Steem4nigeria Weekly Contest : A Lesson About my Profession by @temitopef

Hello dear Steemians, It's another beautiful day, I'm so happy to join this contest organized by this community. Without wasting much time, I will go straight to the contest topic which is A Lesson about my Profession

My name is Adigun Fatimo Temitope, from Osun State Nigeria, I graduated from Osun State College of Health Technology Ilesa and I am licensed as a Medical Laboratory Technician. I have been practicing my profession since 2018. My Profession deals with the running tests on a patients' specimens, which can be blood, sputum, urine, feces, semen, and so on for the purpose of check-up, diagnosis, and treatment prognosis.

Furthermore, my Profession helps doctors to know the state of health of their patients, and how helpful the treatment has been. Like I said I'm a Medical Laboratory Technician and I work under the supervision of a scientist.

Today, I will love to discuss the Blood Sugar Test, this is a test done to know the level of glucose in the body, to know whether the patient has high glucose (Hyperglycemia) or low glucose (hypoglycemia) level in their blood or if the glucose is normal. Diabetes as a disease is caused as a result of excess sugar in the blood. It is of two types which include type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Type 1 is a condition whereby the body attack the cells in the pancreas and the pancreas produces little insulin or did not produce insulin at all, it usually shows up early in life, especially in adolescence. The patient would be managed by taking Insulin. While Type 2 is a situation whereby the pancreas is not producing enough insulin or the one being produced does not function properly. There are many people with Type 2 diabetes and they managed it with medications, diet, and also insulin depending on the level of the sugar in their blood.

Furthermore, we have Gestational Diabetes. Gestational diabetes is the situation whereby there is too much sugar in the blood of a pregnant woman. Some women developed diabetes during pregnancy. Sometimes it happens because they ate too much junk and sugary food. With proper treatment, they are usually free of diabetes after delivery but research makes it known that if care is not taken, such women might develop Type 2 diabetes in the future.

Blood Sugar Test is important for anyone that wants to know his sugar level, and for diabetics patient that is placed on drugs to know the effectiveness of the drugs and to avoid low sugar levels because low blood sugar is quite worse because if care is not taken, low blood sugar level might cause dizziness, unconsciousness or death. So checking one sugar level should be taken seriously for everyone, especially the diabetes patient.

So in my profession, we do laboratory tests to know the level of sugar in the blood. We have different tests done to know the glucose level in the blood which include: Fasting Blood Sugar Test (FBS), Random Blood Sugar Test (RBS), 2 Hour Postprandial Test (2HPP), Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT) and Glycated Haemoglobin Test (HbA1c).

Fasting Blood Sugar: This test is done with the blood sample collected in the morning after fasting for 9-11hours, and the blood sugar is checked. And 2 Hours Postprandial Test is the test done 2 hours after eating. The moment the patient ate, they will have to sit down at a place for 2hours and the sample will be collected for testing after 2 hours, doctors do request for both the FBS and 2HPP, so that they can monitor the patient's sugar level, when fasting for 9hours and the sugar breakdown, 2 hours after eating.

Random Blood Sugar Test (RBS): This test can be done anytime, it doesn't matter whether or not the patient has eaten, Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT) is a test done for pregnant woman that has high sugar in their blood and it is done with three blood sample, the first sample will be fasting, then the patient will be charged with 75gram of glucose to drink with water, then the second sample will be collected 1hour after taking the glucose, and the last one will be collected after another 1hour. Lastly Glycated Haemoglobin Test (HBA1c) is a test that is being done to monitor the sugar level and the drug being prescribed, to know how the patient has managed the sugar level over some time, mostly 3 months.

The reason why people need to know about the Blood Sugar Test is that I want everyone to know its importance, and know how to manage one's sugar level properly. Diabetes is not just a minor disease that can be taken for granted or left non-treated.

Do you know that if diabetes is not being managed properly and the patients got wounded or injured, the process of healing the wound will be slow, and sometimes the injury got severe.

To me, I will say the effect is actually positive because the advanced technology provides us with a mini machine known as Glucometer. Glucometer machine is designed with a test strip to test for blood sugar, it is not big and it can easily be taken with us anywhere, also it is affordable. With this, people don't have excuses for not being able to check their sugar level because they are busy to visit the laboratory, as they can check their sugar level from the comfort of their home.

My maternal grandfather managed Diabetes for above 20 years, the beginning was tiring but after getting a Glucometer, he was able to check it every morning before meals to know if it was low or high and whether he will use his drugs, take short insulin, or not. He only visit Hospital on his check-up days and he was able to live long. Technology makes it easy for him to manage his diabetes very well.

Diabetes is a serious and can be a life-threatening disease if not properly managed. So there is a need for a Blood Sugar Test. Diabetes patients can live a normal and good life if their blood sugar is being managed well, Thanks to @Steem4nigeria for this contest. This is where I will be stopping for now. Thank you.