[Diabetes-talk] Help needed

[Mike Freeman]

Bonnie:

Is the lady you propose to work with already diabetic? In other words, is
she already connected with a physician, certified diabetes educator and
perhaps other specialists as needed? If yes, then presumably she already
knows how to compute her insulin doses based upon carbohydrate intake or at
least according to a formua and your job would merely be to teach her how to
measure blood sugar using a talking meter and/or perhaps how to use an
insulin pen or syringes using the Prodigy Count-a-dose; the latter is
available from the NFB Independence Market.

If the lady has recently become diabetic, though, I would strongly caution
you and she against going it totally alone; diabetes can be a complex
subject (though once one learns the ropes, it need not be so). Is the lady a
Type 1 or Type 2? Has she been seen recently by a physician and CDE? What,
if any, diabetic complications does the lady have? Is she cognitively
impaired?

If you really want to have a go, I would strongly urge you to read "the
American Diabetes Association complete Guide to Diabetes" or the "Joslin
Guide to Diabetes", both available on BARD, and also "Think Like a Pancreas"
also on BARD which teaches you how to compute insulin doses. But really this
is the territory of doctors and Certified Diabetes Educators (CDEs) and even
if you do the go-it-alone route, the lady and you as her helper should be
under the supervision of a certified diabetes educator and at least an
internist, if not an endocrinologist.

Incidentally, the Count-a-dose is a frame into which one can put two viles
of insulin and which contains a mechanism to control the plunger of an
insulin syringe which clicks for each unit of insulin selected. It's a
simple device but does take some knowledge and practice to use -- knowledge
best imparted by a CDE unless you are quite clever.BD 50-unit syringes fit
this instrument; the unit that worked with 100-unit syringes is no longer
made.

I am sending you in a private message a book which you can find in HTML form
on the NFB website, "Bridging the Gap" which will give you an idea of coping
with diabetes as a blind person. The advice is not out of date although I'm
using different insulins now than I used at the time my article in the
booklet was written.

If the lady is a Type 2, you might also want to read "Type 2 Diabetes -- the
First Year: a guide for the Newly Diagnosed" by Gretchen Becker; it's also
available on BARD. And in Braille on BARD is also Hope Warshaw's "Complete
Guide to Carb Counting".

More than you bargained for, eh?

Mike Freeman, President
National Federation of the Blind Diabetes Action Network


-----Original Message-----
From: Diabetes-talk [mailto:diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
Bonnie Lucas via Diabetes-talk
Sent: Friday, October 31, 2014 3:07 PM
To: diabetes-talk at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Diabetes-talk] Help needed

Hello everyone,

I am not diabetic but I am blind and a CVRT here in Alaska. I have a lady
who has recently lost her sight and has had pretty much no blindness
training. She is unstable on her feet, at home a lot and needs to learn to
take her blood sugar and give herself insulin. So, I need to learn how to do
insulin, I have the supplies, and then teach her how. This seems difficult
to me and I have put it off so if someone could walk me through the process,
perhaps on the phone, that would be great. Then, she apparently has to take
differing amounts, depending on what her blood sugar is. I figure that this
means she needs to have several marked syringes or to have several marks on
one syringe. Any advice would be very appreciated. She does not use the
computer or I would have had her on this list some time ago.

My desk phone number is below and you may also email me at
lucas.bonnie at gmail.com<mailto:lucas.bonnie at gmail.com>. We are 4 hours
earlier than Eastern time.

Thanks again.

Bonnie


Bonnie Lucas, CVRT, MSW
Braille and Technology Instructor, VISA Coordinator Equipping Alaskans for
Success Alaska Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired
3903 Taft Drive
Anchorage, Alaska  99517
Phone: (907) 248-7770    Direct: (907) 771-4306
www.alaskabvi.org       www.facebook.com/alaskabvi

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