Contrary to what I had thought, there is something real on MTV... The show "True Life" just highlighted 3 young people struggling to manage Diabetes and all the fun that goes along with it.
www.mtv.com/videos/true-life-i-have-diabetes/1677596/playlist.jhtml
Do you think it is a good portrayal of the day-to-day life managing diabetes?
I have watched 15 minutes of this and I find it really depressing and hopeless, I hope it ends better than it starts . . .
Yeah I watched. It is 60 minutes of my life I will never get back. They profiled 3 people with diabetes; an uncontrolled alcoholic college kid, an uncontrolled pregnant girl and a depressed uncontrolled girl. Thanks mtv.
I didn't really like this, all of the subjects were in poor control. I wish they had at least one person who could have portrayed successful management but I guess that's not dramatic enough for MTV.
I'm watching this a bit right now, but do I really want to? I hate MTV's portrayal of just about everything. Growing up in the '80s, I thought I was part of the MTV generation. (Sadly, Beavis and Butt-head have gone from being the dumbest, to being the smartest, characters on the network). But I didn't watch this stuff.
Regardless (and I'm watching the video now as I type this), growing up as a teen with T1D sucks. I had a hard time with it (yeah, I bought the cookies and ice cream from the high-school cafeteria) as do these characters. In college, I didn't drink a lot, but it's not to say I was sober 24/7 either. I think MTV's goal here is to be realistic, not patronizingly idealistic. [I admit, though, that I was fortunate that didn't need to worry about the financial aspect of D at that time in my life]
But I'm not the target demographic for this show. I wonder what the folks who ARE in the target demographic... folks like TimmyMac and Anna Banana, who always impress me with their knowledge and their handling of situations... would think?
I haven't watched it yet, but I think I can safely say I agree with ScottE, I don't feel I'd be the right target demographic for this show either. As high shcool and teen years have been a LONG time ago. Sadly I imagine a lot of teens probably are pretty rebellious with their management I know I was. I simply was NOT going to let D dictate my life, I was going to live it and enjoy it. Luckily I survived it too, with minimal problems. I too think though it would have been better to have had at least 1 diabetic on there showing good control, but Im sure as others have stated that wouldnt be exciting enough. But I really think, remembering back to being a teenager before internet was the norm in every household and PC's were big boxy contraptions and once again was not the norm in every household, and sites like this didn't exist, how much seeing good positive role models my own age, that I could relate to and identify with would have helped. Yes I guess I "could" have went to camps, but Im not the camp type, I want reality and I dont know I just never in my mind found that very realistic, it was always in my mind lets whistle zippede do dah day.
I think a lot of younger people could really benefit from seeing in a healthy realistic way, the challenges young people face, the "peer" pressure to not want to be different from your friends, to engage in the same kinda fun, food and activities. And see that it doesn't necessarily mean you have to throw all control to the wind to do that. From what everyone has said of the show, it sounds like a pretty dismal representation of life with D. While no picnic, I don't think that idea needs to be drilled further into young kids heads.
It's supposed to be "true life"... what fraction of diabetics do you think have good control? The sample of frequent posters here on tudiabetes is in fact not very representative of the "real world". The most frequent posters here are true overachievers that have control better than 99% of the diabetic population.
I'll get back to ya in an hour or so, I just started watching it... but after watching the intro, I'm reminded of a few people at school.
Also, are the insertion sets for pumps really that loud? I had no idea! (probably doesnt hurt, but it just sounds painful lol.
I was a little horrified with that too. Nate's is a pop too, but the Omnipod auto-inserts and the pod completely covers it. Pain level varies but he doesn't stress about doing it. I apply his cgms sensor which is not auto-insert and doesn't pop, we got used to it quick. Both his devices look better than that insertion, but I guess it just what we've gotten used to. BTW, both his devices don't mark up his body like that. :)
I watched the whole thing, what to say, hum. Depressing, yes. Our management is so much better, but like the guy said, he had better management too before starting college and just being irresponsible and risking a lot. What's with the pregnant girl? Was she type 2 but who wiped out her insulin, misdiagnosed type 1, gestational, LADA or what?
