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My father is diabetic.
His father was also diabetic, and had to inject himself with insulin for as long as I knew him (and disposed of the sharps, incidentally, in an empty soda can he kept in the refrigerator for that purpose -- FREAKY), and compared to my grandfather, my father is hardly diabetic at all. But still, he's been monitoring his blood sugar for years, and over the years it's had more and more of a mind of its own. For a while now, he and his doctor(s?) have been messing around with his medication in an attempt to get it to where the sugar level will be more or less even throughout the day -- at the levels of medication he was taking, a few months ago his sugar would plummet sort of late mid-afternoon, and be very low in the morning, which was no good. So they've adjusted this and tweaked that, and mainly it's been under control.
The first day I was back, my parents had to go to a dealership a couple of hours away to pick up my father's car, which had broken down on their way to visit my grandparents a week or so before -- it's not important, but they arrived home after a long drive and my father immediately took his sugar reading and it was dangerously low and he had some candy and was then able to think about what to do next (high on the list was "call the doctor and see if something can be done about this", because this was the plummeting thing I mentioned earlier, and it'd happened enough that it couldn't be considered a fluke). But since then, the whole time I've been home, it's been pretty much okay. Haven't heard any chatter about it, anyway.
But about half an hour ago, just as I was about to leave the living room and head up to bed, my dad comes down from his room looking not so good. Which, okay, nobody looks so good immediately upon waking up. But what are you doing up, I said, and he said he was awake and felt like he should measure his sugar. And it was Too Low, and I brought him a bit of chocolate to eat while I made him some popcorn, and I watched his jaw tremble as he chewed it.
I'm not happy. He says it's no big deal, and it doesn't happen often but he just readjusted his medication again, and I believe him, because he's seen enough with various family members that one thing he's not is stupid about his health. So it's not that I think he won't take care of himself, or won't keep my mother informed, or whatever. But, dudes. Ack. Ack.
His father was also diabetic, and had to inject himself with insulin for as long as I knew him (and disposed of the sharps, incidentally, in an empty soda can he kept in the refrigerator for that purpose -- FREAKY), and compared to my grandfather, my father is hardly diabetic at all. But still, he's been monitoring his blood sugar for years, and over the years it's had more and more of a mind of its own. For a while now, he and his doctor(s?) have been messing around with his medication in an attempt to get it to where the sugar level will be more or less even throughout the day -- at the levels of medication he was taking, a few months ago his sugar would plummet sort of late mid-afternoon, and be very low in the morning, which was no good. So they've adjusted this and tweaked that, and mainly it's been under control.
The first day I was back, my parents had to go to a dealership a couple of hours away to pick up my father's car, which had broken down on their way to visit my grandparents a week or so before -- it's not important, but they arrived home after a long drive and my father immediately took his sugar reading and it was dangerously low and he had some candy and was then able to think about what to do next (high on the list was "call the doctor and see if something can be done about this", because this was the plummeting thing I mentioned earlier, and it'd happened enough that it couldn't be considered a fluke). But since then, the whole time I've been home, it's been pretty much okay. Haven't heard any chatter about it, anyway.
But about half an hour ago, just as I was about to leave the living room and head up to bed, my dad comes down from his room looking not so good. Which, okay, nobody looks so good immediately upon waking up. But what are you doing up, I said, and he said he was awake and felt like he should measure his sugar. And it was Too Low, and I brought him a bit of chocolate to eat while I made him some popcorn, and I watched his jaw tremble as he chewed it.
I'm not happy. He says it's no big deal, and it doesn't happen often but he just readjusted his medication again, and I believe him, because he's seen enough with various family members that one thing he's not is stupid about his health. So it's not that I think he won't take care of himself, or won't keep my mother informed, or whatever. But, dudes. Ack. Ack.