On top of that... late teens/early 20's for me transitioning from my very excellent pediatric endo team, to pretty much no official support from the medical establishment at all. I was no longer covered by my parent's insurance, and the non-pediatric endos I did manage to see knew very little about T1. No docs would write a prescription for test strips or insulin, I ended up paying for absolutely everything out of pocket and going "underground" with regards to anything that might require a doc's signature.
I don't think any of the above is me trying to make excuses, just saying that being 20-ish and a diabetic and trying to get medical care is really really hard. I actually do a lot better now visiting a new medical provider now that I have a steady job, medical insurance, grey hair, etc. Every time I tried it in my 20's it was an epic fail.
I could not agree more. That transition period is horrible, and it's amazing how just the logistics of it all (trying to find insurance, pay for supplies, deal with docs who know nothing about managing a T1) negatively impacts control. I remember my first appointment with an "adult endo." I left in tears.
Things have gotten better as I've gotten older, and I think a lot of that has to do with my taking my own care into my hands. I don't hesitate to disagree with a doctor now if I don't think the treatment they are prescribing makes sense. I do my own research, go into appointments prepared, and don't hesitate to leave a practice if I don't feel they are taking my care seriously. But it took a long time to learn how to do this.
I actually disagree with this assessment - I just finished watching the episode and was actually pleased with how they portrayed things (especially considering this is MTV we're talking about here).
The young girl who moved back in with her parents was struggling financially because of her diabetes. I've been there. You need test strips to survive, but CVS doesn't give them to you unless you can afford your copay. I have some of the best health insurance in this country and I still have to come up with about $80/month for strips. In addition, there are the other costs - pumps, the insulin you need to survive, pump supplies, etc. I actually found her to be quite articulate in expressing how mature she felt she was given what she had to deal with.
The young guy who drank too much also was pretty articulate in how he expressed what he was doing. He was a college kid. College kids drink. He knew the risks, was clearly educated about them, and made an informed decision to engage in risky behavior. He admitted that what he was doing probably wouldn't work for every diabetic, and while his A1C wasn't great, it wasn't that horrible either. I think he demonstrated the struggle we all feel sometimes in trying to be "normal" but knowing we are not.
As for the young pregnant girl, I felt bad for her. She was clearly misdiagnosed (at the end they say her diagnosis was changed to T1, and she was probably a T1 all along). She didn't seem that "uncontrolled" either. She was clearly very good at following up with her medical team, checking her BGs, etc. Ok, so her diet wasn't the best, but this was suddenly really new to her. When she needed insulin, she took it. I also loved how she was concerned about her BG being 143. What saddened me was that at the end they noted that she ended up in the hospital 5 times due to high blood sugar levels. That makes me wonder if her misdiagnosis went on longer than it should (something many people on here have faced).
I am a seventeen year old type one from Holland and I know some other teenagers with Diabetes. Being a teenager with diabetes is extremely difficult, everybody is experimenting, alcohol, drugs, hormones and of course, being rebellious. Around half of the (young) diabetics I know have A1C's above 8.0 and they are all Dutch, so they'll probably have excellent insurance (My parents' insurance pays for everything, except for a CGM.) So, even without money-problems, management is really difficult for teens, I can only imagine how hard it would be to have 2 jobs to pay for your insulin..
Thanks for pointing this out! This is a very good perspective and reminder. My control was less than stellar as a teen for all the reasons you mention. I think the financial issues many Americans face with regard to health insurance makes it so much more difficult, especially for young adults who are just starting out on their own.
OK, I finally finished watching it (1 day.. 1 hour... same thing right?) I would say i'm impressed. most of the t1s I know irl have a1cs about what these people have. And I also know a fair number of partiers so I could easily imagine someone with diabetes involved in it.
theres one thing I really didnt get though, why didn't the one girl just switch to MDI? the whole reason I currently don't have a pump is because it costs so freakin' much. I certainly won't pay for my pump with a credit card. Just switch back if its going to be that much of a burden. I mean... MDI isn't THAT bad.
I'm unable to watch this since it's blocked for those of us in Canada ...
But I have to agree with what others have said on here ... the teenage/early 20s are by far the HARDEST time to have diabetes. I didn't have to worry about anything financially and I still spent five or six years during university with my A1c in the 8% range. I was pretty conscientious about my diabetes, too; but between classes and part-time jobs and the socializing teenagers and young adults tend to do (i.e., mostly parties), it's just an incredibly hard job to manage diabetes.
I think that this site tends to have "overachievers" in that the people here are all seriously dedicated to good control as someone said, and this site also has an older demographic of Type 1s (i.e., lots of people diagnosed as adults), but to me this show sounds like a pretty realistic portrayal of being an adolescent or young adult with Type 1.
