Dementia and Type 1 Diabetes

LaneyG

Hi!

Does anyone out there have a spouse with Type 1 diabetes along with Stage 4/5 demential.

I am interested in your experiences. My husband uses an insulin pump. I am managing his diabetes at this point. He never remembers to bolus, put on his pump, etc. So far it is working ok but I live in dread of the day when he starts to resist. As of now he just occasionally gets grumpy with my helping. If I don't help...

Thanks for any input.

M1

No personal experience Laney but I'm a retired internist. It's good he's letting you help. For other things, it works with my partner for me to jokingly tease her and say that i am working as her administrative assistant-i used that with banking and i even used it again for showering and changing clothes last Sunday.

There are other threads about type 1 diabetes, using pumps is very difficult. At some point you may need to give it up and opt for looser glucose control-there comes a point at which it's much less important than it used to be. He's much more likely to die of hypoglycemia than of ketoacidosis, but obviously you would need to discuss this with his endocrinologist.

midge333

Yes! I am in that exact situation. My wife has had type I diabetes for nearly 60 years. She also has stage 4/5 dementia. I have been managing her omnipod pump for 2 or 3 years. She is very compliant with the pump and my management. I recognize that this may not be the case during late stage 5 and early stage 6. As M1 pointed out, a glucose monitor and pump may not be possible.

LaneyG

Same day I reached out here, I also reached out to his endocrinologist. She only said that when the time comes that we can't manage the pump anymore we might need to go to shots. Not sure that will be any easier. Time will tell. She also reminded me that there's the new pump Ilet. That does not require any boluses. That could make a significant difference. Keeping fingers crossed that this will continue to manageable for both of us.

MrBurns

My wife has Type I, diagnosed just over 50 years ago. She was a Certified Diabetes Care & Education Specialist until her memory issues forced her retirement. She uses a pump, and we just got a new one for her. She'd tried CGMS before and wasn't happy with it. Her words: It's not ready for prime-time. This pump came with "new and improved" CGMS and it's been MUCH better. I can monitor her BG even when I'm at work (when the app works). I can see boluses to make sure she's doing them. And the system keeps her BG in MUCH tighter control than was possible before. I have always done the infusion set insertion for her, and now I'm taking over more and more - helping with the complete infusion set replacement, installing the monitor/transmitter, etc. We're probably in stage 2-3, so I know it's going to get tougher but for now it's working OK. I'm hoping the current situation will be do-able at least until I can retire (less than 1,000 days now, but who's counting?)