just like your son and almost paid the ultimate price for being stupid.
Now I take 2 kinds of insulin and metformin to lessen my resistance to the insulin so it works better. I also monitor, not religiously, but much closer than before. I talk to a shrink about dealing w it (and some other things that are bothering me) and it helps me deal and feel a lot better about it all. It is VERY hard to assimilate this knowledge and get over it and on with your life in a healthy way when you are young. I found out at 34 and it was hard for me to face and yes I have had some depression too over it. But you HAVE to deal with it and accept it or you WILL die or end up blind or with amputated lower extremities or a limp d*&k that doesn't work at a young age (for a guy thats prolly enough to make you suicidal and the thought of that particular symptom still scares me more than many of the "worse" ones, LOL). Seriously, the list of things that happen if you DON'T face it and tackle this challenge the right way is VERY frightening. With todays meds and good doctors, good monitoring etc a reasonable diet you can really control it and expect to be healthy for a long time but what you can't do is ignore it. Uncontrolled diabetes can kill in many different ways. High blood sugars can cause damage to arteries and veins, leading to heart disease, stroke, blood clots, and heart attack. They can also damage kidneys, leading to kidney failure, and it can cause damage to the nerves, resulting in blindness or an injury or cut that the person can't feel. If they can't feel it, they can't care for it, and it can cause a serious infection, gangrene, and possible amputation.
Hypoglycemia, or extremely low blood sugars, is sometimes caused by too much insulin used to treat high blood sugars. This is an immediate danger becuase the brain needs glucose, or blood sugar, to work properly. If a person has a hypoglycemic attack, the brain doesn't get the glucose it needs, and the person can pass out, have seizures, and if it doesn't get fixed immediately, organs will shut down, leading to death.
People with Type 1 diabetes are at risk for something called Diabetic Ketoacidosis, or DKA. In non-diabetics, the liver stores sugar for use when a person doesn't eat for awhile, such as when they're sleeping, to keep the body running until the next meal. What happens in DKA is that the liver has no more stored sugar to use, sometimes caused by too much insulin, and the body has to burn fat for energy. Too much of this can make the blood acidic, basically too poisonous for the body. In extreme cases, this can cause shock, and eventually death.
Diabetes itself doesn't kill people, complications from uncontrolled blood sugars do.
I'm a 19 year old diabetic who was diagnosed about 9 months ago myself. It's pretty hard being so young and having diabetes. My boyfriend has had it since he was 12. Chances are, you're son is in denial about it and he knows but doesn't UNDERSTAND what can happen if he doesn't control his sugars. He probably feels like if he pretends he doesn't have it, then life can go back to the way it was before he was diagnosed. He has to understand that life CAN go back to normal, and as you get used to the disease, everything kind of falls into place and it becomes routine. He is an adult and fully capable of making his own decisions, though. My boyfirend goes through stints where he just stops caring and eats what he wants, when he wants, and the best thing you can do, is quietly be the voice of reason and be there for him. If you try to make him do it, it's just going to put him off, so as with my boyfriend, you've just gotta be there for him. He's supposed to be in the prime of his youth and health, yet he has a disease that is usually associated with old people, so yeah, he's depressed! I hate to say it, but he may have to go into a diabetic coma or something before he snaps out of it, and at that point, I hope it isn't too late, because every day he goes uncontrolled, it does a little bit more irreversible damage. Hang in there, and he should eventually come around! It took me nearly 7 months and a diabetic coma to set me straight, so he may come around yet! |
