Having been diabetic since the age of 40, my endocrinologist who was also my son’s lecturer in St. John’s Medical College -- Dr Jyothi Idiculla has taken care of controlling my sugars over the decades.
However diabetes is a disease that tests your will power and it is difficult to control even if you are a semi controlled person. Complete control is necessary or a regimen of tough exercise. This fact has been drummed into my head by my cardiologist son, who checks on my Fitbit every single day and he lives in Tennessee! The guy in the UK too -- that’s the thumbtacks in me.
However my sons and I have seen how badly my father suffered in his final years and literally his toes fell off as he lay on the hospital bed in the Military Hospital.I was aghast when I breezed into his room with his request for cheese twists from Durga Bakery.
“Dad!” I said, “ here are your cheese twists,” and looked down under the bed at a small brown object. I pushed it with my foot thinking it could be something missed by the cleaners when my Mum in a shocked tone said, “ It’s Dads toe!”
The bile rose in my throat and I realised my Dad was dying and fast. The image has NEVER left me and gave me nightmares for years. I harassed my endocrinologist about ways to look after my feet and also bought a foot spa when someone was selling it second hand from abroad.
I never, ever, wear open shoes. Always closed and with socks and get my feet done at a salon every month. You cannot have their inexperience cause a problem for you.Ofcourse I tell them I am diabetic and to be careful. Which they have been over the years.
However a friend introduced me to the podiatrist in Batas when I was really young in my early 20s and just married. That guy did the feet of the owner of Woodlands who then poached him from Batas and set him up in Woodlands with his own ‘clinic’. He has been there over the decades. In the same little room with its two chairs on which they work diligently -- doing a really professional job on your feet.
Over the years I got lazy and kept going only to the salon, but suddenly I remembered them when my feet began to get painful corns. I run everyday on the Tender -Sure Pavements and so painful corns had started to sprout. I never use a corn cap as it moves as we walk and hurts the wrong area of the foot. A professional podiatrist is the only way forward.
My husband had never had his feet done so I insisted he come. Will drag him there every three months as it is expensive @ Rs 800 a trip BUT it saves you much more expensive trips to the doc. If you look after your feet right? Feet are important, never forget that.
I have a really old friend who has lost his leg. It was a horrific situation but either chop off his leg or he would die. He is managing but one can see he is not the same man we knew. Diabetes is a slow and debilitating disease. It eats at your immune system and kills you faster than a normal person. My son has warned me that if I want to be there for my grand girls weddings I have to take my diet and lifestyle in hand.
It’s hard -- who does not want to sleep in?? Who wants to be pounding the pavement before pollution sets in at the ungodly hour of 6am? Who wants to eat and be cool with everything available? Who has to switch off all sweets and chocolates and maybe eat a sugar free thinggie once in a while, when someone takes pity and sends you some? I can eat fruit rather than food and even that -- drat-- is bad for me.
Piles of organic chickoos from the farm ripening and smelling divine. Jackfruit that my friends say are delicious, also from the farm. Mangos by the bucket full, also delicious and from the farm and the endocrinologist says -- ah! Ah! No no no! Oranges from Nagpur and watermelons from all over. Grapes which I could kill for. None of them allowed.
BUT I want my eyes and my feet so I look the other way. Thank God vadas are fine and anything with chickpeas especially humus or peanut butter with my chappatie. Life is tough as a diabetic, so get those feet seen to, every month, every single month. I can assure you Dad probably did it for a reason -- to teach me to be prudent and the only way which works with me -- he shocked me by dropping his toes.
As my son said, don't feel sorry for yourself. There are a lot of worse things you could get and suffer debilitatingly with it all your life.
