We knew that several support groups
would be present for the final with the specialist on interventions.
We had 95 people present and had room for just a few more. With
that many people we were happy that the air conditioning was working.
I was not prepared for the start. Dr.
Tom took over and said we have had a successful intervention in the
last two weeks. He explained that he had been brought up to date by
several of the group and felt there was a good reason for the
intervention. At that point he introduced Jerry to the group. He
asked Jerry what his last A1c had been. Jerry answered 13.2%. There
were several gasps and Dr. Tom asked people to be quiet as there
would be more that would shake them up as they continued.
Dr. Tom explained that until last
Saturday, he lived with his wife who is a dietitian. After several
of our group had tried to work with him and had his wife stop them,
some rather harsh information came to light. First his wife was very
happy with his A1c and would not reduce the carbohydrates, had high
fructose in many of the food items he ate, and would not let him
reduce the carbohydrates he was eating.
He continued that when they were able
to separate him from his wife, Jerry and he had about an hour's talk
and a diagnosis that had been arrived at by the group. Dr. Tom said
he had never had one of these, but had talked to another doctor that
had experience with Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. He saw a few hands
go up and explained, Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSP), a type of
factitious disorder, is a mental illness in which a person acts as if
an individual he or she is caring for has a physical or mental
illness when the person is not really sick. In the case of diabetes,
this can take the form of feeding the person with diabetes with too
many carbohydrates.
Next he asked Jerry if he remembered
what his A1c was at diagnosis, Jerry answered 8.0%, his second was
7.5%, the last was the 13.2%, and the plasma blood glucose reading
from the week before was 331 mg/dl. Dr. Tom asked what medication(s)
he was taking and he said he was on metformin, 500 mg 2X, and now he
is taking insulin. He said that A.J was a great help in working with
him.
.
At that point, Dr. Tom asked the
intervention specialist to talk. The specialist stated that he had
been able to talk with Jerry's wife and did agree with Dr. Tom's
assessment. He could not say any more, but felt that the group had
come to Jerry's aid for the right reasons and this was the first case
he has seen. He said that normally you see this with one parent
doing this to children, but one adult can do this to another adult.
Jerry then said that the situation had
gotten out of hand and he knew that his A1c was heading the wrong
direction. He said that with the support group members that had
worked with him, he should be able to bring his A1c back in line or
at least under 7.0%. Dr. Tom said that under 7.5% would be great,
but that it was possible. Jerry said this was not what he had wanted
in his life, but that there was support for action when he needed it.
The specialist then spoke for another
half an hour about interventions and how valuable they could be. As
he concluded, he asked if James had anything to say. James stood and
said no, other than to thank everyone that had helped in his
intervention and the support group for forcing a few issues when he
had thought to go back to denial. He even said his wife had worked
to keep him away from denial. He finished by saying he felt better
now that his diabetes was being managed and that his last A1c was
6.6% and hopefully would be less at the next one.
Tim then said that they doubted we
could have two meetings this valuable again, but that our group was
happy for the meetings and hopefully presented something of value
that everyone would remember and use to manage their diabetes more
effectively. The meeting ended then. Some left, but many wanted to
talk to James and his wife, and to Jerry. Dr. Tom did call him away
and the doctors did want to talk to him. Allen, Ben, and Barry saw
to it that they were not interrupted and A.J needed to join them. It
took about an hour for people to disperse.
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