Gail Wellings believed she had no symptoms of type 2 diabetes but an injury that wouldn’t heal led her to discover otherwise – and to amputation.

Gail Wellings believed she had no symptoms of type 2 diabetes but an injury that wouldn’t heal led her to discover otherwise – and to amputation.

To say that Gail Wellings was surprised to learn she had type 2 diabetes is an understatement.

“I didn’t have any symptoms at all,” she told us. “I thought that if you were diabetic, you drank like a fish, went to the loo all the time, were very tired and your extremities could be so cold that if you put on heating pads you could burn yourself due to diabetic neuropathy (which my friend’s husband had). I didn’t have any of that, although I’ve since spoken to several people who also had no symptoms whatsoever.”


Nevertheless, Gail – then 57 and living in America – was suddenly face to face with a nurse holding a needle and an orange, ready to show her how to inject herself with insulin. It was the second shock during one very long day. “I had tripped over a kerb and the injury didn’t seem to heal,” she explained. “I hate going to doctors, but as it didn’t seem to get better in the end I went to see the doctor; I thought he’d put me on a strong antibiotic, but he took one look at my foot and said I was going to lose it. That came as a bit of a shock. I went straight to the hospital and they admitted me right away.” Being told about her diabetes completed the double whammy. “During the next week they had to get my blood sugar level down, because if they’d operated straight away, it would never have healed,” Gail said. “In America, a blood sugar level of 60 to 120 is normal and you start going on medication from about 185 to 190. When I was admitted, my level was 617.” Not the kind of high score anyone should want!


Gail’s left leg was amputated below the knee a week later. “I really would have liked to have talked to another amputee,” she admitted, “but there wasn’t anybody. I talked to the various doctors who came to see me during that week and they all said that I should have it amputated – that while they could get rid of the infection this time, it would certainly come back and that would be the end of me. There were not a lot of options, really.”


Ten years on, Gail remains active and her type 2 diabetes is – “touch wood” – currently controlled without a need for drugs. She told us: “I started with insulin injections – twice a day, in fact – but I changed my entire diet and after a bit the blood sugar was OK enough that they weaned me gradually off the insulin onto tablets and then just diet. But I know it’s a progressive thing; I’m quite likely to go back on to tablets or injections at some point.”


Gail also, remarkably quickly, became used to her prosthesis. “To be honest I was so grateful to be back on a limb again, it was fine,” she explained. “I was quite sensible. They told me to start using it a couple of hours a day, which I did, and I gradually worked at it more and more. I did find I was very tired to begin with, but it didn’t take me that long to get used to it.” She now has a treadmill, which allows her to maintain an exercise programme in the comfort and safety of her own home. “I would love to find that they have a foot that actually adjusts to the terrain,” she admitted, “but they don’t seem to have perfected that at the moment.”


On returning to the UK, Gail joined both the Limbless Association and Diabetes UK but, having found a lack of opportunities to discuss things with fellow amputees and diabetics, she’s helped set up amputee support groups in High Wycombe and Oxford. So what advice does she have for anybody who finds themselves in a similar situation? “The diabetes was a big surprise at the time, particularly as there was no history whatsoever of anyone in my family having diabetes” she told us, “so I think that people should be checked out for it more. I had no symptoms; had I known I had diabetes, I’d have been a lot more careful about what I ate and everything. As for the amputation, I think it’s terribly sad when you hear about people who are given a limb of some description and then it sits in a cupboard. If it doesn’t fit very well, they should go back and get it adjusted so that it does fit.”


FURTHER INFORMATION


Diabetes UK

Careline: 0845 120 2960, www.diabetes.org.uk

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