[unclebilly]

My dad refuses to control his sugars because in his opinion, his diabetes isn’t a problem. He refuses to take his meds, refuses to check his sugars, and refuses to take his insulin unless I am there forcing it. He insists on eating sweets like chocolate bars, donuts, ice cream, lemon meringue pie, etc.

He drinks fruit juice, pop etc.

When I arrived at his place the 2 weeks ago, I convinced him to check his sugars (he insisted they were fine). They were 20.9.

He insists that 14-20 is normal for him and no problem.

So here is where we are at… he lost his drivers license for not controlling his sugars and onset dimentia. The high sugar levels over the past 5 months have really taken a toll on his mental abilities. He sleeps 3/4 of the day.

Over the past 2 weeks, I’ve worked hard and got his sugars into the normal range (if he takes his insulin and I’m a bad guy and won’t let him have chocolate bars etc). His doctor won’t force him into an assisted living facility and I can’t force him either. I also have a job, a young family, a farm and a business to run - I can’t keep baby sitting him. He also live 700 miles away.

He is with us in Calgary now but wants to go home. At home, he will just turn off the home support again and go back to where we were at 2 weeks ago. I fear he will slip into another diabetic coma and wind up dead in 3-6 months if he just take him home.

What to do? Give in to his wishes and let him commit suicide with sugar or intervene and preserve his life at the cost of his freedoms?

I can see this from both perspectives and have no idea what the right approach is. We have tried to reason with him, the Dr tried, he is stubborn and has onset dementia so there is no convincing him to willingly go into assisted living.

I know some of you have lived this - how can I learn from your experiences or what you wished you had done?