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My mom has dementia and is am uncontrolled diabetic..she does not remember to take her meds. She also lives at home and her bedroom is on the 2nd level and her insulin is kept in a fridge on the main floor... She likes to stay in her room, so I take her meds and meals up to her. I've noticed that she "sighs", rolls her eyes or slightly grimaced when I take her meds. Yesterday on our way to appt. Wanted to stop for food. I had brought her insulin and handed it to her. She threw it toward the floor board and made a derogatory comment..I heard "it's irritating".. I tried to ask her a about it, but she turned away from me and said she couldn't hear what I was saying.. She is very hard of hearing and uses hearing aids. She ignored me the rest of the drive. We didn't speak again that night. Home health is visiting Monday, should I give this over to them...let mom take them on her own, shrug it off and continue to help..after a few days she calms down. I am tired of her fits of anger and unwillingness to talk it out. Ideas?? Thank you for listening..

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My reaction to your post is probably quite unacceptable, but you can ignore it. If you mother is really difficult, and she refuses to take insulin medication that is keeping her alive, let her have her way. It is actually very difficult to force people to swallow.
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Your mum lives in her own home? If so perhaps it is time for her not to be living alone any more. I see from your profile you are looking after your father too. Does he have dementia as well?

I would think a call to her doctor is in order, Non compliance with meds is a very serious issue for a diabetic, Certainly tell home help. I doubt you will be able to talk things out with her.You cannot reason with a person with dementia. The anger may be part of the dementia too. Remember she is not playing with a full deck. Is there an Alz support group in your area? It may help to talk to someone who has been through this. Let us know how you make out,
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Hi Ann,
This is such a tough situation.
My husband is an insulin dependent diabetic and even though he does not have any dementia sometimes he is very resistant to checking his blood sugar or keeping up on his insulin. Diabetes is a very overwhelming disease-to couple it with the complexities of dementia is a lot to cope with for you and your mom.

One thing to keep in mind: low blood sugar is much more life-threatening than is high blood sugar. So, if you mom skips doses of insulin and is running in the 300mg/dl for her blood sugar that can be ok.
Obviously, if she did not have another life limiting illness (dementia) than keeping her blood sugar in the 100-180 range would be very important. But she does have another life-limiting illness and that illness is preventing her from understanding the importance of keeping up on her insulin.
So, it seems to me you need to "play to win". And do not fight about the insulin because it only causes more resistance.
How are you monitoring her blood sugar to know when she should take insulin? Does she cooperate with finger sticks or do you have one of the monitors that stays on her and reads her blood sugar to your cell phone?
If she is not a Type 1 diabetic, and takes oral medications (pills) for blood sugar in addition to the insulin then that is also helpful. While not ideal, they will help to keep her blood sugar from going crazy high (500s) because of missed insulin.
If she absolutely must have insulin, I would suggest you speak with her MD to get her on a once daily insulin-but keep the dose on the low side in case she misses meals during the day.
Again-low blood sugar is the most important thing to avoid.
Feel free to send me a personal message if you want to talk more.
Best of luck
Margaret
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