Also, most of us on here are older and with age sometimes comes better control (at least for type 1s). High school and college were horrible times for me. Hormones wreaked havoc on my BGs from middle school all the way through my college years. Also, when you're younger, you have less control over your schedule (due to school and working odd jobs), and this generally means less control over your BGs.
I think the late teens/early 20s is a really difficult time for many T1s. For the first time, you're completely in control of your own health, often after many years of it being controlled for you. You frequently lack the funds/insurance to cover things. You're facing peer pressures (drinking, partying, etc) that are moderately dangerous for the average, healthy teen, but can be really dangerous for a T1.
I haven't watched this yet, but I will this week. Curious to see if it mirrors at all the difficulty I went through at that age.
I think they sound way worse than they feel. I use the Mio infusion sets and they only hurt occasionally (like if I hit a weird spot or something), but my spouse can always hear it from across the house. The benefits of the pump for me far outweigh any minor discomfort caused by the infusion sets.
I was under the impression that she was misdiagnosed and is actually a type 1. Happens a lot, unfortunately, especially when someone is a little overweight or has other risk factors for type 2. So many endos just assume type 2 without even doing the appropriate testing.
OK, about 10 minutes into this show right now. The first girl (the one struggling financially) is actually a situation I could totally relate to, at my current age but especially when I was her age. Good insurance coverage is hard to come by. I had health insurance during my latter college years, but the Rx coverage was horrible and I too racked up some credit card debt paying for insulin and other D-supplies. It makes me so sad and frustrated that someone so young has to be saddled with such debt for a disease she did nothing to bring on. Even now I get frustrated sometimes because so much of my income goes to caring for diabetes (pump supplies, insulin, etc). And I have excellent health insurance!
Her family looks financially set, my point of view, if she working those many hours, having a disease that she did not bring on, the family should be helping with medical expenses. It's not like she is in her 40s and a bum, she's 25 and it tough out there to find a job let alone land one with excellent coverage. Saw she uses a cgms too, added expense but I would want my son to keep using his, but an issue I would have as her mom was that with her tools her A1C was 8.9!
All said, could be hyped up drama.
At the end they mentioned she had been hospitalized 5 times since the birth of her son because of high blood sugars. They re-diagnosed her as a Type 1.
If she was in fact type 1 the whole time, how infuriating that she had to sit down with a smug nutritionist, when no matter how healthy she ate she wasn't getting glucose into her cells! Tests should be mandatory to determine type when a pregnancy is involved, the medical team risked that child's birth. I think the fast food element was probably played up by producers. "We bought you Nuggets" really? After all she'd been through. Not saying she and her husband haven't been guilty of overdoing it but I think MTV had an agenda of fast food = diabetes.
Yeah, I agree. That was pretty much my situation coming out of college and when I was between jobs, minus the insulin pump and the overbearing parents.
I let my management slip all to hell and the only thing getting me by with insulin and supplies were the research studies I was able to get into. It was really tough and, I've gotta say, that period of time made me get into some terrible habits that I had to have just to ration supplies. I didn't break most of those habits until fairly recently when it struck me that, hey, you have a career and decent insurance now, get it under control!
Yeah, being that age is hard. I remember rationing test strips sometimes to the point where I was only testing a few times a day (basically way less than I should have been testing). It was not good. And when you have less money and are working like crazy, it's easy to also get into some bad eating habits in that situation.
Yeah, I kinda wondered about that too. My family never had a lot of money, but if my mother had ever known I was short on insulin at times, she would have robbed a drugstore to make sure I had it. I wondered why her family wasn't helping her out more.
The other thing I don't understand is that usually when you order a pump, you don't have to pay the balance all at once for any cost-sharing. I was able to pay my balance off over a few months.