A NEW day has just started. Aliu wakes up, puts on the light and sits up to check his feet thoroughly. This is a daily ritual of a diabetic patient. Then he noticed a small blood clot on the left foot, and went straight for a medical check-up.

Getting to the hospital, his doctor told him the foot had to be amputated urgently. That is the only way he could live, his doctors said as a matter of fact. Nearly 80 per cent of people who have diabetes will eventually die of clot-related causes, according to expert. At that time, Aliu was left with no other option than to accept his fate.

It was a decision to live the rest of his life on the wheelchair.

The following day, the fifty-four-year-old Aliu had his left foot amputated, spending nearly N3 million for the surgery.

In an interview with The ICIR, five months after the surgery, Aliu said he sometimes forgot he no longer has his left foot and attempts to engage in some activities. But when he remembers he is now handicapped state, he feels helpless. “The loss hinders my movement,” he said.

During one of his visits to the diabetes clinic of Federal Medical Centre in Jabi, Abuja, Aliu’s daughter gently wheeled him into the hall. The remaining of his left leg, wrapped with a brown bandage, was dangling above the footrest,

He told The ICIR he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was fifty years old. Type 1 diabetes, also known as insulin-dependent diabetes, is a chronic condition in which the pancreas produces little or no insulin by itself.

His doctors had told him that diabetes is genetic. If someone has a family of diabetes, a member of that family is at a very high risk of getting diabetes, especially the type 2 which is highly hereditary. But Aliu’s case is different. His was triggered by a lifestyle that was less than healthy. He told The ICIR that he had indeed enjoyed himself consuming too many sweet stuff.

“Though I don’t take beers, I take a lot of sodas. I am sweet-coated with a little exercise,” Aliu said, with a short laugh.

Now he spends more than N22,000 on the medications every month to maintain his health. A daily diet of insulin and other drugs keeps his heart beating.

Another patient of diabetes at FMC, Tunji, said he has been treating the disease since 2005 when he was 50 years old.

Thirteen years ago, Tunji woke up in the middle of the night to urinate, not once but four times. Throughout the day, he visited the restroom more frequently than the usual.

At first, he thought maybe it was just a natural thing at that period. But after some days of abnormal urination, he became more concerned.

Days after, another sign showed up. He had gone to use the restroom of his master bedroom more frequent than usual. His wife who had noticed the frequency of his visit to the loo asked: ‘Are you feeling okay?’”

“I said ‘yes, I am, why?’” “You are losing weight, you are urinating more than the usual, so I think you should go to the hospital,” Tunji recalled during an interview with The ICIR.

Though he said he did not have a heavyweight, he had thought that his little weight then was natural. But his wife’s concern got him to become more worried.

After he came to the hospital, following some medical tests, Tunji was diagnosed with a type 2 diabetes. The type 2 diabetes is more common than type 1. It occurs when the body becomes resistant to insulin or doesn’t make enough insulin.

The now 63-year-old Tunji said he takes his doctors’ advice at heart. He said he has modified his lifestyle and engaging more in physical activities. “I jug everyday and I have been taken my medication well with the doctor’s prescription,” said Tunji.

He lamented how he could have used the money he usually spends on treatment for something much better. “Saving the money in bank alone would have to give me a rich bank account,” Tunji said.

Diabetes means the high level of blood glucose or sugar in the body, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs either when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces.

Insulin helps control blood glucose levels by signalling some cells like liver, muscle and fat cells to take in glucose (sugar) from the blood. When the body has had enough energy, insulin signal the liver to take up glucose and store it. So that there will be a normal sugar level in the bloodstream.

For people living with diabetes, access to affordable treatment, which include the daily use of insulin, is critical to their survival, according to WHO.

Diabetes is a major cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks, stroke and lower limb amputation, and it is prevalent in middle- and low-income countries such as Nigeria.

Diabetes in Nigeria, who is at risk?

According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), an estimated number of 1.7 million people had diabetes in Nigeria in 2015.

“The lifestyle of many Nigerians encourages diabetes,” Janefrances Chukwu, a consultant endocrinologist of FMC, Jabi in Abuja told The ICIR.

Janefrances said our lifestyles which mainly rest on the food we eat can trigger diabetes, and that many Nigerians eat “more of fried and over processed food” which need to be stopped and be replaced with “more of natural food.”

The consultant added that physical exercise should be a part of every Nigerian’s life. “A lots of us are indoor most of the times,” she said. “It is important to do some kind of exercise at least thirty minutes a day.” Engaging in those exercises, according to the doctor, would help burn some glucose (energy) in the body.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/living-with-diabetes-in-nigeria-full-of-difficulties-complications/