Jen, Tiuri and TimmyMac have a point, it maybe is what many young adults go through and a few adult veterans (Sorry, Jen, know you are not a teen anymore) here have agreed. It's tough with a teen, their insulin needs fluctuate so often. I wonder when my son's life starts getting busier, (job, girlfriend, friends and school) and he's away from home more, is he going to get lazy about his management. I say lazy because he has the tools and enough data to make smart decisions. I need to start moving his management less on me and more on him so I can be more confident that he handle it when I'm not around. Like the guy on the show, someone asked him what would happen to him if he went dangerously low, and he didn't have detailed information to give her. I got a similar wake up call when my son had been talking to his type 1 friend and she was talking seizures and my son said later, I thought you told me I would just go unconscience, my bad for withholding information. Need to educate him more on everything. I've just been under the reasoning that if I keep at it, and learn what works for him for every situation it will be easier to hand over the reins. "Just do it like this" but realistically the only thing that stay constant with D, is change. :)
Yep I spent my 20s in the 8s, diabetes was on the back burner I have to admit. I had so much more going on, two jobs, university, post grad, relationships etc..
Only now that I am a little older and life is more settled that I am giving D the focus it requires.
Imagine it is even more difficult in the USA with healthcare not being free.
Yep, it wasn't until my late 20s that I started to take things more seriously. I think that was because the whole "complications" thing began to seem realistic. In my late teens and early 20s it was like, "That can't happen to me!" But then you get a little older and realize that you're not immortal.
Also, during those college years, your schedule is constantly changing from semester to semester. This made it really hard for me to get any sort of consistency with eating, BG checks, etc. Add to that the whole issue with expenses, partying, drinking, etc... and, well....
I don't have time to watch the whole thing now but at least move back home gal and gonzo the party animal both have absurd goals, 70-140 for her and "*smokes hookah* 70-160, no wait, 70-150". It's the doctors' fault. I think pregnant person should have punched whoever the guy saying "was pizza on the list of food from the dietitian?" in the face.
70-160 isn't precise enough to aim at. I agree that's a nice place to end up but to hit a target, you have to have a target. I perceived that even the stoner hippie bud w/ the beard wondered about that
I think at that age, it's pretty common to have a goal range like that (when I was that age, anything between 70 and 180 was considered good). My endo didn't tighten up my goal to be within 90 to 140 until I was in my mid- to late-20s.
I think it's a couple of things. First, they don't want teens/young adults to get discouraged. Between 18 and 24, your body is still "finishing up" with puberty and those puberty hormones wreak havoc on control. Second, lows can compromise brain development (this is why really young T1 kids generally aim for ranges between 100 and 200), and your brain is actually still developing at that age. Tighter control generally means more lows. When you're younger, your body can better tolerate the highs, but the lows can be far more dangerous. In addition, I think there's a bigger focus now on avoiding hypo-unawarenesss among T1s.
I actually had a real epiphany when I went away to college.
In junior high and high school I was hide bound to the school's schedule and had to base my life and insulin doses and meals around it.
In college, all of a sudden I got to decide and pick my schedule. I also went to MDI in college (pretty much on my own). So the new choices do not always spell difficulty, they can spell opportunity as well.
Maybe MTV pays her for her appearance, but she can't let on to that fact on the show. So she makes it look like it will be a hardship, then she gets a nice fat check to cover it.
Well, it's sort of common because that's what doctors tell people and they don't think about it as a game to win (like the video games party dude undoubtedly had on the post-hookah addenda...heh heh heh...) but just go along to follow the plan. I agree it's dangerous and all that and had quite a few hair raising incidents (generally the day *AFTER* the big party, rather than during...). I thought it definitely looked like the guy w/ the beard looked like he was gonna say "WTF kind of goal like that" but didn't want to get too involved in the TV show, besides the chance to get stoned on MTV?
Number of problems each kid faced: 900 (I'll guess 2 months of tests, 15/day? Even if you don't test, the problems are still there...)
Number of solutions proposed by doctors: 1, doc put pregnant lady on insulin. I don't count "only have one or two drinks" from party boy's doc. I drank a lot more than that for ***years*** and managed my BG. I didn't bother leaving the bottle passing around to go test my BG though.
Number of clueless family members and friends: quite a few. hardworking womans's mom seemed really disengaged from tactically managing diabetes which the girl seemed to be doing ok with? Sure I could quibble but she said her A1C got better so I'll give her that. Party boy's friends were intrigued, as if perhaps if they share the Johnny Walker, party boy will share some insulin so they can have a new drug? Pregnant woman seemed to have people around but dad looked like Sam the American Eagle during the delivery and didn't seem too engaged with her process. And, of course, she was misdiagnosed entirely by the docs, subjecting her to a difficult delivery.
