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Surgery & diabetes care

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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Lauras87

Lauras87

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Got a phone call today to ask me to attend hospital next Tuesday to discuss a date for surgery on my right hand

This is making me panic as I had a really bad panic attack on the operating table when they did my left hand

But as I'm right handed I'm worried about injecting.

I don't want to delay surgery til I'm on the pump as the pain is bad now so another 4/5 months i think will drive me mad

Anyone got any suggestions about how to cope 1 handed for tests & injecting?

As when I inject with my left hand, I seem to do it harder
 
The first year after Dx I ended up spending almost 9 weeks with my left wrist in a brace. I'm a leftie so it made life very difficult. Testing wasn't too bad, I fixed a lancet to the table with a bit of blutack (OUCH!) and that worked fairly well. I wasn't on insulin at that point but I dare say you may need help dialling the doses, unless you can use the blutack trick again to steady the pen while you turn the dial and fix on the needle?

Other things like cooking, eating, washing and dressing were the hardest parts and I had to have help with that. I suggest a talk with your doctor beforehand about what help you may need, could a family member come to stay while you recover?
 
AlisonM said:
The first year after Dx I ended up spending almost 9 weeks with my left wrist in a brace. I'm a leftie so it made life very difficult. Testing wasn't too bad, I fixed a lancet to the table with a bit of blutack (OUCH!) and that worked fairly well. I wasn't on insulin at that point but I dare say you may need help dialling the doses, unless you can use the blutack trick again to steady the pen while you turn the dial and fix on the needle?

Other things like cooking, eating, washing and dressing were the hardest parts and I had to have help with that. I suggest a talk with your doctor beforehand about what help you may need, could a family member come to stay while you recover?
Click to expand...

when i had my left hand done, mum had to help me cook, clean, bath me & dress me (at 24 this was highly embarrassing) so i spent most of the time in my pj's

think i may try your blu tac way but just wondering if there was a "easy" way with it but me thinks short of getting a tempory carer to help me, i'm going to be the bain of my mum's life
 
Perhaps start practicing with your left hand now, so things will be a bit easier for you.
If the issue is not getting your hand wet after the surgery then the simple solution is to use a protective glove. Agriculture stores and vets have very roomy full length plastic gloves. I found them very usefull when I mangled my arm in a farming accident many years ago.

Do tell the person you are seeing regarding the surgery about your panic attack so that things can be put in place so it doesn't happen again.
 
Pumper_Sue said:
Perhaps start practicing with your left hand now, so things will be a bit easier for you.
If the issue is not getting your hand wet after the surgery then the simple solution is to use a protective glove. Agriculture stores and vets have very roomy full length plastic gloves. I found them very usefull when I mangled my arm in a farming accident many years ago.

Do tell the person you are seeing regarding the surgery about your panic attack so that things can be put in place so it doesn't happen again.
Click to expand...

Ooohhh think I will look at that with the glove

Left hand will be fun

I think the panic attack was down to being awake during it :(
 
Lauras87 said:
I think the panic attack was down to being awake during it :(
Click to expand...

Can you take your own tunes with you? It might help you distract yourself.
 
AlisonM said:
Can you take your own tunes with you? It might help you distract yourself.
Click to expand...

My last consultant put ac/dc on for me

Don't know what the new consultant will be like but hope I can have something to calm me down
 
Could you dial up your pen using your teeth?
 
I seem to remember that one of our members who has only one hand puts the pen in the crook of their arm to hold it then dials up units. Also worth looking at the i-port

Where there's a will there's a way! I once broke my arm just below the shoulder and couldn't use that arm for 12 weeks (longer actually, because the muscle all wasted away due to lack of use) and I managed to do everything from getting dressed to cooking, shopping and doing the washing up. I thought I might be scuppered when I broke my femur, given that my bedroom and bathroom are up a steep flight of stairs, but I managed to work out a way to get up and down safely 🙂 At the shops, with no hands free due to crutches, I put the basket on the floor and pushed it along with one of the crutches! 🙂
 
Hi Laura sorry I can't help but when each of my hands was bandaged up following surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome I still managed my injections by myself and that was with a syringe.....I know that I did it but I'm afraid that I can't remember how I did it.
 
. I thought I might be scuppered when I broke my femur, given that my bedroom and bathroom are up a steep flight of stairs, but I managed to work out a way to get up and down safely 🙂 QUOTE]
Me too after I broke my right femur in a car crash - my maisonette was on the second floor so I had to get up and down the stairs on my bum:D
 
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