JULY 22
I feel like I have mastered the language of Diabetes. To offer adequate services in translation, I needed to learn the language of Diabetes because of the huge amount of diabetes patients that she has. I spent one day away from the hospital and a couple of patients who came back were looking for me. I almost thought that something was wrong because they were looking for me. But then I remembered that I was translating for them the other day. They were so happy to see me as I walked through the hospital looking for Dr. Close. Being away for a day, it felt different being back after such a long time.
Important to shadowing Dr. Close was being able to speak the language of Diabetes. I have never taken insulin, but now I know what it means to take a 25 in the morning and a 15 at night. I know the questions to ask a diabetes patient to make sure that their insulin/ medication is working. The line of questioning has become a second nature to me. At first I was getting tripped up with all the numbers in creole, but when I pulled out my notebook and wrote down everything the patient said, it seemed like the patients opened up more about the experience with diabetes. The patients speak so fast when they talk about insulin! Also, I had to build my creole medicinal vocabulary because it was crucial. Certain questions about does the medicine gives you headache? Or does it make you go to the bathroom often— I knew. I always reminded the patients to moisturize and lotion they feet to avoid infection each night. Dr. Close gave me the lotion and I knew what to say.