by Jane Malone, RN
Perhaps I could share a little of my story. Everyone has a
story. I am no different.
My diabetes symptoms were subtle, at first. I was a Cardiac RN. I was healthy
-- my blood sugar on my fall check-up was normal. During the winter I had a
bad viral flu. I began losing weight, which delighted me because I was always
trying. I began urinating more often, which didn’t alarm me, because everyone
knows RNs drink lots of coffee (a diuretic) on the night shift. Sometimes I
couldn’t get a good deep breath - - again, I thought, the stress of working
10-12-hour shifts.
In the spring, I was running around Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, on vacation, eating
fried apple pies from the Apple Barn, homemade chocolate and vanilla nut fudge,
maple pralines, and lots of biscuits and gravy, with good rich southern cooking.
I was still losing weight, looking for restrooms, feeling tired and dizzy, and
I had that heavy sweet breath.
Suddenly, I knew why the weight loss! Ketoacidosis - my body was burning the
fat. I went to Walgreens and bought a glucose monitor. My suspicions were confirmed
-- I had a blood sugar of 500. Now all the symptoms, which before had seemed
subtle, came screaming at me. Diabetes!
The Glucophage worked for about a year, then Rezulin was added. You all know
what happened to that drug. One day I saw Warner-Lambert stock (they made Rezulin)
had dropped suddenly, and I wondered why? The next week, England, calling it
dangerous, took it off the market. I refused to take it after that, even though
my doctor made light of it, saying, “All pills have side effects.”
The doctors in the United States were prescribing this pill six months after
England yanked it from their shelves, and the deaths kept mounting. I still
don’t understand. I wish someone could enlighten me on why these deaths
happened. Why didn’t the United States ban it sooner?
When they wanted to give me three different diabetic pills, I decided I would
do less damage to my body, and spend less money, if I switched to insulin rather
than three more pills, which weren’t controlling the sugar anyway. The
Humalog insulin has worked well for a tight control. Like the proverbial guest,
“It came to dinner and knows when to leave.” It works with a meal
well, even with sporadic meal times, and is gone from the blood in four hours.
Humulin N as a background, am and pm, works well with the Humalog.
Now even non-compliant people are doing better. We’re not perfect, as
Wilfred Brimley says, but we’re trying.
When moving into my new house, I was walking on my new carpet in stocking feet
and a carpet nail went into my heel. Within a day or two, the heel was edematous,
stretched tightly, white in color, and I knew it probably had staph present.
The doctors in hospital confirmed this. They did an incision and drainage and
debrided it, cutting off all the dead skin on my heel. The underpad was painful
on that new tender pink skin. The healing continued with IV antibiotic saline,
OP gauze, and a lot of difficulty moving.
Let me sing the praises of “Miracle Foot Repair,” a lotion with
60% aloe. It hastened the healing, and I use it every night. Its wonderful healing
properties have kept the plantar areas and heels free of ulcers and calluses
and kept the dry skin moisturized. The Diabetic Foot Clinic where I went could
only offer me Vaseline, which was useless as far as healing.
What did I learn from this? Do not ever walk barefoot, even on carpet. And Miracle
Foot Repair is indeed a miracle-working lotion.
Keep up the good work. This paper [the Voice] has more valuable information
than many medical magazines/journals. The latest advances in diabetes are so
interesting, and it is important we all keep up.