55 years old woman from Amritsar, carefully navigated her way into my room. She could hardly see because recently she had bleeding through her vessels of the retina (the screen at the back of the eye which records and sends information to the brain). This is a complication of years of diabetes where the vessel walls changes sneak in so slowly that the loss of vision comes as a surprise for some patients. 

My thoughts were if only she had checked her retina regularly, this complication could have been prevented. But regret is not I can present to her at this stage, she needs hope. Her only option now is surgery, but the eye doctor has asked for good control of sugars first, hence her visit to me.

The first interactions take a long time, because the bundle of information is huge and scattered. One starkly glaring report was serum creatinine of 5.2, confirming the presence of kidney damage. She was on oral medicines, which can cause serious side effects like low sugars or rare but serious lactic acidosis if kidneys cannot throw them out timely from the body. Hence, most oral tablets need to stop and replaced with insulin.The mention of the word insulin creates such cold vibes, as if I have given some punishment. The long held beliefs about insulin being a villain…I still need to find the first person who started these rumours…”once started insulin cannot be stopped”,… “insulin is the end stage of diabetes”….”there are so many side effects”. I tried my best to change the position of insulin from villain to a hero, but the daughter stays in Gurgaon, mother has no caretaker at home…there are practical difficulties. These are life changing decisions and the helplessness, hopelessness was palpable! While we were counselling them about how to inject insulin and check sugars, and adjust insulin, an old cheerful patient of mine walked in. As if god sent..he was also from Amritsar, had kidney transplant 2 years back, now on 4 times a day insulin and a flourishing business. 

I introduced both of them and the rest is magic…the hope and courage the lady and her daughter got just by talking to this patient in 5 minutes, could not have come even after hours of counselling!

When they saw someone who had gone through this phase and come out of it successful, happy they knew they can do it too!

Share your stories, you may be the star which can light someone’s night!