High BS levels

[foxylady]

57 year old male, refuses to realize there is a problem.  Will not change habits.  Readings almost always over 200.  Taking 10mg glyberide twice daily and 1000mg glucophage twice daily, plus blood pressure, cholesterol, and heart meds.  Has had a heart attack.  Is 100 pounds overweight and smokes a pack and a half a day.  I am trying to understand what effects all this is having on the heart, kidneys and liver.  I know it is not good but as I said won't change habits, diet or anything.  Can anyone tell me anything about life expectancy or what to expect?

[Kevin990]

If he is interested in having a sex life, diabetes can greatly increase your chances of having erectial disfunction. All of the nerve and blood vessel damage that occurrs in the eyes and legs, also occurs in the penis. With males, I think sex is a good scare tactic.

[JDRF Team SGG]

Since you clarified that you are looking for symptoms of complicatios, let us give you some idea of what to look for in some of the complications. Eye damage tends to not have symptoms at all until sight is starting to be lost. So the prevention of complications is the way to go by making sure he gets his eyes dilated once per year for a diabetic exam. This exam will show if any bleeding is happening or new vessels are growing before they get to the point of damaging his vision. As for nerve damage in the legs, some people experience tingling sensations, some experience pains without cause, and some don't experience anything until they cut their foot or burn their foot in bathwater that is too hot and don't feel it. So it is important for him to make sure he looks at his feet daily to see if any skin discoloration is happening in case some nerve damage has already happened and he doesn't feel it. Nerve damage to the digestive tract will cause his meals to not digest quickly in the beginning stages, and he may experience nausea or stomach pain similar to indigestion. Kidney damage usually shows up in a buildup of fluids in the legs and feet, so that they swell. A feeling of nausea may accompany kidney damage, and fatigue also. Heart damage tends to be symptomless until a heart attack occurs. Maybe this information will help you some.

[JDRF-Team-LRS]

Fear can be paralyzing and I imagine your hubby is wracked with fear ... and perhaps a sense that it's too late or too hard to improve things.

With all you & he are dealing with, watch also for signs of depression.  Depression is treatable -- altho' I'm sure the thought of "one more condition" isn't a welcome thought.  Everything is harder to do and to cope with if it must be done thru a cloud of depression.

Another tactic with folks in denial is to *not* invest more in the issue than they do.  Sometimes as we step back, they feel more safe to step forward.  It's as if they fight our concern and once there's no fight on that score, they begin to come forward.

Good luck & take care of *you* thru all this.

[foxylady]

Thank you to all who responded.  I have tried suggesting walks or bicycling or golf and can't get him interested.  The food he eats at home is pretty healthy but at work and out is a different thing.  The scare tactics don't work, just gets him aggitated.  I think I was mainly looking for what signs to look for in the complications since he will not say how he is feeling or if there are any problems.  I guess life expectancy wasn't the best choice of words, but I am trying to learn the signs.  He was diagnosed 5 years ago and the heart attack was a year ago, so this has been going on (the denial) for awhile.  Thanks again to all.

[JDRF Team SGG]

While no person can predict at what point complications will kick in if a person does not try to normalize their glucose levels, we DO know that extended periods of high glucose damage small blood vessels feeding the heart, the kidneys, the eyes, and nerves. I suspect that your questions are rooted in hopes of finding some information that you can give him to sort of scare him into changing his behavior. Maybe I can help a little... As a volunteer for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, I have answered many a letter from diabetics who are depressed because they are now dealing with complications that have not KILLED them, but have caused them to live in constant pain. Neuropathy in the legs is extremely painful, and people who write to us with this problem tell us that no cure exists and no real treatment for the pain really works. Blindness is no fun -- take it from people who have written to us after developing diabetic cataracts or who are losing vision because of blood vessel proliferation (after damage to blood vessels happen, some people grow new, weaker vessels, which leak blood into the eye and block the passage of light). As for other complications that can cause life to be pretty miserable, we hear from people with gastroparesis, or nerve damage to the digestive tract, who live with constant nausea and severe episodes -- these people say they would give anything to go back to when they were healthy and take charge of those glucose levels so as to prevent damages.

Of course, if he is overweight as well as diabetic, his risk for heart attack is much higher than the average person. So while none of us are going to give you a life expectancy (that differs with different people), we can tell you some of the horror stories in hopes that you can share them with him to wake him up before he damages himself beyond help.

I wish you the very best at getting his attention. One young teen girl told me that her wake-up call happened when her doctor made her go on a tour of a ward of diabetic amputees. Perhaps his doctor could set up something like this to wake him up to the realities of damage because of high glucose levels. Many of us live in denial for a period of time, and it sometimes takes something like that to make us realize that we need to get control over this area of life. I like the previous commenter's idea of suggesting walks together. That is a great place to start. If you are involved in meal preparation for him at all, perhaps you can lower the carbohydrate content of his meals and start putting complex carbs in the place of simple sugars. I wish you the best.

[MLWTR]

Tough situation. If this is your husband, or someone else you live with or near, you might try inviting him to go for a walk with you in the evening or to play golf with you, or some other type of gentle exercise that he might enjoy. I wouldn't say anything about his health, just keep inviting him on a regular basis because you think it would be fun to take a walk, or go golfing, or whatever. If nothing else, it will give you some pleasant time together. Of course, he has multiple risk factors, but just getting a little exercise will help, regardless of what else he does or does not do.

Best of luck.

[JDRF-Team-SS]

Hello  foxylady,

I am a volunteer and not a medical professional.  My son, now 10, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 3, so I am more familiar with type 1.  I give input and advice based on my own personal experience in caring for my son.

I hate to sound ignorant, but I honestly could not tell you the life expectancy for type 1 or type 2, except as I am sure you know, we cannot force anyone to take care of themselves, especially adults and taking care of diabetes by doing things that are good for them and not doing things that are unhealthy for them is the key issue.

Is this your dad???  It is obviously a loved one or you would not be posting here.  My only advice to you is to tell him how much you love and care about him and that you are concerned about his health.  Tell him how much you want and need him in your life and that in order for him to stay in your life as long as possible he needs to care about his own health and that you can only help him so much.  Tell him you really want to help him, but you need him to care about his health and want to make changes so he can be healthy.

It is impossible for us to change others.  They have to want to change.  Maybe you can go with him to his next doc's appt.  Express your concerns, but do it without blame.  

I do know from what others have said, that smoking is a hard one to kick.  My sis (a type 1) smokes, but has given up other things that were unhealthy and is going to start focusing on quiting smoking as her next goal.

I am sorry.  I know this must be so frustrating for you.  

I am certain you will receive other comments pertaining to the effects on the kidneys and heart.

Take care,
SS