Diabetes and wounds or cuts

Hello, how are you all today? I am debating which ache is the worst. I had a Carpal Tunnel done last Thursday and it certainly wasn't the ball of fun I half expected it to be. Then there is one tooth that starts its demands for attention, but is always too sneaky to actually be felt the next day.

Is it the top canine? Nah, too far forward. How about the one next to it at the back? No, that one only hurts when I am silly enough to use it to bite something hard. Not sure? Oh well, no doubt it will make its presence known tonight again, as it has been for the last week. It really doesn't help that I am a complete wuss where dentists are concerned, although I have found an absolutely lovely Irish lady.

The stroke and the diabetes are with me all the time, but the remains of the broken shoulder (which resulted from a comedy of errors involving my husband and a goat and my tiredness!) and various other parts are relatively new. The shoulder got broken at the end of April, but it is still healing, thanks to the impact of the diabetes.

I really want to hammer that home. Diabetes can delay or hamper the healing of even a tiny scratch, as I have found out, and anything major such as work on bones or a deep cut may take even weeks to heal, unlike ordinary cuts and bruises.

My own experience of it is: have the procedure or a cut somewhere, or even a small irritation like a tiny splinter. Digging this foreign object out now usually results in plenty of blood and something that very rarely heals without antibiotics, either applied or swallowed. My immune system is reasonably shot, I would say, although I do not attract colds and the flu as yet. My turn is coming, I suspect, as I am also not one of those who faithfully line up each year to have the latest, greatest flu shots which sadly seem to miss the strain that is currently in vogue. Call me skeptical if you like, but I have long disliked any cure that appears worse than the original disease. The one and only time I was forced, as I was starting my nursing career, to have the injection, I couldn't move out of bed for a week and my Matron almost phoned my parents to remove me before I deceased and caused a scandal in the small country town where I worked.

So be careful with cuts and operations if you are a diabetic. Do have the flu shots. Just because I have very little success with them does not mean to say that they are not a good idea. I thoroughly recommend anything that might prevent any illness from getting a hold, especially if you are a diabetic, frail, bedridden or have any physical problem whatever.