Thursday, 21 February 2013

Explaining Diabetes...En Español?!

Casa Cervantes, Alcalá de Henares.
Anyone that knows me knows that I can explain diabetes fairly well...in English. No one in France ever asked me about my diabetes, so I didn't have problems there when it came to the language barrier. But after my hypo in the my local supermarket a couple of days ago, I decided it was time to seriously drill some vocab into my brain. Now, my diabetes-related vocabulary in Spanish goes as far as:

Soy diabetica ('diabatico' if you're male) : I'm diabetic.
Tengo diabetes : I have diabetes.
La insulina : Insulin.

That's it! So, trying to explain diabetes proved very difficult, as you can imagine, particularly when already in a hypo state! This is really a post for my friend, Bethaney, as she is spending part of her year abroad in Spain (fingers crossed for Granada!) but I guess it's handy for anyone visiting Spain. I have found out relevant diabetes vocabulary! It took a lot of google-searching and reading of the Spanish equivalent of Diabetes UK (La Fundación Para La Diabetes - website here if you're interested)

Las agujas : Needles.
Inyectar : To inject.
Una inyección : An injection.
La glucosa : Glucose.
El azucar : Sugar.
Los hidratos de carbono : Carbohydrates.
El autoanáliso : Self-testing. 
El nivel de azucar : Sugar level.
El nivel de glucosa : Sugar level.
La hipoglucemia : Hypoglycaemia.
Normoglucemia : Normal sugar levels.
La hiperglucemia : Hyperglucaemia.
El páncreas : Pancreas.
La descompensación diabetica : DKA.
La glucagón : Glucagon.

There's actually a fairly detailed list of words and definitions you can read if you click here. However, I have no idea how to translate "blood testing kit" into Spanish! If anyone can tell me how to say that in Spanish, it would be very much appreciated!

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