"The Hospital" CH4 Prog on Diabetes Mon 16th August 9pm

[Northerner]

Yes 50 was a shock. I have had some highs but no where need that bad. They must be drinking like mad. I dread to think what woudl happen to me at 50,
Do you think that we were only shown the extremes here and that there were other DB's available but that they did not produce the shock value requried to make the ratings?

I'm pretty sure they picked the worst cases for maximum effect. I was in hospital for 8 days when I got diagnosed, no way could I have left the same/next day.

It might be interesting if they ever do a '5 years later' follow-up to the whole series, to see what happened to all the youngsters - who managed to turn their lives around and how they did it, plus the (almost inevitable, I suspect) missing faces

 

[Becca]

I'm pretty sure they picked the worst cases for maximum effect. I was in hospital for 8 days when I got diagnosed, no way could I have left the same/next day.

It might be interesting if they ever do a '5 years later' follow-up to the whole series, to see what happened to all the youngsters - who managed to turn their lives around and how they did it, plus the (almost inevitable, I suspect) missing faces

From a parent's point of view, i will be devastated if or when Rose gets complications. She's been diagnosed nearly 5 years now and i keep thinking what will happen in then next 10. I want to be able to look her in the eye when she's older and say we did the best we could for her.

I hate to think what the next 5 years will bring for the teenagers in the programme. I wish i could just help them...

 

[katie]

What is the problem with testing BS which I found highlighted in this programme? I have no quarms with this and never had. The meters are so small these days, and no one bats an eyelid as a fuss is not requried. I never carry the carry-case, and have the meter and strips in either my jeans pocket or suit jacket for easy access.
...
I almost want to volunteer myself up for a day in the life of a normal DB! From the TV producers and those shown. I don't see my lifestyle being any different from others and my friends. We need a balanced view.

I get lazy with testing, I think it's one of the easiest things to slack on. It's just time consuming. I start making dinner, plate it up, start eating and then realise I haven't tested yet. So damnit, I put my plate down, test and start again. Testing in front of people who don't yet know you have Diabetes is another reason why people won't do it.

I agree with your lat point completely. I hate it when people say they are different and it holds them back! That's funny because i'm no different from my friends, and it NEVER holds me back. It's a pain in the bum sometimes, but everyone has their own problems 😉

 

[Copepod]

I noticed that all the health care professionals were overweight!

Agreed. I had an interesting conversation with an ex AAC helicopter pilot recently. When I admitted to a few years as a TA Nursing Officer, he mumbled something about not wanting to comment on army medical staff fitness levels and body shape (he was a volunteer in a health research project), so I admitted to doing many extra BFTs (basic fitness tests - running a set distance within a time limit depending on age & sex) to get my colleagues to pass. Is till think I'd pass, and BMI is still within recommended levels. However, I didn't think quickly enough to point out that an RAMC doctor was the female in the 4 person British team who became adventure race world champions in Nov 2009.

And, as Katie mentions the topic, I admit to being one of those people who sometimes doesn't test if I don't want people to know - injecting is so quick, I can usually do without anyone noticing, but finger pricking etc takes a bit longer and requires a bit more care. Sometimes letting people know would mean they would try to stop me eg staffing remote race checkpoints alone for hours / days, which I am prefectly able to do.

 

[Curdster]

Copepod. Weird this is, as I find injecting the difficult one and testing the easy. I have always assumed that sticking in a syringe needle is socialy less acceptable then blood testing which I do quite frequently. I also can't inject through clothes. Maybe it's like feeding babies in public. Some can do it and others can't.

 

[Copepod]

Injecting just requires 1 hand & tummy, which is usually beneath a table or hidden by standing & turning my back, while finger pricking & blood testing needs 2 hands, and ideally a surface on which to place meter - lap under table will sometimes do, but unless there's a wall or something close by, then I'd need to sit / squat to hold meter (and when outdoors, high winds can take a meter off a dry stone wall, believe me!) Plus, injections rarely draw blood to get onto clothing, while finger pricking always draws blood (provided I've done it right!) As I said before, injecting is quicker than blood testing, and blood testing followed by injecting obviously takes longer. There are plenty of times when I don't mind who sees me, usually close friends / relatives or random members of the public; it's the people in between eg new work colleagues, people I've only just met, who I prefer to "reveal" diabetes to at the right moment, preferably after they've realised that I don't keel over nor need extra help nor restrictions. I virtually never inject through clothing, but do prefer trousers and tops instead of dresses, and have found the little hole made possible by slightly unzipping zip-off trouser legs very useful for occasional thigh injections.

