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Type 2 and Abcesses?

lucylocket61

lucylocket61

Expert
Messages
6,394
Location
Wrexham
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
I am just back from the GP, I have had an insect bite on my stomach turn into an abscess. I was seen by my GP within an hour of me phoning the surgery and they were wonderful, I now have a weeks worth of antibiotics to take, with orders to come back if anything changes or it doesnt start healing in a few days.

My question - my GP said diabetics are in more risk of infections and boils and abscesses. He didnt say why and I forgot to ask. I consider myself well controlled, and thought only high sugar levels or being type 1 increased risk. Anyone have any ideas or experience as to whether my GP is right and i have to be extra careful?

This is only my second abscess every, my first was about 5 years ago when I got blood poisoning and was very ill. Obviously, I want to prevent this happening again if possible in the future.

Sorry for waffling, I have bolded my actual question.
 
lucylocket61 said:
My question - my GP said diabetics are in more risk of infections and boils and abscesses. He didnt say why and I forgot to ask. I consider myself well controlled, and thought only high sugar levels or being type 1 increased risk. Anyone have any ideas or experience as to whether my GP is right and i have to be extra careful?
Click to expand...
I've had GP's/dentists/nurses casually mentioning that "of course as a diabetic I'm higher risk for this or that".
I've always replied with a surprised: "Oh, I thought it was high BG increasing risk of this, not diabetes in itself. Can you tell me why I'm more at risk with non diabetic numbers?"
The arroganter HCP's usually resort to mumbling, a couple others thought about it for a while and told me they think I'm right, and one sweet practice nurse decided she'd say 'people with raised BG' instead of 'diabetics' in the future when speaking of increased risk for things.

One point which may be relevant is that the infection itself can raise BG, which can make it take longer to heal with the potential to get worse.

Being T1 doesn't make a difference as far as I know.

edit: Hope you'll get better soon!
 
lucylocket61 said:
My question - my GP said diabetics are in more risk of infections and boils and abscesses. He didnt say why and I forgot to ask. I consider myself well controlled, and thought only high sugar levels or being type 1 increased risk. Anyone have any ideas or experience as to whether my GP is right and i have to be extra careful?
Click to expand...
I share your understanding that it’s uncontrolled diabetes that puts people more at risk of infections/abscesses (or any complication). That’s actually how I was diagnosed - went to doc with abscess that wouldn’t heal. Blood sugars were sky high.

Hope it does heal quickly.
 
I had an insect bite on my thigh recently and put some antiseptic cream on it as soon as I noticed, repeated it each morning and evening just to be sure, but it has gone away how - no trouble.
I think I was possibly even more careful about eating carbs than usual, just so as not to give it the slightest hint that there was sugar to be had.
 
Oldvatr said:
I think the sugar in the blood acts as a food source for bacteria and yeast infections.
Click to expand...
Also, high BG can slow down healing, which means a wound is open to bacteria for a longer time, increasing the chances of this happening. So it's true that diabetics as a whole are more susceptible to infection but this doesn't mean it's true for all individual diabetics.
 
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