Eowyn_Vala

I have a friend who is 21 and 6 months pregnant. She was diagnosed with diabetes she was around 12 years old. She has always been bad about watching her glucose levels and eats lots of sugar. Her solution is to take insulin when she eats sugar. In the beginning of her pregnancy she was smoking and I know she drank a bit. She has quite smoking mostly, only one every now and then. From what I know she doesn't drink anymore and hasn't for a few months. But she still does a terrible job of watching her glucose levels. She's gone so low a few times that she woouln't wake up in the morning and her mom or a friend had to force feed her sugary foods, or call an ambulance. She's also gone really high recently to where she says the baby isn't moving around anymore, she'll test, be really high, take insulin and soon the baby is moving again. I am really worried about her. She doesn't seem to realized how serious this is.

I guess what I want to know is exactly how serious is this? What problems could this cause for her or her baby? Most of the time when she's really low or high she just takes insulin and shrugs it off thinking it won't be that bad. I try to get her to stay away from sugary foods, but I don't feel comfortable giving her advice. I'm not her mom. I don't have diabetes. And I don't know exactly what could go wrong just the general knowledge that it isn't good for her. I don't feel like I should lecture her. But I do think she needs someone to sit her down and talk to her about this. What should I do?

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Cain: I know what you're doing. I've lead troops into battle before.
DG: And, how am I doing?
Cain: Well, there's less *hugging* when I do it

Sage

Long story short- she's killing herself and her baby. My dad has been diabetic since he was 21. Around three years ago mom finally told him he had to go see a specialist (up until that point he'd be relying on his normal doctor to monitor his diabetes). It's made such a huge difference in my dad's life- he's lost a lot of weight, and is almost to the point where he's not medically definied as diabetic anymore (keep in mind he's had this disease for 40 years).

Your friend is killing herself very slowly- perhaps not even that slowly. Insulin regulation is one of the most important things that the body needs to attend to, as it is the main factor in the metabolization of food- you know, FUEL for the body. If the fuel system in your car is messed up, your car with either not run or run very very badly- same for the body. The fact that she's pregnant and doing this.. well, if you love her and value her life in any way you need to sit her down and tell her what she's doing to herself. It's the same kind of bodily abuse that she and her baby would be going through if she was on heroin or crack- her body isn't working right and that needs to be fixed NOW.

Shooting up with insulin when her blood sugar is high is like running a marathon at full speed and then collapsing right at the end with no cool-down. At best, she could have another five years before major bodily organs start to fail. At worst, she could miscarry or have a stillborn baby. I watched my aunt die slowly because she failed to monitor her diabeties- she had liver failure, kidney failure, had to pee through a catheter, was on a breathing machine with a stoma (hole in her throat), was 300lbs overweight, and the last week of her life was non-coherient.

It's a bad, bad way to die. Talk to your friend, get her to a doctor that specializes in treating diabetes. Why a specialist? Well, if she had heart problems you'd want her to go to a cardiologist, right? She goes to an OBGYN because she's pregnant, right? Well, normal doctors aren't very schooled on all the nuances of treating diabetes- part of the problems that my dad had over the years were because the doctor he was seeing was fiddiling with his insulin.

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VitaminH

Well your friend should know (and her physician should have told her) letting your diabetes go out of control while pregnant is going to increase her risk of the baby having various birth defects, or even worse, having a miscarriage or stillborn baby. The risks are all higher if she has uncontrolled blood sugar during pregnancy.

For herself, point out that diabetes is the number one cause of blindness in the US today due to lack of control. letting the sugar stay out of control is hard on your heart and kidneys specifically. The nerves in your hands and feet can get screwed up causing all sorts of fun nerve pain, and eventually a complete loss of feeling. Then once you have no feeling in your feet you get a cut and don't feel it. The cut can't heal because your blood vessels are all lax and there's fluid pooling in your legs so the proper white blood cells can't get there to fight the infection. On top of that, with the high blood sugar your blood is like Kool-aid and the bacteria and fungi love all that sugar and grow like mad. Then she can say goodbye to her foot. Just her foot if she's lucky. Once the foot goes, the legs generally aren't far behined.

I understand always having to monitor her glucose sucks, and insulin shots are no fun, and she can't eat what she wants. But when it boils down to being at her baby's soccor games in a few years standing and clapping or in a wheelchair because she has no legs, I think I'd choose the former. If she's even there at all.

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"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever."
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