I recently discovered some news on a diabetic website after my mom had been a diabetic for over ten years: 2 out of every 3 diabetics die of either heart attack or stroke. That was a wake up call to me who had lived a life of judging others for not being able to discipline themselves and stop eating sugar. See, my mother got a stroke at the age of 55, before I, her oldest child, had gotten married, and before she has seen a single, solitary grandkid. It was then that I realized diabetes isn’t really like the commercials where people say, “I check my sugar everyday just by simply pricking my finger.”
It seems that it can’t be the case that people are able to control diabetes that easily if 2 out of every 3 diabetics die from either a heart attack or a stroke.
But back to my mother’s story.
I had moved out of the house and my mother lived alone with my father. One day at work, her manager came over and noticed she was overly tired and dizzy. She was rushed to the emergency room and diagnosed with low blood sugar. The doctors gave her a bit of juice and sent her home. They said she was fine.
While at home, though, my mother was very lethargic. I noticed her tiredness and thought it was due to her recent trial with low blood sugar. About a week went by, my sister, who is a bit more compassionate than I am, thought to herself, “Something is just not right here.” And she called the ambulance. My mom was still tired after a week and she just seemed “out of it” in terms of her memory and her personality.
My sister told the ambulance drivers to ask her some questions like who the president was and how many children she had. She got most right, only missing a couple. The ambulance drivers pulled out a waiver asking my mom to sign it. The waiver would acknowledge they’d stopped by. But my sister said, “No, ask more questions.” The ambulance drivers asked my mom the date, and she got that wrong. She thought it was October 16th, and Halloween candy was still left sitting right on the table. The ambulance drivers asked her about the candy. She said it was for Halloween which didn’t come yet, and that’s when they put her in the van.
She was taken to ER again. She had an MRI and the doctors said she’d had two ministrokes. And they weren’t recent. Ministrokes are a sign that a full-blown stroke may be on its way, but with any stroke, the best thing to do is to see a doctor immediately.
When a ministroke happens, a person usually gets dizzy or a bad headache for a short period of time. So if that person doesn’t know what a ministroke is, he or she may not know to call for help.
Now, my mother is scheduled to have a cat scan to see if any brain damage has been done. She can remember things from ten years ago, but if you ask her what she did yesterday, she may have trouble. One of the doctors said it seems she may have short-term dementia. Case in point: Diabetes is nothing to play with.
I used to think diabetes was the easiest disease you could get. It’s not cancer. You don’t have to die from it, but then I remember those stats—two out of three.
Diabetes is called the silent killer for a reason. It can fool even us children who think, “boy, why can’t she just eat right.”
If you or someone you know has diabetes, do everything you can to help them before it’s gets really bad. If you hear a relative with diabetes say to you, ” I need you to help me start eating right.” Believe them. And even if they continually fall off the wagon, keep trying to help.
