FREEDOM

Yesterday I had my first appointment at the chiropodists since leaving hospital. I was quite surprised to see how well the toe is progressing. It is the first obvious sign of things moving in the right direction and now I'm fairly certain that I'll see Christmas at home. There has been a part of me expecting to be back in hospital for a small amputation. Then, straight after that appointment, I was off to the hospital again, but this time it was for pleasure, rather than pain - a Christmas party!
Earlier in the year I did a course at the Diabetes Centre. Flexible Regimes for Eating and Exercise in Diabetes for Optimal Management (FREEDOM) is designed to allow the sufferer to adjust the carbohydrate intake and amount of insulin taken depending on lifestyle and day to day activities (some areas run a similar course called DAPHNE). The party was a chance to get together with the other diabetics who had taken the course during the year. There were a couple of "guest" speakers, one from Diabetes UK, talking about the new DVLA rules for diabetic drivers and another was a patient who had recently had a kidney and pancreas transplant. Both were very interesting, though, since I had my driving licence revoked over 13 years ago, the SKP transplant patient was far more useful to me. I'm hoping to have the same operation as him and I have an appointment to see the transplant team on Monday of next week.
The FREEDOM course seems to have helped me quite a lot. My pre-meal blood tests have become far less random and are almost all within the target range of 4.5 - 9.5. I've been able to reduce my long-acting insulin (Levemir) by about 25% and I have not been "hypo" for a good while now, rather than having one on most days. The six weeks of 4 hour sessions were, as far as I'm concerned, a good investment in my future.
Hopefully the coming weekend will be quiet, because I have appointments on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday next week, and then they all stop until after Christmas. Peace for a week!