Sunday, February 22, 2004
Interesting day, blood sugar wise.
Some of the curiosities could have been due to the fact that my mother was in bed a fair amount more than usual (or, perhaps, than I'd like to see her and have seen her) and had only two meals yesterday, breakfast and lunch. Naming these meals is critical when dealing with medicating a diabetic. Glipizide is breakfast or dinner. So, essentially, the only diabetic medication my mother had yesterday was her breakfast meds and cinnamon for breakfast and lunch. I was barely able to keep her awake long enough during "the dinner hour" to get her to drink two glasses of water, which she needed.
This morning, though, I was hopeful. Her before breakfast reading was 122. Not bad, not uncommon. A normal reading is preferable but that's not bad. I repeated her breakfast and her meds exactly as yesterday, including the cinnamon. After breakfast I remembered that I'd read something a while ago, or maybe Dr. Mesa PCP told me this, he's good at knowing what's going to throw blood sugar off, that guaifenex is known to have a mild elevating effect on the blood sugar of diabetics. This led to a hunch. I decided to take her blood sugar just a few hours after breakfast, still a few hours before lunch, just to see what it was doing in case I felt I needed to give her something besides 1/4 tsp of cinnamon at lunch. 198. Although I was expecting a high reading this was a surprise. I was expecting the 170's. I've been giving her guaifenex twice a day, including this morning, for a few days. Yesterday she got very little of anything except barely adequate hydration and that's stretching a point. Today has gone better, the congestion is improving but I think I'll be medicating her for it through tomorrow. So at this point I decided I'd probably better follow my usual regimen, although I couldn't resist one tilt: Just before lunch her blood sugar was 112 so her body is working hard to regulate her blood sugar and is doing a good job despite the fact that I've been throwing it curve balls. I think I'll simply add cinnamon to her diabetic meds without cutting back on the metformin. I'll wait to cut back the metformin until I no longer feel the need to give her guaifenex.
I know that it's always a gamble to take blood glucose readings every few hours on a Type 2 diabetic who developed it in old age. I went through a phase like that with Mom and you can unncecessarily scare yourself. Unlike a non-diabetic, a type two diabetic can range through a fairly wide map throughout the day and still be considered under control as long as those numbers settle back down regularly. So for the most part it's best not to take more than 3 readings a day at regular times. Since, however, I am familiar with how my mother's blood sugar zigs and zags under well-medicated conditions, I think for a matter of days maybe, once we've settled into a cinnamon/metformin routine, or a day here and a day there, I might take two extra readings per day, maybe three, just to see if there are any changes in my mother's regular flow. For a week or so before the cinnamon experiment I may do the same thing while medicating my mother exclusively with glipizide and metformin.
Today she seems a bit paler than usual, although it's been a stormy day and the light's been bad. She was surprisingly tired although game to stay up even though she was drawn into herself. The guaifenex is making it even harder than normal for her body to remain hydrated so I hope I won't have to continue this for long. We are having the sleeping-too-much fecal accidents again. When her bowels are regular but she isn't up enough to listen to their signals to cooperate with their need to evacuate it doesn't take long for accidents to begin occurring. One yesterday and one today. I scolded both of us. "Mom, we need to keep you sitting up, if nothing else, for at least 12 hours a day just so you give your bowels a chance to work without accidents according to their schedule."
She looked at me with disgust, although I'm not sure whether it was for the subject or me. "I know," and she let out a sigh.
When we were cleaning her in the bathroom (we both do it; the exercise is good for both her body and her mind) I noticed and mentioned to her that her back was "significantly straighter than yesterday".
"Well, thank you," she said, registering surprise.
"Maybe today would be a good day for a therapy walk."
She leered at me over her shoulder. "Maybe not."
I could clearly see she was still feeling under the weather and I didn't want to push it. "Okay. But, at least, let's keep you up for awhile. Please. Mom, you can fall asleep sitting up watching movies. That'll be somewhat better for you than falling asleep laying down.
She looked at me as though I'd caught her hand in the candy jar and was now using this to bargain with her.
I was.
"I'll see what I can do," she said, a little too mischievously to keep me from feeling comfortable.
