Warning, Double Post: I somehow managed to write an entry, thought I had lost it, wrote another, then it showed up again! The hell with it, I'm leaving both on and my readers can just get eyestrain.
Oh, darn, darn, darn! (If I wasn't such a lady, I'd write, "Damn, damn, damn!") I posted to the blog before I went out for our walk and, somehow, managed to delete it--aagh!
Okay, this'll be truncated: Took Pat to endocrinologist in Ventnor, who adjusted his insulin. He gave the diet lecture, to which Pat was completely and utterly unreceptive, as ever. I guess in frustration, Dr. S. asked, "When should I see you again?" and Pat replied, "In twenty years." We settled on six months.
Pat eats just exactly anything he wants, and goes very heavy on the sweets. Even for somebody without diabetes, his diet is about as unhealthy as you can get. Never eats salad ("I don't like lettuce") or vegetables aside from peas, corn, and baked beans, all of which are much more starchy than "greens." The few veggies he does eat he regards as a kind of garnish just to pretty up the plate; he sure as hell doesn't think of them as food.
I no longer nag Pat to improve his diet. My thinking is this: If he started adhering to a low fat, low sugar, veggie-rich diet TODAY, it wouldn't add one hour to his longevity. He has end-stage emphysema and food doesn't go to his lungs. Sure, as his primary doctor remarked, "If you lose thirty pounds, it might make your breathing easier." And if the Bush twins enlisted, it might make people more agreeable to the war. Ain't gonna happen.
I'll continue to buy the Tastykake, pudding, and chocolate-covered graham crackers Pat loves, so he can at least get some pleasure out of life. He is 76 years old and has outlived all but one of his six siblings. I'm not suggesting his dreadful diet has helped him do that; it's probably simply the luck of the draw, but clearly, he didn't die young with a prognosis of sugar, either.
Well, I'm out of my slump and feeling good. (Hmm...when I write that, I think of the French saying: "Good health is unconscious of itself." If I were really "feeling good," would I notice and remark on it?) Oh, for heaven's sake, Rosemary, quit being so introspective!
I'm supposed to stay out of strong sunlight, but generally it hasn't bothered me. Foot still red and it itches ferociously, but I trust it will improve.
MONDAY, MIKE, AND THE EMPIRE
I spent some of the morning dealing with Little Egg Harbor Township, after getting a notice that my mercantile license (for having a rental ...
5 comments:
Oh good a double post. Now, I can check to see if you are lying....LOL...naw everything matched up.
I understand Pat's and your attitude toward his Diabetes...I would probably be the same. It's not like he's 30 and newly diagnosed with 46 yrs ahead of him. He may as well enjoy what he can.
If he were younger they could probably place one of those insulin pumps in his body and it'd adjust to his changing blood sugar levels.
Some patients with emphysema who have trachs have been seen putting a cigarette up to their trach to smoke. Hard to watch, but you can't stop them. It's many times harder on the caregivers.
My brother is supposed to stay away from salt (bouts of heart failure) and yet he loves and eats ham, lebonon bologna etc.
I don't understand how you can walk on your foot...is the bite not on the walking surface?
i agree, Pat should eat what ever he likes. I know how much he likes healthy foods...Oh..no that is somebody else.
Pat,
Yes, it is on the bottom of my foot, but it doesn't hurt. Remember, Alison removed the tick, so it isn't there anymore. The itch has even moved up to the side of my foot, although both areas are still red. Don't know why it doesn't hurt, but ignorance is bliss.
Rosemary I can totally understand your frustration with Pat and his diet. You want to do what is best but he eats what he wants.
Bob is a bad diebetic and refuses to stick to a diet. I cook a meal and he will eat it but then goes and makes what he wants to eat. What get me is that when he was in the hospital with ruptured appendix, they couldn't regulate his sugar for the entire time he was there. He left and his sugar was still high. If they couldn't regulate it how do they expect me to?
Dee, nobody should expect you to regulate Bob's sugar. I never did Pat's. Although I put all his pills (15 a day) in the right slots in his weekly pill holder and do a lot of other things for him, I've never handled either his insulin or his inhalers. I do go to the store and when he asks me to get various (sweet) things, I do. I've given up on trying to get him to eat the right things for the reasons I put on my blog.
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