omg

Really sorry to hear your news. Hope you feel better soon.

Hi cheza and welcome

Also sorry to hear your news. I had laser about 15 years ago (about 6 sessions) and whilst I have lost a bit of peripheral vision I can still see well enough to drive. Glad to say there have been no more signs of retinopathy since (I am checked once a year).

I also had stomach problems with deficiencies in Calcium, Vitamin D, Folic Acid, B12 and iron, This has all resolved since I was put on a gluten-free diet. I felt really terrible in the months running-up to that.

I think my kidneys are OK so can't comment on that.

Hoping it turns out to be not as bad as you might imagine, although I know it's a worry.

Hi there ive been suffering with really bad pains on my stomach the last week and theyve just given me 2 sets of antibiotics. Is this pain linked too blood sugars and my water infection


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

Hi. Sorry to hear of your problems. I can't help with your condition but have been in the same position of being in hospital in France and not understanding all that was going on. It was quite frightening.
I found that at first it was really important to write down all my questions and translate them into French. I'd tick them off as I asked them . The big problem was that you may not always understand the answers. I'd also take a dictionary with me and ask them to find words I didn't know. If possible it's probably a good idea to take someone with you to translate.
You may be lucky and have doctors that speak English. It hasn't been the case for me. (though in the end I found that most of my doctors did speak some English but didn't have the confidence to use it in a clinical setting; it took about 4 years before they started to attempt using any!)
When you get reports/lab tests be careful if you try to check them out on the internet that the units are the same .

Sorry to hear you are so unwell, hope you get all the care and medical help,you need

With the language difficulty did they mean kidney failure or chronic kidney disease of which there are 5 stages , late stage 4 or 5 meaning dialysis or transplantation needed.

If you're not needing dialysis just now sounds more like a later stage of CKD. It's common to be B12deficient with kidney probs and also to become anaemic which as well as the kidneys not working so well would make you severely fatigued and with headaches , as you don't have enough red blood cells to carry oxygen around your system.

Did the hospital not offer a translator ? I'm sure they would in the UK if language was a problem. If possible and you have your blood test results go and see your GP equivalent and take someone with you who can translate . Have you made any friends out there yet who could translate for you . If you can find out out what your GFR rate is you'll know what stage of CKD you're at and can google it. Same with your haemoglobin count.

Think diabetic damage to kidneys and eyes seems to go hand in hand, but laser treatment IOC the eyes can be very effective. Would think you should also be getting B12 injections if things are severe.