Sunday, November 11, 2007

My PSA for November: Diabetes Awareness

I was reading around in my nursing journals and discovered that November is Diabetes Awareness and Nov 14 is World Diabetes Day.

Most of the patients in my ICU have diabetes or are admitted due to a complication from diabetes. Some of my co-workers are getting diagnosed with it and some of my friends and their family. Shoot, if I am not careful I may be diagnosed with it soon myself.

One of the more upsetting stories I run across when it comes to diabetes is the man in his late 20s or early 30s who has been ignoring symptoms of diabetes due to ignorance or stubbornness for a while. He finally comes in when either he has started losing his eyesight or problems from his failing kidneys bring him in. Unfortunately at that point, he may be looking at permanent blindness or amputation or dialysis with a life expectancy of less than 10 years.

What is diabetes? Regardless of the type of diabetes you have, the complications that arise are due to your body not having enough insulin (a hormone that comes from your pancreas) to help convert glucose (sugar) to energy. There are 2 types. One type (Type 1) results from a lack of insulin, meaning that for some reason the pancreas just isn't producing enough insulin. The other type, (Type II) is more related to the cells in your own body becoming resistant to the insulin that is being produced. Your pancreas is producing insulin, but for several reasons, your body is ignoring it and thus lots of glucose is left floating in your blood stream and body resorts to other means to generate energy.

What can happen if your diabetes goes untreated? What are long term effects of diabetes? You have increased risk for serious infections and limb loss, peripheral nerve loss, kidney failure, cardiovascular disease, stroke and blindness. But, it is not all gloom and doom for diabetics. It is very possible to live a long productive life with this diagnosis if you get the treatment you need and make the necessary lifestyle changes required.

What are some signs and symptoms that you should go see your doctor? Here you go:
  • Thirsty and drinking more often, plus going to the bathroom more frequently
  • Weight loss when you aren't really trying to lose the weight
  • Weakness and fatigue
  • Tingling or numbness in your hands and feet
  • Blurred vision
  • Dry, itchy skin
  • Cuts that take a long time to heal
  • Easy to bruise
So, if you would like additional info on diabetes check out these sites:

That was my PSA for November. :)

Saturday, November 10, 2007

2 books in less than 5 days!?!?

Yeah, believe it or not I finished 2 books in less than a week. I think the last time I did something like that I was in my early 20s and that was awhile ago.

I finished "Eldest" by Paolini, his second book in the series. It was much better than his first and I think it was longer too. I enjoyed his descriptions of the elves, discussions on the various faiths and of course, the relationship with the dragons. What a wonderful piece of escapism. I finished it and got online to see when the final book in the series was coming out and found out two things. One, it is no longer a trilogy but is now called a "cycle" and will be 4 books long, not 3. Two, the third book won't be out until Septemner 2008. Yep, a whole freakin' year away!! Ugh.

So, I slept on that bit of news and started a little book I had picked up at the library last week. "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress" by Sijie. What a surprising little book. It was a refreshing light read, that although was simple was still able to provide rich imagery of the events. I loved how it ended and loved the quote. It brought a smile to my face. It peaked my interested in the French auther, Balzac. Balzac was a prolific tortured writer, but I think I may try to read one of books if I can find it at the library. I also found that the author (Sijie) directed a movie version of his novel in 2002. I guess I am a smidge behind the times.

Now, I either need to attack the pile of nursing journals and texts from classes taken recently or try to find another book to read. I do have this one book that I still can't seem to finish. I am still mired in the foreword, that I stupidly thought I should read. The book, "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius."

I think I'll try the nursing journals. :)

Friday, November 9, 2007

Randomness at the drug store

There is has been a plague hovering over our house since mid-October. First, the daughter comes down with the creeping crud that causes the cough that sounds like a lung or parts of the lung are coming up, the sore throat and hoarse voice and copious amounts of snot that looks like it could be used as a green glue. She would cough so hard she caused herself to puke. Then this lovely illness passes to the husband. Then, just when I think the plague has passed I get it and lost my voice for almost 4 days and had to use 2 sick days for work.

My voice is returning, the cough is nearly gone. The daughter's cough has been gone for maybe a week. The husband still has a residual cough. Things are looking up. It is a new month, but it doesn't last. Yesterday the daughter starts grabbing at her lower abdomen, about where the bladder should be and starts screaming and saying she has to pee. This continues on for the rest of the night. I take her in to the doctor today and expect a diagnosis of bladder or urinary tract infection but that is not the case. She is stumped. All the symptoms of a bladder infection but the lab results say no. So, I am told to take her home, make her drink her fluids and give her nice warm baths, with no bubblebath.

After a couple of hours of still dealing with her pain and cries and runs to the bathroom, she has started to puke now and I can't really give her anything. So, I decide to go to the drug store and pick up some Coke (great for upset stomachs) and maybe some rectal Tylenol. If someone is puking so much they can't keep down medicine, sometimes you can give the medicine through the rectum and at least they can have some relief from pain.

So, I am browsing the aisle at the drug store and discover that they actually do have pediatric doses of rectal Tylenol. Then I discover what is truly amazing, dissolving Tylenol. These sweet little tablets that just dissolve on the tongue, which means they are absorbed straight into the blood stream through the oral membranes! My god, what a fantastic invention. That goes into the shopping basket.

Next, I am off to the stomach aisle. You can't typically give a kid with stomach flu anything for it, especially something like Pepto-Bismol because it contains aspirin. I decide to check anyways since I found this amazing new form of Tylenol. They did have this product on this shelf that said it was an anti-emetic for kids so I read the label. Ingredients listed were glucose, fructose and phosphoric acid . . . surprisingly those are the same ingredients in the Coke I had already thrown in the basket. Coke for an upset stomach is a remedy that has been passed on for a long time and now someone has put some of those same ingredients in a medicine so they can charge more for it. Go figure. I am definitely keeping the Coke in the shopping basket.

Next comes the beginning of the really funny part of this shopping adventure. The doctor had a theory that maybe some of the pain she is experiencing is from irritation from either too many bubble baths or time in the chlorinated waters of the hot tub. She recommended warm baths or sitz baths for the daughter, so I was in the feminine hygiene aisle to see if they had something you could add to warm baths to help with discomfort. There was a guy there browsing the condom section. I am thinking, 'Good for him. Practicing safe sex.' Then I remember I had seen him earlier looking in the booze section with his girlfriend while I was buying the Coke.

By the way, there was nothing in the feminine hygiene department for the daughter's ailment. I ended up just using a normal hot bath.

I am finally at the check out line and who is in front of me? The guy who had been shopping for booze and condoms with his girlfriend. Yet, he was buying only one item . . . a fakey rhinestone, sparkly thing that I think was for her hair or maybe was a bracelet. That was it.

I am left wondering did he decide he wasn't going to get lucky and gave up on the booze and condoms? Or, is she a cheap date and only needs some fake bling to get excited? Maybe he already had enough condoms? Who knows, but it was kind of amusing. Fakey bling from the drug store.

The dissolving Tylenol and Coke were big hit back at home.