Diabetes

I looked after my father in law for one day last week whilst my sister took a well earned break and took her family for a day out to Gentling highlands for the birthday of her eldest. Now my father in law is diabetic and is still recovering from a recent stay in hospital after a decline in his health. He requires careful monitoring of his diet and need to receive his insulin jabs. I had to take in a lot of information very quickly about what to do and when, since I would be performing his blood test and injecting him, so already the concerns of him ‘OD’ing if I get it wrong have reared their head. When you are an insulin diabetic your life is not much fun, you have to be careful of what you eat to ensure that you don’t get an imbalance.

Breakfast had already been taken care of since I had a very early appointment with immigration who were trying to break the world record for how much time they could waste in stamping a piece of paper (currently stands at three hours!).

So in time for lunch I attempt the first blood test. You have to jab the persons finger for a blood smear and rub this onto a sort of litmus strip which has one end inserted in a blood sugar measurement instrument. You have to get a good dollop of blood otherwise the test will fail. The first jab produces a slight smear, not good enough so onto another finger. Since he has low circulation I have to rub the finger to stir up the circulation. The second jab gives a nice healthy dollop to measure the blood sugar, so good that I have to wrap his finger in tissue paper so now it looks like a shaving cut !

If the sugar level is high enough then insulin has to be injected. The dose settings are easy, just turn the dial to required amount and then press the button on the top like a ballpoint pen to push the dose through the needle. Then this is the uncomfortable bit because I have to do the injection since my father in law is very weak and does not have the strength to do it himself. There is no alcohol swab like you get at the doctors, you just do it straight in and by the way did I mention that I hate needles even if its stabbing someone else because that’s what you have to do, imagine that day in day out. So the point of injection has to be the stomach because it’s too uncomfortable in the arm. I look like a junkie trying to find a suitable vein to inject into. I have to tell him to take a deep breath to tense the stomach muscle apparently for better delivery and then bang – the needle goes straight in and you push the button to deliver the dose. You can see he is uncomfortable with it through the tension in his face. Its over for now until the next injection a few hours later, all in all about four injections a day, not something to look forward to. In addition to his diabetes he has not been eating properly and is having bowl problems so I ended up have to help him to the bathroom. That plus the lack of control of bowl movement makes him very embarrassed with a lack of dignity in front of his son in law whom he has only known for less than a year. I had to search around for a new towel, and not knowing where they were I had to go rooting through various cupboards and at one point I had opened an overhead door to reach in for a towel, only for the door to be whacked by the overhead fan as I hadn’t realized how close it was, typical developers cock up when they built the house. It could have been my hand or my head, but it was the door and I guess my sister is going to love me for that!



So perhaps the thing is from all of this is – take care of yourself so that you hopefully never have to go through diabetes.


As I write this there is a great storm of thunder and lighting far away over the houses. It looks and sounds like a battle of some sort, reminds me of war of the worlds.

Music of the Moment : Peter Namelook & Richie Hawtin – From Within III part I