|
|
Living With Diabetes
|
•
Skin care
•
Foot care
•
Eye care
•
Dental care
•
Travel
•
Eating out
•
How About a Drink?
•
Make the Best of Sick Days
•
Care of Elderly Diabetics
•
Special Concerns of Male Diabetics
•
Emotional Factors and Diabetes
•
Hugs Help
|
Diabetes is a
disease in which your personal role in your treatment has an important
effect on the quality of your life. Your health care team will give you
guidelines to follow for personal routines that can help you enjoy a
more normal live.
As a diabetic you will want to devote a little more attention to some of
your personal care than you may have done before. Your health care team
will provide you with specific hints concerning care of your skin, feet,
and teeth. Maintaining good skin-cleaning habits can help your skin
remain healthy and protect your body effectively. Promptly treating
minor injuries such as burns, cuts, and bruises helps your skin heal
properly and avoids problems. Your health care team will explain that,
because decreased circulation in many diabetics is often noticed first
in the legs and feet, attention to foot care can help you maintain good
function. Avoiding poor diabetic control can help you avoid other
problems such as vascular system difficulties, kidney disease, and dye
difficulties.
Your health care team will also instruct you about general hygiene, what
to do when you are ill, what to do when traveling and eating out, what
to do about social drinking (if you are permitted to do so at all by
your physician), as well as addressing sexual concerns. If you are
elderly, your health care team will tell you about special arrangements
for your home health care.
Your family's emotional adjustment to your diabetes will also be an
important concern which your health care team will discuss with you and
members of your family. Your family's health education should begin
right away. Family members will quickly learn that diabetes isn't
contagious and isn't transmitted by any kind of physical contact. As you
and your family learn to live with diabetes, you will all become
familiar with common acute and chronic complications and their possible
prevention, how to recognize circumstances warranting a call to your
health care team, skills such as blood and/or urine testing, and, if
necessary, injection techniques. Your health care team will assist you
in living comfortably with your disease by providing continuing
education during each visit.
|
|
