I don't understand people that email me
and tell me that medical identification is not necessary or needed.
I even had one fellow say that he has not told anyone that he has
diabetes, not even his family. I asked what medication he was using
and the answer came back that he was not using any medication and
managed his diabetes with diet and exercise.
In this instance, I told him that I
still recommend that he wear some sort of medical identification on
his person. I told him that if he was involved in an auto accident
and was unconscious, he could be fed with IVs that had glucose that
could cause his blood glucose levels to rise rapidly. If he could
not tell the hospital who his doctor is, his treatment could push him
into dangers that they might not catch in time and he could die.
Even this did not convince him as he
said he wanted to keep it a secret that only his doctor and he knew.
I emailed him that this is something he should reconsider as
accidents do happen. Then six days later, I received another email
from the fellow. It turns out that the day I sent the last email, he
did have an accident and was unconscious for four hours. When he
asked to have his blood glucose checked, the reading was 389. He
said the hospital used insulin and rechecked in five hours and he had
only decreased to 245. This meant a second shot and another check in
five hours. This time the reading was 102 and they did not give him
another shot.
At the end, he said he would be getting
a medical ID necklace with the needed information to prevent this
from happening in the future. He said that the four days in the
hospital had shown him how important this could be. He thanked me
for pushing on the medical identification. For the present until he
would be able to exercise (in about four months), he would be on two
insulins, Lantus and Novolog. He asked me if it would be difficult
to get off insulin. I responded that if he was determined, he should
be able, if too much damage had not been done by the accident.
I suggested that he get back into the
habit of exercising slowly until things felt right, watch his blood
glucose readings until that happened; talk with his doctor about
reducing his doses of insulin when his exercise showed improvement in
blood glucose readings, and not get anxious if he needed insulin for
a while longer.
He promised that would happen and he
asked if he should obtain Dr. Bernstein's book, “Diabetes
Solution” and consider a low carb, high fat way of eating.
I said that would be a good thing and I sent him several of the URLs
from this blog. I did suggest that he take it slow as his injuries
could make it difficult for a while and he should not become
impatient with his recovery.
His return email stated that he would
as his doctor had made this clear to him and he was to be careful the
first few months. It sounds like I have made a friend and he is
opening up about his diabetes.
Previous blogs about medical identification:
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