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You are treating your husband like a 3 year old. He is an adult and he needs to take responsibility for monitoring how his blood sugar levels react to specific foods
My suggestion is to have him talk to his doctor and learn how to use a glucose monitor to record his fasting blood glucose and readings one hour and two hours after eating a meal. This will give him a good idea of where he is on his ability to control his blood sugar levels by diet alone. I suspect in less than a week he will realize he may need some sort of medication to assist him.
A blood glucose monitor will give him instant feedback and allow him to see which diet changes work and which ones do not work. He can record his readings in a log and take the results back to discuss with the doctor.
He and his doctor can determine the best course of action for him. It most likely will be a combination of diet and some sort of medication.
DH just got the results of blood work taken at his recent checkup. Fasting blood sugar was 300. He refuses to go on meds for it, and insists on trying to control it with diet. He goes back in six weeks for another test.
This was literally the last post I saw last night before turning in. I started to reply but I decided to consult with Mrs. Sturm for the spousal perspective. She was already asleep so it had to wait until this morning. I asked her what she would do if I got a blood result of 300 for a fasting glucose. She said she would give me 30 days to get the numbers going the right way or I receive an ultimatum to go on medication. That sounds about right.
Your husbands reluctance to change behavior is, sadly, quite typical. You will probably have to resort to a nuclear option to get any meaningful alteration in his lifestyle. There is no time to waste. None at all. Have you found out what his objections to medication are? I am not impressed with the pharmaceutical industry per se but the highest my sugar has ever been is 109. For the last year I have had 1/4 tsp of Cinnamon in Oatmeal. It is also available in 500mg capsules. The first drug a diabetic is likely to be prescribed is Metformin. There is a supplement called 'Berberine' that came to my attention some months ago. It is widely considered to be equivalent to Metformin in its action. I have eliminated carbs at dinner. I have cut my sugar intake in about half. I work out 3x/wk. Your DH needs to do these things. Last week I went to the dentist for a cleaning. They said they had to check my sugar level because it said "pre-diabetic" on my chart. They wouldn't work on me if my glucose was over 250. It was 87...
I don't own a glucose meter and I don't think your husband needs one! The same way he found out his sugar is 300 is how he will find out if he is making progress. There is a test called a Hemoglobin A1C that is routinely administered to those that are pre-diabetic (like myself) and those that have the active condition. Did your DH get this test? He should. Even without a meter of his own there will be enough opportunities (like the dentist visit I mentioned) to get information about progress.
It isn't rocket science. Your DH isn't pre-diabetic. He has full blown Diabetes and needs to face that fact and you need to tell him that he has to start making changes or you need to consider the ramifications of living with someone that will in due time become dependent on you for caregiving when the progression of the disease starts to impact vital functions like sight, kidney function or nerve response.
I don't know if there is such a thing, but IMO both of you could benefit from some kind of support group where concerned love ones of Diabetics can intervene and/or issue ultimatums with a base of informed support. Good luck.
Google diabetic clinics in your area and then go visit,they usually have a doctor and or an endocrinologist a diabetic educator usually a nurse and a nutritionist or dietician, sounds like your hubby needs a major wakeup call in his knowledge of diabetes.
I don't own a glucose meter and I don't think your husband needs one! .
Yes, he needs a glucometer to check his sugar after everything he eats, every day.
If you're diabetic and don't take insulin, your blood sugar changes constantly throughout the day according to what you eat.
An A1c shows what your average blood sugars have been over a 3-month period, which isn't going to help him know what that sweet potato he ate for lunch a couple hours ago did to his blood sugar.
So, eat a sweet potato, check blood sugar 1-1/2 hours later, and BOOM you know right then not to eat a sweet potato ever again. Same with the loaf of garlic bread. Same with everything else that is eaten and raises your blood sugar too high.
Waiting for a random blood sugar test at a dentist's office, or waiting 3 months for an A1c from your doctor doesn't give you the constant feedback, day by day, meal by meal, snack by snack, that a glucometer gives you.
Last edited by oldgardener; 02-07-2017 at 12:39 PM..
Yes, he needs a glucometer to check his sugar after everything he eats, every day.
If you're diabetic and don't take insulin, your blood sugar changes constantly throughout the day according to what you eat.
An A1c shows what your average blood sugars have been over a 3-month period, which isn't going to help him know what that sweet potato he ate for lunch a couple hours ago did to his blood sugar.
So, eat a sweet potato, check blood sugar 1-1/2 hours later, and BOOM you know right then not to eat a sweet potato ever again. Same with the loaf of garlic bread. Same with everything else that is eaten and raises your blood sugar too high.