She's napping now but she's only been down since 1639, after a hearty lunch and two back to back episodes of Sex and the City. She's sworn me on my honor to wake her up in time for the Sex and the City special at 1800 and the last episode at 1900. I will.
She probably won't eat again until 2000 or so. After that I'll post my last reporting for today.
Later.
This morning, though, I was hopeful. Her before breakfast reading was 122. Not bad, not uncommon. A normal reading is preferable but that's not bad. I repeated her breakfast and her meds exactly as yesterday, including the cinnamon. After breakfast I remembered that I'd read something a while ago, or maybe Dr. Mesa PCP told me this, he's good at knowing what's going to throw blood sugar off, that guaifenex is known to have a mild elevating effect on the blood sugar of diabetics. This led to a hunch. I decided to take her blood sugar just a few hours after breakfast, still a few hours before lunch, just to see what it was doing in case I felt I needed to give her something besides 1/4 tsp of cinnamon at lunch. 198. Although I was expecting a high reading this was a surprise. I was expecting the 170's. I've been giving her guaifenex twice a day, including this morning, for a few days. Yesterday she got very little of anything except barely adequate hydration and that's stretching a point. Today has gone better, the congestion is improving but I think I'll be medicating her for it through tomorrow. So at this point I decided I'd probably better follow my usual regimen, although I couldn't resist one tilt: Just before lunch her blood sugar was 112 so her body is working hard to regulate her blood sugar and is doing a good job despite the fact that I've been throwing it curve balls. I think I'll simply add cinnamon to her diabetic meds without cutting back on the metformin. I'll wait to cut back the metformin until I no longer feel the need to give her guaifenex.
I know that it's always a gamble to take blood glucose readings every few hours on a Type 2 diabetic who developed it in old age. I went through a phase like that with Mom and you can unncecessarily scare yourself. Unlike a non-diabetic, a type two diabetic can range through a fairly wide map throughout the day and still be considered under control as long as those numbers settle back down regularly. So for the most part it's best not to take more than 3 readings a day at regular times. Since, however, I am familiar with how my mother's blood sugar zigs and zags under well-medicated conditions, I think for a matter of days maybe, once we've settled into a cinnamon/metformin routine, or a day here and a day there, I might take two extra readings per day, maybe three, just to see if there are any changes in my mother's regular flow. For a week or so before the cinnamon experiment I may do the same thing while medicating my mother exclusively with glipizide and metformin.
Today she seems a bit paler than usual, although it's been a stormy day and the light's been bad. She was surprisingly tired although game to stay up even though she was drawn into herself. The guaifenex is making it even harder than normal for her body to remain hydrated so I hope I won't have to continue this for long. We are having the sleeping-too-much fecal accidents again. When her bowels are regular but she isn't up enough to listen to their signals to cooperate with their need to evacuate it doesn't take long for accidents to begin occurring. One yesterday and one today. I scolded both of us. "Mom, we need to keep you sitting up, if nothing else, for at least 12 hours a day just so you give your bowels a chance to work without accidents according to their schedule."
She looked at me with disgust, although I'm not sure whether it was for the subject or me. "I know," and she let out a sigh.
When we were cleaning her in the bathroom (we both do it; the exercise is good for both her body and her mind) I noticed and mentioned to her that her back was "significantly straighter than yesterday".
"Well, thank you," she said, registering surprise.
"Maybe today would be a good day for a therapy walk."
She leered at me over her shoulder. "Maybe not."
I could clearly see she was still feeling under the weather and I didn't want to push it. "Okay. But, at least, let's keep you up for awhile. Please. Mom, you can fall asleep sitting up watching movies. That'll be somewhat better for you than falling asleep laying down.
She looked at me as though I'd caught her hand in the candy jar and was now using this to bargain with her.
I was.
"I'll see what I can do," she said, a little too mischievously to keep me from feeling comfortable.
She's napping now but she's only been down since 1639, after a hearty lunch and two back to back episodes of Sex and the City. She's sworn me on my honor to wake her up in time for the Sex and the City special at 1800 and the last episode at 1900. I will.
She probably won't eat again until 2000 or so. After that I'll post my last reporting for today.
Later.
