My father was admitted to the hospital last week with a severe kidney infection, he is almost 82. When talking with the Doctors and Nurses he wanted to make sure they knew that he was one of three children and both siblings had diabetes, and he has three children that are also diabetic. When asked by the attending Dr. what type we had he told her type one but it was adult onset type 1. She actually tried to argue with him and doubted that anyone over 20 could be diagnosed anything but type 2…wish I had been there!
Glad to know at least my Dad has been listening.My brothers both refuse to see an endocrinologist. One tries every fad that comes along, blood cleansing, specially treated water, you name it. The other one doesn’t want to believe (or care) that there is a difference.
That Nurse need to be educated on Diabetes some more. Dang that is the lamest thing to say, Only under 20 can get Type1, that is nuts…we all sure could learn her some new Info…
All the best to your Dad. He and I are about the same age. It seems that the medical commumity need to learn that D is changeable and that one evaluation fits all,
Just another example of moronic behavior. ( the dr that was supposed to do my surgery tomorrow told me I was not diabetic because I am not on meds anymore… and that I cured myself!!! no i am not letting him operate on me.) Where is the accountability is all of this?? grrrrrrrrr
hope your dad is getting better.xoxoxox Hugzzzzz!
I am afraid that it is a common problem - I was told that I had type 2 (because of my age!) and only found out that I was (still am) tye 1 when I was admitted to hospital with a chest infection and ketoacidosis. I had not been put on insulin because of this wrong diagnosis and the first thing the doctor said to me the next morning is “Why haven’t you been taking your insulin?” Presuming that I was on it. I told him that I was not taking it because I was type 2 and he said, “No, you are type 1!” That was news to me!
More recently, I had to go to a neuropathy specialist and told him that I had had the symptoms of diabetes for 10 years before I was diagnosed and had been told that they were all in my mind … and he said that I would have been dead by now so I could not possibly have had it that long! I beg to differ. In retrospect there were several episodes of ketoacidosis where I could barely breathe or walk, my eyesight went from bad to worse and I lost over 6 stones in weight without trying! I had the smell of ketones - and was always being told that I had had too much to drink … I could go on!
I have a feeling that depending on who taught doctors is what forms their opinions and they rarely go through more than a couple of lectures on the disease!
I hope your father gets through this and I am glad that he had the mental capacity to at least try to put the doctor right and that HE knows what is what! My best wishes go to both of you. You are in my prayers!
sigh, I remember my nursing textbooks from 1978-1980. It had one paragraph on Type 1 Diabetes, called Juvenile Diabetes. It said type 1s are brittle and usually don’t live to adulthood. Then the rest of it was all about Type 2, Adult Onset, it was called, on and on about weight and lack of exercise. I learned how to test urine, the test strips for blood I only saw at UCD med center because they were so new. Needless to say, I learned very little about diabetes until it chose me as a victim.
Thanks for the comments. I try so hard to educate everyone I come into contact with. Do Doctors have to do some equivalent of continuing education? Professional engineers do to keep up with changing technology, and so do many other fields. I am very fortunate that my endo was once a researcher, he knows that the medical system is failing diabetics and like many of us is also at a loss to correct the problem.
BTW, my dad is much better. Thanks for the concern.
Glad to hear your dad is getting better. Long may it continue!
Apparently (in the UK anyway), doctors do get ongoing training - my own general practitioner is forever going off on “courses” and is not available for consultation. Unfortunately she is the first to admit that she does not want to discuss diabetes! She says she does not have enough knowledge of it and it is obvious when she gets rather stressed when I try to mention it and it is also obvious that her “courses” do not include diabetes!
It staggers me how many dr’s don’t have enough background knowledge about diabetes considering how common it is. I don’t see too many docs but my experience is mainly with GP’s on this subject. It started way back in 82 when I was first diagnosed - the first doc I was taken to misdiagnosed my condition whereas the 2nd took one look at me, told me I was diabetic and sent me to hospital. Not much has changed since then…the amount of times I’ve gone to a GP for something like antibiotics, told them I’m a type 1 diabetic, and recieved the blank “what do I do now” look beggars belief! The only thing they all seem to know what to ask is what my a1C is like. A lot of docs also ask ME what my treatment should be…hang on, which one of us went to med school!!!
Perhaps the last comment is a bit rough as I do understand that I am the best person to know how my D is going to react to certain treatment…but come on, a bit of a clue would be nice
