there should be a public service announcement about the neccessity of taking insulin during sick days and not skipping meals and never experimenting with drugs and the importance of always checking your glucose levels?
Are you as am curious about what their BG levels may have been?
I work in a hospital and saw a 19 yr that also died of heart failure, he was rebellious and stopped taking his inslulin routinely, he also was experimenting with oxycontin.
I hae never seen BG levels this high but his were 1650 and his potassium was 8.5. His veins were so dry that they could not place an IV because they kept collapsing.
He was talking to his friends and in 20 minutes he was down.
So young deaths from type 1 all that uncommon.
Do you think that a message would save lives?
Public Service Announcement??? No. Only a relatively small portion of the “public” is diabetic, and not all diabetics take insulin. A PSA would be gross overkill.
What needs to be done is better education TO THE DIABETIC.
I have been on both ends of the scale. When I was first diagnosed it was by a GP (General Practitioner). He said that HE could treat me. He gave me some pills and told me to lose weight. THAT WAS IT! he never told me OTHER signs to watch out for, he never cautioned mt about my diet (EXCEPT to “lay off the sugar”), and he never told ma about the awful effects that long-term high blood sugar can have on EVERY organ in your body (like brain, kidneys, and sex organs!!!). So I spent the first 7 years of my “diabetic-hood”) flying blind, thinking that taking a pill and not eating doughnuts would cure me.
it was not until I almost lost a foot to amputation that I got educated.
The doctors at the hospital referred me to an Endocrinologist — a specialist in disease like diabetes. he first started me on insulin immediately, in addition to my pills. But he ALSO had contacts wil a Diabetic Educator and a Nutritionist. SO I took like 12 hours of night classes learning about what causes diabetes, it;s effects om EVERY organ in your body, what my tests do and mean, and the really important things in my diet like carbohydrates and fibers. The Nutritionist then taught me how to make balanced, nutritious meals that ALSO tasted good and were filling/
But there is STILL the personal factor: >I< didn;t pay attention, being young and “immortal” (having the “it can;t happen to me” mindset), I didn;t always do what the doctors and trainers said.
So I didn;t really take good care of myself until about the last 10 years. but THEN it was too late! My kidneys began to fail about 4 years ago. i became anemic (the kidneys control HOW MUCH read blood you have). I got sick all the time. Two years ago, my kidney function went from 60% to 23%. I was dying from kidney failure, kidney failure caused by being diabetic for almost 30 years, but not taking such good care of it.
The kidney specialist began preparing me for dialysis, including the ‘Fistula” surgery to strengthen my veins for the eventual three-time-a week invasion of the dialysis machine. I thought the diabetic diet was strict, but now I had to eat a kidney-friendly diet (that amounts to almost nothing) just to stay alive!
I AND my wife also went through HOURS of physical and emotional testing to see if I might be a potential transplant candidate. Fortunately, I was, and I received a kidney transplant in February 2009. $350,000 to keep my sorry ass alive!
A Public Service Announcement is not necessary. What IS necessary is for doctors to educate their patients. ALL doctors should refer Diabetic patients to a specialist, and that specialist should have trainers and nutritionists available for referral.
Diabetes is a disease that YOU control. There is no doctor in the world that can help a diabetic who refuses to take care of themselves.
EDUCATION is necessary, not public service announcements.
Well, I am not sure why you say ‘another’ diabetic celebrity dying. Brittany Murphy didn’t pass from diabetes, from the reports that I have read. The heiress was into drugs and other such things, so I doubt that it was diabetes alone that ended her life.
The thing is if anyone mistreats their bodies, regardless of what disease they may have, there are going to be serious consequences. The 19 year old you saw did not simply die from “not taking insulin routinely” – the oxycontin played a big roll in it. Possibly the key roll.
So, no. I don’t think that there needs to be a message aimed especially toward type one diabetics about ‘taking better care of themselves/taking their insulin’. The big part in these people’s deaths, as I stated above, was not diabetes alone.
I think the public needs to be educated on health period.