For several days, I have been wrestling
with how to write about a potential member of our diabetes group.
This person has type 2 diabetes and has been included in our
discussions on two occasions. He is still not convinced that he has
to do anything about his diabetes and we know that he is in denial.
The first time he attended we knew he was very angry and not
accepting his diagnosis.
Then Jan Chait who writes for Diabetes
Self Management wrote an excellent blog February 14, 2012 about
someone that was seeming uncaring about diabetes. This cleared the
cobwebs and I am writing about this person. He is retired and lives
alone. He said that he knows of no one in his family that has or had
diabetes, but did lose his wife to what he says was diabetes about
three years ago. She was diagnosed about three years prior to her
death with diabetes and put on insulin at the start.
He does not know what caused her death
other than he blames the diabetes and insulin. When he found out
that six of our group was on insulin, he about passed out and asked
how long we had been on insulin. I am the longest of our group on
insulin at eight full years and another has been on insulin for about
five years. The shortest time on insulin is almost three months.
Others have been on insulin for more than one year.
This surprised him and he asked why we
were all appearing to be healthy and able to get around on our own.
His wife had been put on insulin and about nine months later had one
foot amputated and was in a wheel chair.
When asked what his A1c was, he could
not tell us. All he knew was that the doctor had told him he had
diabetes and wanted him to start a medication. He could not tell us
the medication, as he was not going to take it. We knew we had a
challenge. How were we going to get him to accept his diabetes and
take the steps to manage diabetes?
We did encourage him to get copies of
his test results done by the doctor. We also talked some about food
and made some suggestions we thought might help him. He seemed very
receptive to most of our ideas. When we got to moderate to high fat,
he balked and said his doctor has encouraged him to be on a low fat
diet. We asked if he was having problems with weight gain to which
he answered no. We then asked him if he was having cholesterol
problems and how he was doing on the lipid panel. He said good as
far as he knew.
Again, we strongly urged him to get
copies of all tests the doctor had done. Then we asked, if he did
not mind, bring them for him to read from to add a solid foundation
for discussion. He said he would and we let him go with that. He
said he will stay in contact with his closest neighbor who is one of
us and had invited him to the meetings. I have since learned that he
is out exercising every day that he is able. He jogs and walks every
day – weather permitting and apparently has a treadmill in his
house.
Now if we can get him past his denial
and to accept his diagnosis. Then he may be more open to some
serious discussions for managing his diabetes. We are hoping that we
may have another potential member. We are also aware we have a
challenge ahead of us.
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