[Diabetes-talk] New member.

Mon Oct 4 04:18:08 UTC 2010

  Hi there.

That is what we are trying to do in this part of the world as well. The 
position of the majority of blind people in this part of the world is to 
say the least, poor. I am in the process of launching a computer 
literacy initiative using NVDA as the speech synthesizer of choice. I do 
have a copy of JAWS as well, but the thing is so jolly expensive that 
blind people, in a month of Sundays, would never be able to afford it. I 
am presently compiling this email in Thunderbird 3.1.4, using NVDA as 
the synthesizer of choice so that I can stay in practise in order to be 
able to train others with the program.

If the position of blind people here is bad, the position of bloind 
people with diabetes is even worse. For one, we cannot get talking 
glucometers in this part of the world which means that blind people with 
diabetes are not monitored as they should be.

I am extremely fortunate in the sense that I have fallen with my bum in 
the butter, so to speak, in that I have a very good support system to 
help me along. I prick my own finger and my wife, using a glucometer 
which sighted people would normally use, reads the readings for me. We 
normally make a game of it, since I hate the finger prick, but have to 
do it two to three times a day on account of having very volitile blood 
sugars. On Friday, for instance, I had a post breakfast reading of 167 
and went hypo in the afternoon with a reading of 52, despite sticking to 
my diet.

I am going into hospital for surgery next week, thankfully not 
diabetes-related, and have asked my diabetologist if I can at the same 
time, have a full general done to get to the bottom of the problem, 
because when I go hypo, I am out of commission for the rest of the day.

I have been diabetic for the last 12 years and am still going strong 
because of a very good support team I have which also includes two 
trained nursing sisters, one of whom actually specialized in diabetic 
care in the UK. I also have a dietition as part of my team.

The statistic for blind people who have diabetes in this country, from 
what I have observed, is on the whole, six years from diagnosis to 
death. It should however, be remembered that it is highly likely that 
they would have had the condition for a period of time.

Much is made of HIV in this part of the world, and so it should be. 
However, HIV is at present, only the 10th biggest killer in the country, 
whereas diabetes is 6th. It is estimated that approximately a quarter of 
our population walk around, being unaware that they have diabetes.

As my support team has proved, diabetes does not need to be the grim end 
that it is for many in this part of the world. It is for that reason 
also, that I am trying to help by starting a diabetes supp-ort group in 
our church. At a home for the disabled where I also minister, I am 
trying to put a diabetes education program in place, but am being met 
with opposition from a variety of quarters, no less than from the 
residents themselves.

The standard of diabetic counselling in this country stinks, to say the 
least. I have taken it upon myself to design my own diabetic management 
system, about which I will say more in later posts concerning the 
matter, and I have even created my own diabetes management software. 
When I enter a reading on the computer, all of my averages are instantly 
calculated and I also get to view my results in the local vinacular, so 
to speak, with the North American equivalents next door to them.

I think that the unit of measurement for blood sugar that you use is 
dl/mg whereas we use Mmol/l, whatever that means. The difference between 
our system here and your system is that your readings must be divided by 
18 in order to get our equivalents, so that 90 dl/mg would, for 
instance, translate into 5.0 Mmol/l and 108 dl/mg would translate into 
6.0 Mmol/l. My program which is based on our calculations, will 
instantaneously also give me the North American equivalents when a 
reading is entered, so that I can meaningfully interact with other 
diabetics around the world and so that when we talk about measurements, 
we all sing from the same hymn sheet.

Of course, and I rather dread to say it, we use the Glycaemic Index as 
the corner stone of all diets not for diabetics only, but for various 
other special diets. The GI which was developed by the University of 
Sydney, is law in Australia. It is interesting that the GI Foundation, 
of South Africa also combine GI values of foods with Glycaemic Loading, 
which is also used in the US, from what I understand. This makes for 
difficult calculations when planning a meal.

Well, that's all for now. I have to do the trusty blood sugar thing and 
then have a nice breakfast afterwards.

Michael Park
"I will bring the blind by a way they did not know; I will lead them in paths they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. These things I will do for them, and not forsake them." (Isaiah 42:16 NKJV).

We support NVDA, a free screenreading program for the blind, giving high quality computer access to many commercial applications, as well as portability.

On 2010/10/04 03:21, Mike Freeman wrote:
> Welcome to our list. I hope you find the discussion here enlightening. 
> We're a pretty friendly bunch and are anxious that blind persons 
> achieve optimal control of their diabetes. Our aim is both to embody 
> the philosophy of the National Federation of the Blind which, in 
> essence, says that it is respectable to be blind, and to help people 
> to realize that blindness need not hinder them in achieving control of 
> diabetes.
>
> Again, welcome.
>
> Mike
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Park" <pageforpage at gmail.com>
> To: <Diabetes-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Sunday, October 03, 2010 2:04 PM
> Subject: [Diabetes-talk] New member.
>
>
>>  Hi there.
>>
>> I am Michael Park from South Africa and I am glad to be able to be on 
>> this list. I am a totally blind person. I am 52 years old and am 
>> presently studying at Bible college to go into pastoral counselling.
>>
>> Since I am a diabetic myself, I am particularly interested in doing 
>> diabetic counselling and have been accredited as such by our local 
>> diabetes association, although I essentially operate under the 
>> umbrella of our church or as a peer group counsellor under the banner 
>> of Disability Connection, an advocacy group for the rights of the 
>> disabled in South Africa. I am particularly interested in counselling 
>> the disabled person who is diabetic and hope in due season to post a 
>> couple of questions here that I have stumbled on in the course of my 
>> work. I suspect that this field is not being adequately addressed the 
>> world over, but here in South Africa, the situation, to say the 
>> least, is grim when it comes to the disabled diabetic person.
>>
>> Looking forward to participating in the list.
>>
>> Sincerely.
>>
>> -- 
>> Michael Park
>> "I will bring the blind by a way they did not know; I will lead them 
>> in paths they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, 
>> and crooked places straight. These things I will do for them, and not 
>> forsake them." (Isaiah 42:16 NKJV).
>>
>> We support NVDA, a free screenreading program for the blind, giving 
>> high quality computer access to many commercial applications, as well 
>> as portability.
>>
>>
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>
>
>
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