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Sickness / When to make appointment?

wxring

wxring

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
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Hello, first ever post! nice to meet everyone in advance.

Was just wondering when you are sick, do you go to the pharmacist/GP for things that otherwise a ‘healthy’ person would stay home for to fight off? I suspect I have an ear infection (originally a sore throat) and on the NHS website it’s says to make an appointment if you have diabetes.

It’s not like my bloods have been affected, over the last 7 days I’ve been 89% in range, so I can’t really see why to bother with an appointment.

Thank you, faith ☺️
 
I don’t, no. For common illnesses, I act as if I didn’t have diabetes - ie I watch and see if it needs medical attention or antibiotics. Do you actually have an ear infection rather than fluid in your ear from the sore throat virus? If you think you do have an ear infection, that needs checking out whether someone has diabetes or not because the infection can spread and/or cause a perforated eardrum. Phone your GP and hopefully a nurse will be able to check it out today and prescribe antibiotics if needed.

And welcome to the forum 🙂
 
Good morning @wxring and welcome to the forum. I am glad that you have found us and are tapping into the hive of experience that is available.

I manage any illness in the same way as I did before my diagnosis, but then have the added task of managing my glucose levels. So if I need non prescription meds to help with an illness I would go to the pharmacy. I find that my glucose levels tend to rise with any illness, and often I notice this before the symptoms come out, so I generally have an early warning of a cold.

If you are happy to do so let us know how you manage your diabetes : MDI/pump, which insulin(s), do you have a sensor? This will help us tailor our responses.
 
Hi and welcome from me too.

I treat any routine illness myself just like I did before diagnosis. Only if it didn't respond to treatment would I seek medical help.

Congrats on your great time in range!
 
Good morning and welcome from me, @wxring
Just like the others, I haven't treated non-diabetes related illnesses any differently to before my diagnosis.

There again, I don't think of diabetes making me unhealthy. (Yeah, I know you wrote "healthy" in quotes 🙂 )
 
Hello and welcome. I don't check my blood sugar on a regular basis as I've not needed to in the past but, if I am unwell I check more regularly. Other than that, I act no differently than I did before diabetes diagnosis when I am unwell. I do have more GP visits than I used to but that is as a result of other, non diabetes related, medical issues.
 
Hi and welcome, I normally treat standard illnesses as I would have done before I found I had diabetes, the exception being if it impacts my feet when I check with the NHS website to see what they say. Even then I follow the standard treatment steps first before I actually try and make an appointment to see if that relieves the problem.
 
When we were kids, my mother had a mantra “never ignore ears”. Just as well as my brother had to have a mastoidectomy at the age of six.

Yes, go to the pharmacist - diabetes is irrelevant in this instance.
 
wxring said:
Was just wondering when you are sick, do you go to the pharmacist/GP for things that otherwise a ‘healthy’ person would stay home for to fight off?
Click to expand...
No never, I just do what anyone else would do and take some paracetamol or whatever a usual person would do.
 
I cut my foot a few weeks ago on the lid of a soup tin ( sorting recycling in kitchen barefoot) I cleaned it and covered it. But next day made an appointment for a nurse to check it the next day. She said it looked fine but added some zinc oxide to dry it. I got it checked 5 days later and was cleared for aquafit. Would not have gone save for diabetes but glad I did.

As far as ears I remember mum sending my 6 year old brother to school despite his protestations of bad earache and being mortified when he was sent home with a perforated eardrum. Regardless of diabetes I suggest you get a nurse or pharmacist to look.
 
I would say always get ears checked as the risk of complications is quite high but also you can get dizziness, vertigo, loss of balance with ear infections.
 
Inka said:
I don’t, no. For common illnesses, I act as if I didn’t have diabetes - ie I watch and see if it needs medical attention or antibiotics. Do you actually have an ear infection rather than fluid in your ear from the sore throat virus? If you think you do have an ear infection, that needs checking out whether someone has diabetes or not because the infection can spread and/or cause a perforated eardrum. Phone your GP and hopefully a nurse will be able to check it out today and prescribe antibiotics if needed.

And welcome to the forum 🙂
Click to expand...
Ohh good thinking about it being fluid in my ear rather than an infection because I don’t have any of the accompanying symptoms of an ear infection other than pain/ichiness. I’ll give it another day see how it goes and ring tomorrow if it’s gotten worse.
thank you for help 🙂
 
SB2015 said:
Good morning @wxring and welcome to the forum. I am glad that you have found us and are tapping into the hive of experience that is available.

I manage any illness in the same way as I did before my diagnosis, but then have the added task of managing my glucose levels. So if I need non prescription meds to help with an illness I would go to the pharmacy. I find that my glucose levels tend to rise with any illness, and often I notice this before the symptoms come out, so I generally have an early warning of a cold.

If you are happy to do so let us know how you manage your diabetes : MDI/pump, which insulin(s), do you have a sensor? This will help us tailor our responses.
Click to expand...
Good to know, that’s how I normally manage as well, I just wanted to see if other people do similar. I use the omnipod dash pump with novorapid and the libre 2 plus sensor for monitoring (is there a way to add this to my profile, I’ll have a search later).
Thank you 🙂
 
GP ignored our bass player's ear infection and that is why she played bass - lost much of her hearing.
If you can get attention, take it - just to be sure.
 
wxring said:
Good to know, that’s how I normally manage as well, I just wanted to see if other people do similar. I use the omnipod dash pump with novorapid and the libre 2 plus sensor for monitoring (is there a way to add this to my profile, I’ll have a search later).
Thank you 🙂
Click to expand...
You can tap on your profile thingy (tech term) at the top, then add a signature. Those brief details are really useful when responding.
 
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