Diabetes Stories Week 2021 - Manju's Story
This year, Diabetes Week is focused on hearing #DiabetesStories from many of those affected. We spoke to Diabetes Specialist Nurse, Manjunath S Pillai, about why he decided to specialise in diabetes and how he continued to care for diabetic patients during the pandemic.
“My decision to be a diabetes nurse goes back to my childhood in India when my grandmother collapsed at home with hypoglycaemia.
“It made a real impression on me, so when I came to the UK to further my nursing career I decided to specialise in diabetes, and I am the only male Diabetes Specialist Nurse in the Trust. We don’t have those sorts of specialisms in India because of the sheer volume of patients needing general treatment.”
“The pandemic proved equally challenging when I was working as a senior Band 5 in AMU with Covid-19 patients who often had diabetes as an underlying health condition. I faced a different set of challenges during the second wave of the pandemic as a Diabetes Nurse specialist.
“It was tough because their diabetic care effectively took a backseat while they were critically ill and we had to start over once they had stabilised.”
“This is mirrored in the local community which is home to the largest number of diabetics in the UK with successive lockdowns disrupting a lot of patients’ routines, in terms of self-medication, diet and exercise.
“It’s understandable and we’re not here to judge people. We just want to help them back onto the straight and narrow and feel good about themselves.”