I met the teams specialist diabetic nurse, who was very nice and said if I needed to ask any questions then to come and see her. I was met the dietician who told me about exchanges and how much carbohydrate I could have and if I had any questions to ask to come and see her. I then met the consultant who told me how my diabetes was, what insulin he wanted me to take, and to see my doctor to arrange for needles, syringes and insulin. I then met the nurse again who showed me all the places I could inject.
After over an hour I was going hypo, as my appointment was 13:30 and it was 1 hour late (this is quite often the case due to heavy workload) and now it was 3:30 and I was going hypo. I hadn't wanted to eat my biscuit at 3pm in front of any of them as I had a chocolate biscuit and they were against chocolate biscuits.
So I nipped into the loo and ate my biscuit.
By the end of the session I didn't know what I knew but I was loaded up with all sorts of diabetic diaries, reagents, leaflets sample and so on.
It was only after I'd left I realised that although lots of people had said if I had any questions to ask, I had no idea what to ask and there wasn't any time in the process to ask.
Learning Point:
- I should have done a little reading on diabetes before attending clinic
- I should have made a list of the kind of things I needed to know
- I should have written down new things as they were explained to me
- I should have not been afraid to keep asking for clarification
- I should have spoken to some of the other diabetics
- I should have joined the local association
- I should have eaten my biscuit whoever was there, never delay for others
TBC
