Wednesday, July 19, 2000
My Sweet Mother - To LTF
Mom did not have a bladder infection. She had a blood sugar level of 571 (high normal is 125). Luckily she is not excreting ketones, which means that permanent damage to her internal organs, especially her kidneys, hasn't set in. She has what my grandparents used to call "sugar diabetes", which is common in people of advanced age. She is taking her medication this time. Apparently the medication her previous doctor put her on is hard-core and a lot of people, especially elders, have bad reactions to it. Her former doctor prescribed 850 mg Glucophage 3 times a day with no monitoring by herself or her doctor and some vague nonsense about how she could "eat all the popcorn and peanut butter [she wants]"; at least, that's what she remembers. She should never have been started on it they way she was.
We are both impressed with her new doctor and she likes him. The incontinence hasn't subsided yet that medication takes about a week to achieve full functionality. Already, though, there is striking evidence that her kidneys are purring now and are busily ridding her body of everything that should have been eliminated within the last year or so. Maybe she'll be coming out of her daze soon. Although I had no idea that her daze might have to do with her diabetes, when I thought about it I thought of it as a translucent syrup coating her brain and her optic nerves, making it difficult for her to be aware of her surroundings but allowing her just enough 'vision' to think she was 'seeing' normally. I guess that's exactly what it was.
Her doctor's name, by the way, although spelled differently, is pronounced "semen". His body looks like that of a very virile man. He carries himself like this, as well. I wonder which came first, the name or the body. Weird, huh!
We are both impressed with her new doctor and she likes him. The incontinence hasn't subsided yet that medication takes about a week to achieve full functionality. Already, though, there is striking evidence that her kidneys are purring now and are busily ridding her body of everything that should have been eliminated within the last year or so. Maybe she'll be coming out of her daze soon. Although I had no idea that her daze might have to do with her diabetes, when I thought about it I thought of it as a translucent syrup coating her brain and her optic nerves, making it difficult for her to be aware of her surroundings but allowing her just enough 'vision' to think she was 'seeing' normally. I guess that's exactly what it was.
Her doctor's name, by the way, although spelled differently, is pronounced "semen". His body looks like that of a very virile man. He carries himself like this, as well. I wonder which came first, the name or the body. Weird, huh!
