Having diabetes and breast cancer was a challenge for Christine and she felt that there was little communication amongst the professionals.
Transcript
Bless their hearts they’re so sweet, but I’m a Type 1 diabetic and one of the things that I discovered is that disciplines don’t talk to each other so I sat in the chemo session and I said well I’m a Type 1 diabetic, what am I supposed to do? And so okay we’ll talk to the dieticians and the dieticians said “You need to talk to your diabetic people”. So, information session on the 27th or 26th of November, 27th of November round one of chemo. Within 24 hours I was on my back with the leg pains, nausea, started the recovery in my apartment and ended up at my mother’s place on my back. And just for the luck of it I’d had an appointment made with my diabetic specialist on the Monday just to talk about what the heck do you do in terms of feeding. Literally my mother and her friend had to gather me up and put me into the car and take me there.
Interviewer: Because you were so unwell?
I was so unwell. My diabetic specialist took one look at me and she said, “You’re not doing very good are you?” I said “No”, she said, “You’re dehydrated, you’ve got thrush, you’re going into the hospital.”
More from: Christine B
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- Finding and sharing information – Christine BChristine accessed different kinds of resources to find the information she needed.
- Managing within the health care system – Christine BHaving diabetes and breast cancer was a challenge for Christine and she felt that there was little communication amongst the professionals.
- Positive effects on self – Christine BFor Christine it made it easier both for her to be happy in the present and to accept whatever the future might bring.
- Work and finances – Christine BThanks to her partner's employer, Christine had good medical coverage but would only receive long-term disability after 2 years. Additional costs such as parking were having an impact.