An update. The gangrene turned “wet”, which meant that without amputation, sepsis would kill him in short order. Apparently he gave a day’s thought to just giving up, but on Saturday his leg was taken off above the knee. The doctor thinks that his circulation is good enough to where they won’t have to cut on that leg again. Of course, there’s always the other one to worry about.
In the meantime, the maltreatment of my sister’s leukemia nearly killed her. Luckily, they were able to get her stable with infusions of blood, plasma, etc. Fucking hell.
An ICU nurse’s least favorite kind of patient is the frequent flyer diabetic who refuses to take care of themselves. Most of them are teenagers and young adults, but not always.
I have (had) type 2 I’ve lost 76 lbs and my H-A1C is normal. I’m off all meds for it. Weight loss and a healthy lifestyle can reverse the effects.
I still have perpheral neuropathy, but, it’s not getting worse. It won’t improve, but with medication, I can live with it.
Good for you. I’m struggling with the weight and diet, but do walk quite often. My A1C is normal and so is my glucose, but I’ll be on meds until I can get my bad habits under control. It really is a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a lot of cases.
My husband and I started a clean, low carb diet about 8 months ago. We don’t eat any fast carbs, like bread, potatoes, rice or beans. We eat last of fresh vegetables, berries and lean meat.
Hubby’s triglycerides went from the 500 range to normal in 3 months.
Hubby like an occasional drink and this diet is forgiving of that.
We use Splenda or its generic equivalent.
After the first few days it’s actually easy. Hubby loves sweets but has done very well with just the berries and Splenda.
I’ve also found a candy bar that has between 0-3 gms of “bad” carbs they’re called Chocolite and actually taste good. They have a lot of fiber, so they are self-limiting.
I’m sorry to hear what’s going on in your family, Chefguy.
I’m pre-diabetic. I made major changes to my diet and lifestyle when I was diagnosed, because I don’t want to lose the pre. Friends of mine think I overreact when I don’t indulge in some things…like higher carb beers all the time, or random sweets and carbs. I look at it as just stuff I don’t need.
My father is full-blown diabetic, and doesn’t really take it seriously enough. I worry that he’s going down the same path as your brother.
Sorry to hear about your brother’s health problems. Growing old and ill is not for the faint of heart. y brother lost part of his foot to gangrene about 2 years ago to undiagnosed and untreated diabetes. Of course, he had no job and no insurance (Still doesn’t. We are in Texas, after all)(Actually, I could be wrong about that- he may have qualified for some kind of program by now.).
He was originally put in a shared hospital room with three other guys, but they complained that they didn’t want to share a shower with him because his foot was gross and stinky. He called me later to tell me he got a private room. It was actually an isolation room!
I think I have 3 siblings now with a diabetes diagnosis (because one won’t go to the Doc to get her diagnosis).
