Diabetes Mellitus

Diabetes Mellitus

Diabetes is a word not so unfamiliar to myself. Heard it way before it struck our family, cost a few sessions of depression and changed the entire setting of a happy family.

About fifteen years ago when my mother was still at her mid-forty stage, I could recall her talking about the word, how she believed she has it and how she managed to laugh at it. Diabetes at that time was not yet as popular as today that as far i've observed, doctors specializing in curing diabetes are gaining a large volume of clients and logically a considerable amount of earnings. They are gaining from the disease yet a lot of individuals are losing from it, literally, losing from it. Losing extremities. Not to mention, surgeons are at the peak of their profession cutting off limbs.

My mom could no longer laugh at the disease after her lifestyle was damaged by it. Her busy life before changed to a silent personality sitting in one of the corners of our home watching noontime television shows till nighttime. You could even talk to her whole day about how the soap operas shown from this time to that time went. She already has a reserved bundle of current events to talk about making a short talk over coffee futile. She needs an ample time to discuss everything gathered from television and radio. But that's on the lighter effect of diabetes, not to mention, the mellow-dramatic part of it.

My mom used to be a fan of leche flan, from where, i believe, my fervent non-resistant to it was obtained. She could cook it in different variations of taste. Would you believe that she used to prepare one in chocolate flavor? My apologies to preparers of said confection for revealing this creation of my mom which seems to be an unlikely menu. But really, she made it deliciously that i could not take it as a fake recipe. She even called it “Choco Flan”. And coke used to be her “liquid of relief”.

It was December of 2008 when a very little peeled-off skin from her sole led to the severing of one of her lower limbs. Most surgeons, medical professionals and medically-inclined persons call the process “Leg Amputation”. But i don't want to call it that way. It sounds too medical that it almost has a sound resemblance to amphetamine, ampicillin, ampinex, etc. However they call it,we call it, my mom was too shocked to handle her fate, her life's winning adversary.

Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus was the doctor's redundant mention. I could only understand the word “diabetes” but not anymore which type it's classified, and the word “mellitus”is just too foreign. It's a medical term, anyway, so basically, it's foreign to a not medically-exposed person, more to an accounting practitioner like myself. And our understanding of the word “diabetes”is just too basic that we often describe it as sugar-caused disease. Too much sugar that led to diabetes. Perhaps, too much leche flan. Too much choco flan. Logical, is it?

Only my nurse sister understands entirely how the disease went that way. Thanks to her. She could assist the doctor in explaining to us how the disease works, how it started and ended that way, and how it would be taken into during my mom's lifetime. They both said, our family should be watchful enough in monitoring said illness because it did not stop after the ampie (to be read as “am-pee”, for amputation. Really, i just don't like the word) process. It did not stop after the pain of losing one leg. It has now drastically invaded my mom's life.

From media to table conversations, diabetes has indeed managed to gain popularity. Popularity that brings about lucrative professional undertakings and creates its own damaging personality. Dietary supplements in forms of coffee, milk, capsules, etc. have been created to address the illness. Well-known confections and sweet food products have considered adding in “diabetes-shield”ingredients just so not to be feared by lovers of the food. Coca-cola has its own “No Sugar Coke” while Pepsi also has the same. Sugar-free cakes have been invented. I even have this supply of sugar-free menthol candies. The world has feared diabetes and has taken it seriously.

My family was looking for layman's explanation of the disease specifically on how the small peeling off of skin led to the ampie of my mom's leg. The doctor's explanation was quite vague at first so i tried figuring out though my analytical interpretation on how it could possibly work. He started by mentioning insulin, the defect of bodily tissues, the excessive intake of sugar and the non-absorption of sugar by bodily cells making its volume to stay in the blood, clog the bloodstream and affect the distribution of nutrients to the entire system. I don't know if my interpretation of his explanation is correct but that's how i took it and lived it.

As i could understand it, a hormone in the body called insulin produced by the pancreas is no longer effective in absorbing glucose (sugar) to be used as energy in the body. Accordingly, muscle cells and fat cells require insulin in absorbing glucose for energy purposes. With such defect that sugar taken into the body from foods eaten may no longer be used, organs in the body which basically are made up of muscles and fats which function as distributors of nutrients in the entire bodily system may no longer be in good condition to function. Adverse medical effects, hence, could occur. In my mom's case, nutrients that could have been distributed to one of her legs did not reach to the lowest part of her body (the “sole” part) causing it to decay. The little peeling off of skin was just a show of the decay occurring in said leg. In reality, tissues forming up my mom's leg were already dead and in gangrene stage and so, had to be severed.

Doctor's advice was to monitor my mom's sugar level – reduce sugar intake, do a little exercise to well-manage blood circulation and take sugar-reducing meds. As of now, mom is well handling it. But sometimes, her sugar could reach so high that we have to send her to a doctor (80 kilometers away). She just don't love it – riding on a hired car and suffer on making request to the driver to pee. Just so unlikely. But she had to be seen by a doctor. Sometimes, she would be injected with insulin.

We know, it would not stop from here. And we know, there are a lot of things to happen. Praying that everything will just turn so okay with our layman's understanding against the medical way.

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