Raising Awareness Thursday - Type 2 Diabetes

This is really hard for me because I am trying very hard to stay in a smiley face frame of mind. I have been determined since my very weird dream the other night that smiles are the way to go. However due to Lee and her absolutely wonderful link about awareness, I thought (okay really she suggested that I do it after my comment) that I would post about my daddy.

For those of you who are new to the area, or have come over from Lee’s, let me tell you a little bit about my daddy. My dad was the father of 8 children. Raising a family in the 60’s and 70’s was not an easy thing to do, especially if you had a big family the mom was usually the one at home and the dad was the one working hard to put food on the table and make the bills. We lived in Central Massachusetts and my dad worked in Boston. To most that is not really that bad, but because the traffic was always bad, my dad went in early and came home late. He didn’t eat right and eating healthy and on time was sometimes an issue too. My dad became slightly overweight, I say slightly but it was all in his belly. He was active though. My dad was a Master Electrician in Boston but was also a firefighter in our small town and the wiring inspector. Yup, he held three jobs. He didn’t sleep much and grabbed food on the go most of the time. He developed Type 2 Diabetes in his mid 50’s. He was on many medications by the time he was 60 and insulin dependant by the time he was 64. One of the medications my dad was on was Metformin.

This is a very common drug to be on while diabetic. But is also has many horrible side effects.

My dad was on it for many years and the dosages were always increasing. My dad was also on many other drugs and the doctor should have been checking his liver panels on a regular basis, but that is a story for another time.

While on vacation 4 years ago, I noticed my dad getting smaller and smaller in the legs and face and bigger and bigger around the middle. His scale said he was loosing weight but his clothes said otherwise.

My dad was swelling with what they call “cancer fluid”. He came home from vacation with chest pains and ended up in the hospital two days later being diagnosed with Liver Cancer.

Due to the many medications that my dad was on he was dying and dying fast. His liver had what they call NASH.

~ Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a condition that causes inflammation and accumulation of fat and fibrous tissue in the liver. Although a similar condition can occur in people who abuse alcohol, NASH occurs in those who do drink little to no alcohol. The exact cause of NASH is unknown. However, it is seen more frequently in people with certain medical conditions such as diabetes, obesity, and insulin resistance. Taken from UpToDate, Inc. www.uptodate.com

Here is the worse part. My dad, as I said, was on Metformin and was sent in for a CAT scan. While on Metformin you are not supposed to have the CAT scan injection because it puts your kidneys into failure. But they gave it to him anyway under the assumption that since he was on chemotherapy he was not taking his daily medication. But nobody had told my mom or my dad not to take his daily medication. And it put him into kidney failure. Since my dad had no liver function once the kidneys failed, he very quickly died. From the diagnosis of liver cancer to death was exactly 5 weeks.

Diabetes KILLS. Please be aware of the signs, go to the doctor and get yourself healthy.