Well, the nutritionist called today (DH saw her last week about his type 2 diabetes). His A1c was 9.9, and his doctor has been threatening him with insulin for the last 2 or 3 years. I don't know if his ex-wife was helping him control it or not (probably not, since his BGs have been high for quite a while). We've only been married 11 months, and I knew absolutely nothing about diabetes when we got married. I've had to learn a lot in a hurry, and I finally convinced him that he needed to watch his carbs, which he's been doing for the last month or so. Not long enough to affect his A1c this last time, but it should affect it and show up by the time he's due for another one. The nutritionist told his doctor that we were starting on low carb, and DH has lost 6 lbs since he last saw his doctor 3 months ago. But she's not going to give us time to see if this works to get his A1c down and control his BGs. She's bound and determined that he will go on insulin, whether he wants to or not. Since we're dealing with the VA, I don't have a clue what they will do if he refuses. I don't know if she'll keep refilling his metformin and glyburide, or if she'll cut him off, or what. He works 25 miles away from home, and he says he can't inject himself. He can handle someone else doing it, but he can't handle doing it himself (and it's like pulling teeth to get him to test, too, he hates sticking his finger, and his doctor told him testing a couple of times a week was fine, WTF! I heard her say that when we saw her last, and I couldn't believe she said that).
So far, he doesn't have any neuropathy, his heart, lungs, and liver are fine, and he's working a job where he's lifting 28 to 42 lb boxes off a conveyor and putting them on pallets. If he gets hired on full time (he's working thru a temp agency now, that way he can work when he wants to), he'll be working 12 hour shifts at night (6 pm to 6 am), which is going to make it a stone cold bitch to figure out when he should test and when he should take his meds. Especially since he'll be working 2 days on, off 2, work 3, off 2, work 2, off 3, repeat sequence. If he's supposed to take his meds at the same time every day, and eat his meals at the same time every day, this second shift schedule is going to screw his diabetes all to hell (and the company really wants to hire him, they asked him today, and he has never put in an application). So I'm thinking we need to make an appointment to see her and get this shit straightened out. I'm not sure she's going to listen to anything we have to say, but I sure as hell don't know what else to do.
If his A1c being this high hasn't had much of an effect on him in the last couple of years, I don't know why the hell she can't wait another couple of months to see if the changes in the way he eats is helping. The only problem he has, and I don't know if it's related to his diabetes or not, is with his eyes. He's had laser surgery on each eye 3 times for excessive watering (something about extra blood vessels that had to be zapped, is what he said, this was before I ever met him), and just about a month ago, he had a cataract removed. He has an eye drop that has to be put in once a day (both eyes) for the pressure (and he's been using it ever since we've been together). It seems like when his BGs are high, so is the pressure in his eyes. But the last time he saw the eye dr., his pressure was down to 15 in both eyes, so I'm thinking the change in the way he eats is lowering his BGs, and therefore lowering the pressure in his eyes. But what the hell do I know, I'm not a doctor. All I know is what I've read from the books that have been recommended and what I've learned from the diabetic lists I signed up for.
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