Waiting for a random blood sugar test at a dentist's office, or waiting 3 months for an A1c from your doctor doesn't give you the constant feedback, day by day, meal by meal, snack by snack, that a glucometer gives you.
I expected push-back, but the truth is that people have been getting and living with Diabetes for decades before glucometers. People are going broke paying for the strips for those things which are not always covered by most insurance. Not that it matters, even if you have insurance you have to satisfy a $1,000 deductible before they help you pay for your $20 - $50 a month in test strips.
People are buying gray and black market test strips that people with insurance sell at a profit because the wisdom says that you need to test every single morsel of food that goes in your mouth. How about a little deductive reason applied to the problem. The o.p. is not on insulin. They don't even want to take medication. They are really going to lance their fingers several times a day and smear their blood on test strips so it can be tested? I'm thinking they will not. Not that it matters, they do not (yet) need the precise calculation of what effect a given food item has had on their glucose level. Anything that you 'think' raises your blood sugar... probably does! So... do you really need to know that it raised it to 140 instead of 120? I say no. Since I can't remember the last time I had a whole sweet potato I would go as far as to say just don't eat them. Period. Problem solved.
Ok, I was being facetious. Kind of. I cannot see a downside to eating 1/2 of whatever you were eating before and calling it very, very good. That is exactly what you will end up doing with the assistance of the meter. But now you have cut out the middleman. You have saved the cost of the meter and dozens of test strips a month. Or maybe one could buy a meter and test their sugar once a day. But we live in a profit driven society and the companies that make meters and their paraphernalia want you to test 8x/dy because that runs up your costs exponentially.
The one instance that I can see that kind of close monitoring being of benefit is when the monitoring is being done by the CPU of an insulin pump. Hopefully the o.p. does not get to that point.
If you think about it for a little while you will realize I am right.
[quote=Leisesturm;47125673 [/quote] The o.p. is not on insulin. They don't even want to take medication. They are really going to lance their fingers several times a day and smear their blood on test strips so it can be tested? I'm thinking they will not.
Yes, they do, if they want to control their diabetes by diet alone. Even on insulin, you still have to test your blood sugar regularly.
I cannot see a downside to eating 1/2 of whatever you were eating before and calling it very, very good.
The downside is you'd get hungry, which is not good. You don't have to eat 1/2 what you used to eat and call it good, you just have to learn (by using a glucometer) what foods raise your blood sugar and what foods do not raise your blood sugar. If you just guess instead of using a glucometer, you will not have good control of your diabetes. People guess wrong all the time. People on the internet (on this very board) give incorrect advice to diabetics all the time. The only thing you can trust is your glucometer.
Or maybe one could buy a meter and test their sugar once a day.
Once a day, like the fasting sugar first thing in the morning? Yes, that's good. But that won't teach you what foods you shouldn't eat the rest of the time.
If you think about it for a little while you will realize I am right.
I've thought about controlling my diabetes by diet for many years, ever since I was diagnosed with it, and I've learned how to control it by using a glucometer regularly.
If I hadn't used a glucometer to learn what I can eat and what I cannot eat, my A1c would not have improved, I would have peripheral neuropathy like my brother, I would have my toes amputated like my brother, and I would be blind from my diabetes like my grandmother. No, you are not right. Sorry to disagree.
Diabetes control isn't accomplished by guessing and wishing.
Diabetes control isn't accomplished by guessing and wishing.
No it certainly is not. I do not test all the time and my A1C is actually quite good (5.1) BUT I do take medication and avoid all foods that are known to raise your BG. I know I cannot eat cake, or bread or pasta or anything like that. I strictly control my diet because I do not want to have any amputations. I will control the diabetes, not the other way around.
I still test myself after meals when I eat something I shouldn't be eating a lot of like fruit, just to see what the actual numbers are. I am still within the allowed range of 140 or less.
A few years ago I wouldn't test at all and only relied on medication and things were starting not to work so well. I had to give the meds a helping hand so to speak with diet and I decided to make a complete turnaround. My A1C went up to a 7.3 which I thought was too high. The target for most is below 6.
i'm kinda in the opposite shoes. I was diagnosed with type2 and trying to stay low carb but my wife likes to bake and make cookies and my kids love the home made pizza I make.
I've slipped in my diet for a few months. Even though I KNOW I'm eating less carbs, I still feel like I'm eating too much. My wife doesn't get it because she's vegetarian and lives on carbs and sweets.
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