Yet another rant about physicians!

tomteboda

collectingblues wrote: »

tomteboda wrote: »

For example, she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as a child, but because her parents were farmers, they decided not to treat her diabetes because he while family would lose health and life insurance. She tried to get treated as an adult but it took nearly 20 years to convince a doctor that she had diabetes that needed insulin as doctor after doctor at clinic after clinic insisted she had to be type 2 and gave her pills that did nothing. So here she is at 61 with diabetic neuropathy in her feet and hands and legs and arms, unable to stand because of charcot fractures, suffering with 20% kidney function and a heart that's enlarged to 4 times its normal size, and nearly blind from diabetic retinopathy; all conditions that can be prevented with good blood sugar management, something that she was actively blocked from getting first by her parents (and their stupid doctor who approved starving her as an alternative to insulin treatment) and then by multiple physicians in three states and over 9 different health care systems.

Have papers been written on her? Because type 1 means that there is *no* insulin production. She would not have survived 20 years. People who were diagnosed before insulin was discovered in its pharmacological form did not survive without starvation -- and even then, they didn't survive for anything approaching 20 years.

I'd believe it that she was type 2 at a young age, but I do not believe for one minute that she was type 1.

Yes, there are papers published on her case through the Mayo Clinic. And she survived exactly as you suggested. Starvation. Her mother made her pee daily to test for spilling sugar, and wasn't allowed to eat more than 2 hard boiled eggs, plain, any day that she had high sugars. I cannot overstate exactly how miserable her childhood was. She was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 2. Her mom took DES when she was pregnant.

Did I mention, I believe I did, that all those pills type 2 diabetics take did nothing. Insulin, on the other hand, does. She's now been on insulin since she was 34, so for almost 30 years. You are, of course, not alone in your skepticism. It has been shared by a great many arrogant doctors who refused to believe the evidence in the charts or in her reactions to their incorrect handling of her diabetes.