Robert recalls how he didn't let diabetes interfere with his lifestyle until one day he was forced to take diabetes seriously.
I am Type 2 diagnosed about seven years ago. It never interfered with my life style and I became compacent about the medication sometimes not having any for months at a time. It never seemed very important.
I was in Thailand and had been swimming in the sea, I contracted an ear infection in one ear. That ear slowly got better but theen the infection moved into the other ear, and becme very much worse over weeks.
I got antibiotic from a local ENT Doctor and some pain killers. They didn't touch it and the pain got steadily worse and worse. My hearing in the right hear started to deteriorate as the fluid caused by the infection filled both the outer ear and the inner.
Finally I was deaf in that ear. The pain continued to get worse and the antibiotic was not touching the problem. I returned to England and was given more antibiotic and it was then mentioned I had a problem with blood sugar, but it wasn't explained what the problem was. I still made no corellation between diabetes and the antibiotic not getting to the seat of the infection.
I then went to France, and two weeks later, having been to a local doctor who again told me the blood sugar was too high, I suffered a Bell's Palsy and was admitted into the local hospital as an A&E patient. They kept me in for 10 days and explained to me what the problem was. Because the sugar in the blood was so high it could not carry the antbiiotic around the body to get to the infection. By now the infection was attacking the mastoid bone.
I under-rated the diabetic condition and what it means to people who have diabetes.
Robert
I was treated with straight insulin for three days and then went back onto metaformin. I was drip fed antibiotic 24 hours a day and took it by mouth and through ear drops. The sugar started to come down and the antibiotic was hitting the infection.
After 10 days they let me go home but arranged that I woiuld have the district nurse visit twice daily to change the drip, so that I was s till on 24 hours antibiotic. This went on for a further six weeks, then it was changed to oral antibiotic. I am still on that stage of the course.It was my own stupid fault. I should have taken the metaformin as prescribed. I underated the diabetic condition and what it means to people who have diabetes.
Anyone reading this please be aware that diabetes is serious and will never go away. Any health problem you may encounter will be made worse by diabetes. The hospital told me that another few weeks and I would have died.
