When a Diabetic Gets Too Much Information
When a Diabetic Gets Too Much Information
Rhetta A.
Gather
know that when you have a chronic health condition, it is good to know as much as possible about that condition, in theory. But I just finished adding some links in the Diabetes Library about Diabetes and Amputation and I feel like I need to throw up and then go back to bed for the day.
My mother was Type I diabetic. She struggled with the condition all her life. She lost her sight, she had triple bypass surgery, and then she dropped a fork on the floor one day and stepped on it because she couldn't see it. She got a tiny little cut and she absolutely refused to go to the doctor. She screamed and cried and said she would not go. We washed it out with hydrogen peroxide and agreed to wait until the next day. The next day, her toe was red and puffy and we took her to the doctor against her violent protests. He applied antibiotec cream to her foot and dressed it. But it didn't get better and it kept getting worse and finally they amputated it. First the toe, then part of the foot, then the whole foot, then the leg below the knee, then the leg above the knee. After that amputation, she had a stroke, went into a coma and died ten days later.
I think working on the complications section of the library may have been a mistake. I have Type II diabetes and no insurance, and I have neuropathy in my feet. I try to be very, very careful about my feet and do every thing I can to control my diabetes without all that great success.
So now I'm feeling freaked out, and I'm over here writing this to vent and calm down before I go back to the links.
All right..deep breath..going back now.
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