Diabetes

Diabetes is a result of the pancreas not producing enough insulin resulting in high blood sugar.  Well-managed, diabetes can simply mean adapting diet and medication and monitoring blood sugar levels. However, without effective management, diabetes can spiral into a wide variety of debilitating and even life-threatening conditions.

Home Health Care can help you get your diabetes under control, to regain and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

How Allegiance Helps

In-home care from Allegiance Home Health will help you get the most from your life with diabetes. Our Diabetes Management program has two simple and specific goals:

• Increase patient’s ability to manage diabetic care, diet and.
• Prevent hospitalization or shorten hospital stays.

Our skilled nursing staff will educate you and your family about medications and how to administer them.  The nurse will teach you on the signs/symptoms and how to treat hyperglycemia (too high blood glucose level) and hypoglycemia (too low blood glucose level).  Our nurses will provide instructions on a healthy diet low in concentrated carbohydrates and sweets and the importance of regular aerobic exercise to lower the blood sugar.  They will also instruct on the importance on regular foot exams to avoid complications of diabetes.

Signs and symptoms of diabetes include:

• Increased thirst
• Frequent urination
• Extreme hunger
• Unexplained weight loss
• Fatigue
• Blurred Vision
• Slow healing wounds
• High blood pressure
• Frequent infections such as vaginal or bladder infections

Some of the Risk Factors for Diabetes are:

• Being overweight
• Inactivity – Exercising less than three times week increases your risk.
• Family history
• Age – Risk increases as you get older
• Gestational Diabetes
• Polycystic Ovary syndrome
• High blood pressure
• Abnormal Cholesterol levels – Low levels of HDL less than 35
• High levels of triglycerides above 250 mg/dl

Some of the complications of diabetes include:

• Cardiovascular disease such as stroke, heart attack and atherosclerosis (narrowing of arteries)
• Nerve damage (neuropathy) Especially in legs.  Symptoms are numbness, numbness, burning or pain
• Kidney damage (nephropathy) leads to kidney failure end stage kidney disease requiring dialysis or kidney transplant.
• Eye damage (retinopathy) Damage to blood vessels of retina resulting in blindness.
• Foot Damage-Nerve damage in feet or poor blood flow to feet increase risk various foot complications Cuts or even blisters left untreated can become serious infections may even result in toe, foot or even leg amputation.

Allegiance Home Health wants to be your ally against diabetes. We will help you manage the disease, monitor your health, and prevent or treat complications in the comfort of your home. Please call the Diabetes Team at Allegiance Home Health today.