Thanks hon. I do try to be. I have a friend who is over 75 and her daughter asked me to bring my meter and test her mother. Her sugar reading was 157. The daughter's eyes went up, my eyes went up, the mother asked me 'what does it say?" and I said: "when did you last eat?" and she said "2 hours ago". I said "Let's wait one more hour". Oh, she's over 200 lbs by the way.

So we waited another hour (meaning, her sugar should have done DOWN), her sugar went up.

So the daughter was motioning to me "don't tell her, don't tell her" and I'm going "why on earth not, she's a diabetic"

And since I could not tell her I said "well when is your next blood test?" and she said "Oh, I don't want to go". (What can I do???)

But, she had an accident, went into the hospital, they took her blood, they then asked her "Are you a diabetic? and she emphatically said 'NO"

So they took her word and went on to fix other stuff that was happening to her at the time.

Hey, if people don't want to know, don't care to know and have BIG deniability going on, nothing I can do.

I can only help the people who want to be helped. Anything else is counter-productive and has no effect. I learned this a long time ago. I don't stick my nose where people don't want my nose to be stuck.

Now here is where it gets interesting. I printed out Mrs. D posting and brought it to my friend (the one who went on vacation)

She read the whole thing and she looked at me and said "she thinks I should go on insulin?"

I then said "well, more and more researchers are now telling patients who have type 2 to go on insulin (especially if the sugar is all over the place), INSTEAD of the orals because oral meds can cause potential side effects that insulin does not cause. And basal insulin, well, it's a start.

She then said 'I want to go off all my meds"

I then stuck my nose where it doesn't belong and reminded her

"Remember the last time you did that?

A few years ago she got tired of checking her sugar every day, got tired of meds, got tired of the one shot of Lantus (remember she weighs 120, so there is NO weight issue here), and she did her own experiment (kind of like what I did for 7 weeks but in her case she put her meter away)

I said "You did not take your blood sugar, you did not take any meds at all, you tried to control it withe diet and remember what happened??"

She said slowly "yeah"!!

Want to know what happened to her? She collapsed and they rushed her to hospital where she was in a coma and her sugar was 600.

So I said "You are NOT attempting any more experiments unless you talk everything over with your diabetic practictioner."

She said "but you did an experiment". I said "With the approval of my doctor, the people at Cornell and my sugar was 111 and I was on 5 units of Lantus.

BIG DIFFERENCE THAN YOU RIGHT NOW!!!

She said "but if you could do it, why can't I", "I don't want to take meds"

I said 'No one wants to take meds, but let's talk about what's happening with your pancreas".

I then explained just like Mrs. D has explained in many of her postings.

When I left, she finally understood that MY pancreas has nothing to do with HER pancreas. That MY diabetes has nothing to do with HER diabetes.

We are all different, at different levels of diabetes care management and we each have to do what we each have to do.

Even with the perfect diet, well, the pancreas does what the pancreas does.

She is only 48 and she's afraid of going on Humalog.

So after all that talk, I said to her 'Your mom had diabetes right?" She said "yeah" , I said "you have diabetes, right?" She said "yeah, why"?

I said "your son must get tested. On a regular basis. There is some genetic factor that might be going on and it's better to know now than be surprised later"

She jumped up and said "No, I will not have that, I don't want to know".

I said "But your son HAS to know". He is newly married, they want kids. (I was gentle, believe me), I appealed to the rational side of her brain and not the emotional side.

I said "and listen to me, things change, new research happens every day, they are trying to develop an insulin pill so people might not have to take injections any more (I'll say anything to her to get her to have her son test his blood sugar)

She then said "I heard that right now they are doing pancreas transplants" "why can't they give me a new pancreas".

I then SLOWLY explained "that is only done to the Type 1's right now" and you do know that when you have an organ transplant, you have to be on anti-rejection drugs for the rest of your life?"

She said 'why". Then I explained that our bodies can reject anything that we were not initially born with and people who get new hearts, new lungs, new organs, well they have to go on anti-rejection drugs which in themselves have certain side effets so ONE DOESN'T JUST WALTZ into a doctor's office and announce "I want a new pancreas"

Anyway, at least she is not going off of her meds any time soon, thank goodness.

But I wish the son would get tested.

And I have another friend who is 53, who is extremely obese, who never gets tested, and whose mom died at age 53 from diabetes after having MANY amputations.

See the pattern going on here?

Very frustrating.

Melody