Blogabetes - Eavesdropping

Diabetes can make some of life's more complicated moments even more challenging. This morning's Blogabetes post is from Julia Zegarra, touching on some special issues that teens with diabetes may face.

Eavesdropping

While waiting for Olivia to take her swim test at Clara Barton last week, I was eavesdropping on a couple of girls standing in front of me. They scared the crap out of me.

They were both talking about how they hated having to take insulin because insulin makes you fat. “It’s true,” one girl said, “I read it on the internet.” The other girl was amazed, but believed her readily.

Then they started discussing how they both let themselves run high – so high that their meters just say HI – in order to maintain or even lose some weight. They both said that they rarely checked themselves, maybe checked a couple of times a week, lied to their parents about the frequency of their checks and made up bg readings. At this point, my eyebrows were practically at my hairline and I was trying to unobtrusively move a little closer so I could continue to listen.

They talked about boys for a little bit (was I ever like that? Don’t answer.) and what actors they liked. Then they turned back to diabetes talk. One girl mentioned how she’d been in the hospital four times that year because of DKA. The other one said she’d managed to avoid that, although she’d been sick a lot. She thought it was because of her high blood sugars, but she convinced her parents that it was the flu. They both mentioned having A1cs over 10.

I was horrified listening to these two girls. Horrified that they had such a cavalier attitude about their health, although that was understandable, given their age. I was more horrified at the apparent lack of involvement by their parents. Weren’t their parents logging? Didn’t they go to endo appointments with them? Didn’t they get those A1c results?

I often struggle with Olivia’s blood sugars, trying to get her to eat better, eat less, exercise more frequently, but I stay on top of things. I adjust basal rates on a regular basis as her insulin needs increase or decrease. I don’t know the living situation of those two girls. Maybe the parents don’t have the tools or the know-how to do this. Maybe the girls are defiant and the parents have given up. I don’t know.

I just hope that camp got them to see that this was no way to live, that running so high in order to be thin is not going to prevent the complications that can arise from running high for so long. Skinny won’t bring back your eyesight. Thin won’t save your kidneys.

Related: Diabetes and Eating Disorders

Comments

1. At 07:25 PM on Sun, Aug 26, 2007 Choi Biermeier wrote:

   My diabetes is up.
   I have to be put on insulin pill.
   My blood sugar is 9.6.
   Will you help me.
   Thank you,
   Choi Ann Biermeier
   choibiermeier@usfamily.net

2. At 10:27 AM on Fri, Aug 24, 2007 Keith Townsend wrote:

   If people understood what is happening to the bloood & body when blood sugar is high, even the best diabetic would work at it a little harder! The body needs energy to function, it gets it's energy from sugar in the blood-stream IF the sugar can get attached to an insulin molocule. The sugar can't be used without the insulin so the body uses fat. Problem with that is the by-product of burning fat is and acid in the blood stream. Too much acid is hard for the body to tolerate(DKA) which is really hard on kidneys, liver, heart, etc. This a really simple explantion of what is going on, but is easy for folks to understand. Yea, going high burns fat, but at what cost, and your breath really stinks.
   PS. Type-1 diabetic since the age of 7(1966), 40+years. I must be doing something right.
   Not to say that I haven't been bad, but not constantly stupid.
   Best of luck!
   

3. At 01:54 PM on Mon, Aug 20, 2007 Nicolep wrote:

   Ugh. So disheartening, this is...

   Some research just came out - more here:

   http://diabetes.about.com/od/childrenanddiabetes/a/type1disorder.htm

   saying young women with diabetes are twice as likely to have an eating disorder... It's no wonder, given how focused we need to be on food, meds, and weight.

   Really, really scary, J.

   I have to wonder about parents too... When I was at home, I rarely, if ever practiced dose manipulating - it wasn't until I went away to college that I got out of control with that - out of my parents reach... Because I knew my mother would KNOW and my mother would KILL ME...