Dropping the ball on glucose testing

I guess one of the things I haven’t been particularly good at in my caregiver duties for Pops is making sure he tests his blood glucose regularly. Whenever I ask if he’s testing, he says he tests “once a week or so”, and – because his blood sugar has been under control for so long – I’ve been letting it go at that. Pops was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes a number of years ago, long before 2005 when I became so involved in monitoring his healthcare. Back in the beginning, I know he was pretty diligent about checking his blood glucose daily (as recommended) and, with the help of medication and some diet changes, he quickly got his diabetes under control. In 2006, I know he was still testing because I bought him a new Ascensia Contour glucose meter and we went over the testing procedure a bunch of times and I watched him test himself and then followed up with him for weeks after. But sometime over the many months between then and now, he seems to have gotten out of the habit of testing, and I got out of the habit of asking if he tested. I finally figured this out at the last doctor appointment when Dr. H. asked Pops what his blood sugar is running. Pops was kind of vague about it, and I could tell he was faking. Afterwards, when I asked him if he was testing regularly he hemmed and hawed, and then he said he was out of test strips. So today, when I was at his apartment I got the glucose meter case down from the shelf and looked in it and there were test strips galo...
Source: Caregiver Notes - Category: Caregivers Authors: Tags: Caregiver lifestyle Caregiving support Senior Health Alzheimer's disease blog blogger caregiver blog diabetes diabetes type II glucose testing jeff muise parents Source Type: blogs