My mother lives in another state and is not remembering to take her insulin. Any advice?
She has a community care person to come in and do laundry, run errands, etc. However, she is forgetting to take her insulin or is not giving herself the correct amount. Any suggestions?
bmray3, I think you are at the juncture where you need to understand that her long distance care going forward will be stressful and expensive. You don't mention how old she is, but she could have the beginnings of cognitive decline. Round the clock care will be very expensive. Any agency help that requires the qualifications to administer meds is a higher pay level. And I wouldn't trust this task to a privately hired individual. Do you think you can have an in-person conversation with your mom about moving her into a care community, and hopefully near you? I'm not giving this advice lightly, as this is a profound change. I do long-distance care myself and I have such a contingency plan if or when the time comes -- that she will be moved close to me, and she may not like it but I have no other realist solutions. May you have peace in your heart as you work out her future care.
I'd immediately explore getting her around the clock supervision or placement. Taking insulin is a very serious thing. You have to be really exact about the time, the amount and the injection. You also have to be very proficient in monitoring your blood sugar, by taking you blood sugar by finger stick and doing the right things, if it's too low. (I'm assuming she doesn't wear a continuous glucose monitor.) Forgetting to take insulin could be life threatening. Taking too much could be too. I'd treat it as an emergency. I say this, as a Type I diabetic who has taken insulin for many years. It's a full time job, even for a person with all their faculties. I'd check with her doctor to get guidance.
It is time for her to have medication management. You have not completed your profile, so we do not know if Mum has any other problems.
My former mil got to the point she could not fill her needles nor administer them due to a tremor in her hands. It was one of the signs that she needed to be in a care facility. As well as not being able to manage the needles, she was unable to test her blood.
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My former mil got to the point she could not fill her needles nor administer them due to a tremor in her hands. It was one of the signs that she needed to be in a care facility. As well as not being able to manage the needles, she was unable to test her blood.