Lessons for People New to Type 2 Diabetes, Part 9

I sincerely hope that you have gained information or reviewed information that could be important to you from this series. I am aware of several people that felt other topics should have been included. I do admit that one topic could be, but I seldom write about women's topics. Now if you are a woman, and have not reached menopause yet, then be aware of this variable in the management of your diabetes.

Some women have no problems and other women have extreme problems in managing blood glucose levels. One-size-fits-all cannot be applied here and I will not make any more comments that could cause me problems.

In reviewing some of my blogs, I feel this needs reemphasis about the type of patients and doctors as this could help understand what causes the actions of many patients. I had to rethink this as well when one of our new members asked me why a friend of hers would not take her medication and was refusing help. Our member was very puzzled and frustrated as well. I suggested that she read this blog carefully and see if something described her friend.

About an hour later, Tim called and asked me to come and help Brenda, Jennifer, and him see if we could do an intervention to help Jennifer's friend. Tim said that the person seems to fit patient number one and would not fill her prescriptions and Brenda said she was relying on an herbal mix which Brenda knew would not help with diabetes. Brenda said she knew this because some of the ingredients would raise blood glucose levels and the other ingredients could not lower it, but could make her very ill.

Tim had already called Dr. Tom and said he would be there shortly as office hours were over. Jennifer's friend was already becoming combative and we were concerned for Brenda as she was the object of her anger. Just as Dr. Tom arrived, Jennifer's friend grabbed a broom and was striking out at Brenda and Jennifer. I caught the broom as it about struck Brenda and held on and Tim grabbed her to prevent other objects being used. It took about 15 minutes to calm her down and Dr. Tom was very careful in the words he used.

Finally, Dr. Tom asked us to go to another room while he took the herbal bottle and asked if she would listen to him describe what the ingredients in it would do to her body. Brenda said there had to be more bottles of other natural remedies and we carefully found three others in the next 20 minutes. Then Brenda found the mother lode in a kitchen cabinet.

When Dr. Tom read the labels, he asked Tim to call an ambulance immediately while he continued to talk to her. He was able to get her to explain why she had them and had last taken a couple of them. In the meantime, Dr. Tom made a couple of phone calls to find out if a couple of medications were available locally and ordered them. Tim went one way while I went another to pick up the different medications and bring them back to where we were. The ambulance was there and Jennifer's friend was in with Dr. Tom. Dr. Tom took the medications in the ambulance and asked Jennifer to ride as well.

Then Dr. Tom asked Tim to follow with Brenda if she would come. Since there was no need for me, I returned home. About two hours later, Brenda called and said they were almost back and to come to Tim's. Dr. Tom said this was one intervention that had to happen. He said that a couple of the “natural” supplements were anything but natural for the human body and could have caused her to become violently ill and if taken in quantity would have killed her. We would all be returning to her home and do a room-by-room search for other substances. Brenda has her keys and others will be present.

I cannot say what all was found, but the police were even surprised by what turned up and Jennifer was happy that everyone had come together to help her friend. Dr. Tom repeated that all went well and he considered the intervention a success. He said that this should keep her friend out of trouble for some time and he would be in contact with Brenda and Tim about future actions. He had reports to complete and would keep them posted. Jennifer asked for and receive permission to visit her friend and a phone number to call before any visit.