Next to God

 Today I will be looking into Hospice care for Kay.  Just gathering information as Tom will be taking a well deserved trip back east to see Robby and family.  Then to visit Gettysburg.   I had a great opportunity to make a point with a nurse today about how  to take an accurate reading of  b/g.  They all seem to have the idea that the quicker they take the strip out of the blood the better. Obviously they have no idea about how capillary action works.  Today the nurse took my reading and it was  146 which it has never been fasting for a long time.  I just commented that I did not think it was correct.  Surprisingly she said she would take another reading.  That surprised me but I quickly took her up on the offer and the next one read 88 which is drastically different and that her first reading was a bad reading.. Of course she should have done a third and proved which one was correct.  But  from experience I knew the second one was the good one I was also able to tell her when she got the strip in the blood to keep it there a second or so.   I don't know if it will make any permanent difference as I have demonstrated it to another nure previously but that bonehead is too hard headed to change his way of thinking.  He is the last person to take instruction from a patient. What does a patient know about anything?  "I'm a nurse"  Next to God.  I see Kay today. 

Thursday Morning Report

 I think I am back to normal now.  The 92 degree  level not the 30 year level.  The new LPN is back this morning. Young, Honey blondish nice physical.   From the way she answered a question two days ago it didn't seem like she was at all enthusiastic about the job so I was surprised to see her back today.  She  seemed experienced in administering insulin and doing a b/g test.  Although from the way she does mine with my meter it is obvious she has not read the manual for this meter.  To do a the best job the meter can deliver  you must give it enough blood to get an accurate reading.  On this meter you are supposed to hold it in the blood spot until it beeps.  Too little and it tends to read high. I can go back to my normal exercising now if my knee will stand it.   

Managing blood sugar

 This is how they manage your diabetes in an assisted living facility.  Before every meal you  to to the central location to get a blood test to make sure you should get a shot.  In the evening about 2 hours after dinner you go down again and have it tested so you wont die from hypoglycemia during sleep.  If you are way over a healthy blood sugar level too bad.  Nothing can be done about it.  Just look around and see how things are with the patients.  The doctor checks the records occasionally to make adjustments in the amount of insulin to administer.There is no diabetes education.  You are on your own.  

The caregivers seem to think that your b/g has to be about 120 to be right.  The healthy non-diabetic will run about 85 mg/dl.   

Accuracy in B/G testing

To all you diabetics out there who take so much confidence in the readout of your meter when you test for glucose.  Did you read the fine print where it says it is accurate to 20 percent?  Well, for monitoring your B/G that is next to useless if you can't improve the accuracy.  Let's say your actual B/G is 100.  20 percent of that is down to 80 or up to 120 what your meter can say and still be in it's spec's not much good though for adjusting you B/G.  How you can increase the accuracy to 1 or 2 percent is when you sample the blood with the strip  you keep it exactly where you sampled it so the strip does not move but keeps taking in blood if it needs it. You will not be able to see this if it does need the extra blood.  This will give it the proper amount of blood to give an accurate reading.  I use a Bayer which reads out in 5 seconds and keep it in position for 4 seconds if possible. This works fine on any size drop of blood if the sample into the strip does not reduce the size of the blood sample.  If it does reduce the sample size that means it did not get full.  But if you don't see a reduction in the blood drop you will get an accurate reading because it had it's fill. This works for very small drops. The main problem then is getting the ding and drawing the strip out too soon.  I keep the strip in for several seconds although I am not sure it really needs that long  for accuracy.  Maybe even one second would be ok.  It is easier for me to just keep it in to be sure instead of sticking myself the number of times to figure it out.  Now if you happen to have a reading of 110 and want to bring it down to 90 you can check yourself 15 or 20 minutes later and be fairly sure the reading you get is correct. If you are only sure of 20 percent  it would be useless to adjust with that information.

-- --------Fishing in Alaska ---------nowaytofish.blogspot.com --------- Doyal and I put ours on even though we couldn't live more than 10 or 15 minutes in water like that. Too far to swim and the dinghy wouldn't hold us all.--------------- 4 years in 3rd Inf in WW2 billswar.blogspot.com My less heroic contribution. seniorobserver.blogspot.com KE7PLR Established (born)Aug. 23, 1921

How to get Kay to eat properly

How do I get Kay to eat properly?  Yesterday I made her breakfast of the same  when I made my own poached egg on milk toast.  But she didn't eat of bite of it.  Today I intended to make a piece of French toast but she started eating a piece of bread and butter and an orange before I could get it made so she didn't get to eat something with protein in it.  A couple weeks ago in a blood test her A1c came back 6.2.  That is higher than my A1c which was 5.2.  She is either diabetic or is eating so poorly that her blood sugar is high fom the way she eats like that above. Doctors dont like to prescribe medicaton for someone especially with b/g of 6.2  a1c because the patient is going to go hypoglycemic because of overdosing the medication.  They don't want to give the job of controlling their blood sugar to the patient because the patient does not know enough and the a1c isn't high for the doctor to prescribe medication without the patient going hypoglycemic from too much medication.  So the dr pays his bills by constant visits by the patient.  Of course the simple solution is for the patient to manage their own medication.  But Kay is not able to do this in her condition.  Some day this condition will catch up with her but as it varies from patient to patient we wont know until it happens.


Bill Sheldon June 17, 1920. April 4, 2001. Four years in the 3rd Infantry Division WW2 His story. Find it at Four years in the 3rd Inf in WW2
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