Diabetes, injuries and risk aversion

For a few years before I was diagnosed with diabetes, I had been a fairly regular trekker, frequenting the Western Ghats near Mumbai/Pune. On the treks I was quite open to taking reasonable risks, not worried about a few falls, cuts and bruises.

Ever since I was declared diabetic, I have become aware of becoming averse to risk of even minor injuries to the body in the general and to the feet in particular. Literature on diabetes warns diabetics that their wounds may not heal as quickly as those who are normal and the 'extremities' i.e. the feet and the hands especially need to be guarded against injury. This is followed by guidelines on choosing the right kind of footwear - it should cover your feet, be comfortable and not too tight etc.etc. I believe I have let all this have an effect on me. I do go for treks even today. I completed a 5-day trek just recently. But on this trek and all the ones I did after I was declared diabetic I found myself being very careful and focused on being injury-free. Otherwise too, where earlier a minor cut from the knife would just be treated with flowing water from the tap and light pressure, now I am anxious to see the bleeding stop as early as possible and worry about possible infection. I have started using antiseptic even on relatively minor cuts. Am I getting paranoid about injuries? Is this behavior normal for diabetics and such care essential? Or am I letting this whole issue get a bit too much under my skin?

The speed at which wounds of a diabetic heal is impacted by the blood sugar level. If the blood sugar levels are closer to the normal and for longer periods, the healing can be expected to proceed at a near-normal pace. When dentists need to extract teeth of diabetics they insist on a blood sugar check before the extraction and advise stricter control after. The same applies to wounds too.

So if I have good control on my sugar levels, will awareness of this fact make me less risk averse to non-serious injuries? I do not think so it will work that way for me. The risk aversion has now become fairly deep-seated. But then, may be it is a good thing. I will then be encouraged to keep better control as an insurance when I do get cut in-spite of all the care.

Just recently I carelessly nicked the outside of my right-hand thumb. When the bleeding did not stop for quite some time I resorted to home remedy of using turmeric powder to stop the flow and also as an anti-septic. Wondering if the bleeding did not stop because of high-sugar level, I tested. To my relief it wasn't high. This incident actually set me thinking about all that I have posted here. By the way, now that I can see the cut clearly, the bleeding was consistent with the cut.

So I think I need to relax, just do all the right things a diabetic should and rest assured that nature will do its best.