willow

Welcome to the forum from another catlady Willow sounds lovely, and so clever at hunting too.

Yes, I find it takes longer to heal from injuries or infections with diabetes. Nowadays when I get a cold it lasts longer than a week and is more severe. I just try to pace myself and not set expectations for myself that are too high.

That is so sweet of her... I wonder if she was treating you like a fellow cat, and trying to bring you food, like a mother cat might bring her kitten. They are smarter than a lot of people think, eh?

I'm glad you have a personal alarm/lifeline now, it must give you some peace of mind.

catlady 1 said:

hi my name is lynda im 66 and retired. 4 months ago i fell on the landing at night about 10.30 pm they found me at 16.30 the next day as you can imagine i was in a bad way forgot to say i had broken my hip i did not know how thirsty you could get great deal of pain operation next day im having trouble getting it to heal do others find if they have things like this done that it takes longer to get better im only just able to walk with a zimmer frame finding it hard to trust my leg , now the other leg has been in a plaster cast for three years now i have charcot foot and they are trying to stop it going over they have made me some very expensive boots but im having trouble getting on with them i was widowed 3 years ago and i do get lonely so that i wont lay there for 20 hours again i now have one of those lifelines round my neck hope i dont have to use it . i have a rare ginger female cat called willow she is 4 in november she brings me lots of mice and voles and once a pigeon and a couple of weeks ago a large rat . by the way im on insulin .so hello to you all sorry if this is not the normal way to introduce yourself

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Great intro.
Welcome.
Any chance you can train the cat to bring liquid?

I read your profile page and noticed you take 27 medications a day, that is a lot, and it must be quite a big job getting them all from the pharmacy and keeping track of them. Have you had your doctor review them to see if there's any you can cut down on or cut out? I take a fairly large number of meds per day myself and I have read that the more you take the more chance they can interact with each other and cause bad side effects. They are usually necessary though. Sorry to hear you need so many.

Hello catlady1 welcome
Willow sounds like my kind of girl

catlady 1 said:

yes dr and head pharm at hosp have both checked and i do need all of my drugs worse luck some i have to take twice a day i dont want to work out how many i take in a week . a friend gets them from chemist i cant get out of house at the moment cant use zimmer outside . i agree with you about the amount of meds im sure they all get jumbled up i cant see how they work all fighting with each other and i bet some make me feel unwell not much i can do ive had them checked just keep taking them i must admit there are times when i feel like not taking them to see how i would feel lol

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I think it's a good idea for us to know what each of our meds is for, so we can weigh up whether we want to take it or not. I'm skeptical that 27 meds would be ideal for anyone. Although I think it's likely that many of them are needed, and are the best choice, given all the factors involved. There is no harm in learning about your meds and having your own view on them.

Medical care is meant to be a partnership between doctor and patient, where the doctor contributes their knowledge about diseases and treatments, and we contribute our knowledge about our own bodies and symptoms, and also our preferences. Doctors are supposed to take what we say into account before recommending a treatment.

It's good that the doctor and the head pharm have reviewed your meds, but I wonder if it would also be a good idea for you to check them. If you felt comfortable sharing (and it's fine if you don't), you could list them out and write the condition next to each one, if known, and we might be able to suggest some things, based on our experience. There are many of us here who probably take or have taken the same meds, for the same conditions.

Of course I don't think anyone here would suggest changing anything without discussing it with your doctor first. Do you see your doctor regularly, and do you have blood tests done too?

@catlady 1

Hello Lynda and welcome to the forum

Willow sounds wonderful and she must be such good company to you. I am a cat lover too as are many members on the forum. As suggested above, here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find it helpful.


BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you’ll find over 150,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

• Reduce your carbohydrate intake
• Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates

Reduce your carbohydrates

A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes-and-whole-grains.html

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes

Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)

• Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l

However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips

The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

• structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
• self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to bloodglucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.

Hello and welcome.....every day and in every way things can and will get better......

A very warm welcome to you @catlady 1 . I see Daisy has already posted her invaluable information. You've certainly found a great place for help and advice. As you can probably work out I'm also a great fan of cats (see avatar) although I don't have one at the moment.

Keep well and ask any questions you like - someone on here will surely have the answer.

Hi and welcome to the forum.