What can be done with somone that won't control their diabetes?

Diabetes
1

After looking through this forum, I noticed it’s a UK site, so I’m guessing all the meter readings and reports are for the UK scale, so if there’s a conversion from the US glucose and A1C numbers to the UK versions, perhaps a moderator could convert them, but anyway, my wife has had type 1 diabetes for quite a few years, but it’s classified here in the US as ‘Labile’ diabetes (pronounced lay-bile), which means her sugar levels are uncontrollable, and randomly swing from 50 to 420, but when she feels the shakes of her sugar taking a nose dive, she immediately reaches for 3 or more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches which actually spike her sugar above 350 in seconds, and I’ve been trying to tell her to eat 1 sandwich then wait for about 15 minutes, take a reading and if it’s still going down, eat another, but if it’s rising, then stop, but she don’t listen, according to her, the normal sugar range should be between 250 and 350, and according the the ADA (American Diabetes Association), 250 to 350 is a medical emergency, she has been taken into hospital a few times with keto acidosis because the hospital reading showed as 500+.

Currently all what she believes in is slowing destroying her cognitive functions, and has already partially destroyed her peripheral nerves, she can’t tell the difference between hot and cold, unless it’s extreme, and in this Arizona desert temperatures can reach as much as 111F (43.8C), and at temperatures between 98 to 101F (36.6C to 38.3C), she’s freezing and insist that it’s other people that don’t know the difference, and keeps the heating up full, and when I try to tell her she’s being selfish and that other here are sweating like crazy, then all she says is “You’re not my husband, otherwise you would do everything you can to make me comfortable”, so I built a large shed at the end of the back yard and live in there now, with air conditioning, nice and cool at around 68F (20C).

Anyone that comes to the house gets beaten back by the extreme heat.

What can I do? Eventually she’s going to get burnt because she couldn’t be bothered to control her diabetes.

2

Hi, I’m really sorry to hear what you’re going through. If your wife is using a finger-stick glucose meter, it may not be giving her the most accurate picture in real time. These readings often have a slight delay, so they reflect where her blood sugar was a few minutes earlier, especially after eating, when levels can rise or drop quickly.

I switched to using a CGM (continuous glucose monitor) with an overpatch, and it’s made managing my diabetes so much easier. It gives real-time updates and can alert you to highs or lows before things get dangerous. Some insurance plans even cover the cost of a CGM, either partially or in full, so it’s worth checking with your provider.

Also, the fact that she can’t tell the difference between hot and cold might be a sign of nerve or blood vessel damage caused by long-term blood sugar swings. I really hope she’s able to get some help soon, it sounds like a very difficult and risky situation.

3

Hi, she is using a CGM, the Freestyle Libre 3 plus, which the sensor attached to her arm is not manually scanned, but the reader is scanning in real time, so that all she does is to pick up the meter/reader turn it on and there is the reading, and according to the history graph, at around 90% of the time, her sugar levels tend to be above 300, this is because when her Dr told her “this is what you take in the morning, this is what you take in the afternoon and this is what you take in the evening”, she doesn’t do anything in between, but when I try to tell her, to take insulin before eating lunch and adjust if needed throughout the day, all she says is “My Dr didn’t say that, and he knows more than you do, so I’m going by what he says”.

And that’s why she can’t or won’t control her diabetes, she thinks the Dr’s should be the ones controlling it, not her, if the Dr didn’t say it, then she doesn’t do it, and that includes any advice from the ADA (American Diabetes Association), so when I try to show her what they suggested she just says “Nope, that’s not what the Dr told me, so unless he says different, they don’t know what they’re talking about”.

I wish I could just get some sense into her.