I just wanted to add that diabetes can hit anybody at any age. Sometimes if you are on a certain medicine it's possible to get diabetes from that.

12 years ago, while visiting my father in a nursing/rehabilitation facility in Florida, (he was 79).my father kept giving me dollar bills and telling me to go to the coke machine. He kept saying, "I'm always thirsty, I can't get enough coke". I said "how many cokes have you had today, and he must have said 7 or so".

Since I'm diabetic (I have never been thirsty, so go figure), but I knew about my condition, as soon as I got him the coke, he slugged it down and said "man, I'm still thirsty".

I immediately went to the nurse and said "please test my dad's blood sugar, I believe he has diabetes". Since he was there for congestive heart failure, she looked at me and I could see her brain thinking "Oh we have another nut on our hands who thinks she knows everything". She just did it to keep me quiet. His sugar reading was 800. She immediately gave him a shot of insulin.

He had to take 2 shots a day after that. He lived one more year and was quite comfortable. He had been given hospice care at the beginning of being sent to this place. They gave him 9 months to live. Because of his care, he lived 18 more months . I would call him every day (visiting him as often as I could) and on December 23, 1995, I called him at 6 p.m. and he was all excited because my aunts had just dropped off a peach pie. He was very excited and very happy. After a short I love you, he hung up, rode his scooter into his room, got off, sat down in a chair and passed away.

They knew he was dead but he had a pulse. They all went nuts and called the paramedics saying "something is going on, this man has passed away but he still has a pulse". The paramedics did their thing and then said "oh, this man has a pacemaker, that's why he still has a pulse".

My father got one over on them until the end didn't he?? He was the nicest man I ever knew.

So diabetes hits even when you dont' expect it to.

make sure he doesn't have it then you can go on from there.

Melody