 

[katie]

I find injecting much quicker, and peoople often dont notice. If I'm testing i have to try squeezing blood out of my finger and I think if people see it they probably get a bit grossed out! It still doesn't bother me, but sometimes i dont like people to immediately find out im type 1.

 

[Cate]

I used to be treated at the hospital where the programme was filmed. My experiences there (as an adult) were not good. EG My consultant at the time refused to prescribe glargine for me because it was "too expensive, and hasn't been around long enough for us to know it works". This was in about 2001 or 2002 I think, so it wasn't exactly brand new!

The consulant they showed was a LOT better than the one I had, who has now retired. A typical appointment with her lasted 5 minutes, and there was no access to DSNs or dieticians etc during the clinic, or at all as far as I'm aware - I certainly didn't have a DSN to contact. The majority of patients seen there were older type 2s who spoke English as a 2nd language, mostly they attended without an interpreter, the odd one had a family member along who would translate for them. I think that's mostly why the consultant never listened - normally there wasn't much to listen to. She'd generally look at test results, write down what insulin you were to take from now on and that was that. There was never a discussion about why she had changed things, why results were high/low/what was affecting them, what to do to correct bad results. I don't think she liked me much, I used to ask questions 😱

BTW re the weight thing, I took that comment to be specifically about the girl on Byetta, I thought she'd been diagnosed as type 2 aged 11 (she was 17 and her diagnosis was 6 years ago I think?), which is pretty young after all, and likely influenced by her weight, no?

 

[katie]

Cate, that sounds awful :/

I'm so glad that my local hospital just happens to have one of the best Diabetes and Endocrine centres in the UK. I'm actually quite worried about moving away for that reason alone. It's a postcode lottery, as ever.

 

[bev]

Hello all,
Just a flying visit as on holiday.
I let Alex watch the programme as he is 12.
Alex's view of the whole programme was that it was the fault of the teams', peoples laziness and general ignorance. He thought it was stupid that they didnt bother testing and cant think why they would choose to do this. He felt very sorry for the 15 year old girl and thought that her mother was fairly stupid for letting the girl just 'get on with it' on her own. His eyes were getting bigger with shock as they details of everyones 'methods' were divulged.😱

Overall I thought it was a very good programme and servied its purpose for us at least - which was to show in visual terms what complications mean. I could tell Alex until I am blue in the face and he wouldnt take it in - but 'seeing' it has much more power than my words ever could.

Sorry I havent read all your replies yet - will read when i get home. Hope your all ok.🙂Bev

 

[Northerner]

Hello all,
Just a flying visit as on holiday.
I let Alex watch the programme as he is 12.
Alex's view of the whole programme was that it was the fault of the teams', peoples laziness and general ignorance. He thought it was stupid that they didnt bother testing and cant think why they would choose to do this. He felt very sorry for the 15 year old girl and thought that her mother was fairly stupid for letting the girl just 'get on with it' on her own. His eyes were getting bigger with shock as they details of everyones 'methods' were divulged.😱

Overall I thought it was a very good programme and servied its purpose for us at least - which was to show in visual terms what complications mean. I could tell Alex until I am blue in the face and he wouldnt take it in - but 'seeing' it has much more power than my words ever could.

Sorry I havent read all your replies yet - will read when i get home. Hope your all ok.🙂Bev

Hope you are enjoying your hols! Good to hear Alex's views on the programme - once again he has shown what a mature and intelligent boy he is. 🙂

 

[CarolK]

I think the problem is that most teenagers feel the need to rebel against most things, and I suppose not testing etc is just another form of rebellion. At 15 you think 30 is ancient and dont really think of any consequences that may/.may not happen in 10 or 20 years. I went through the teenage years with my diabetic son and felt it was one long battle of wills, nagging him to test and remnding him to inject. Also had times when he had to much to drink and ended up in A & E. I think a lot of youngsters go through that, twice as difficult throwing diabetes into the mix. I do think though that the parents should have been more involved, you keep on nagging and whats kept me going is that i know when he a lot older he will realise why I was doing it.

 

[SacredHeart]

Finally got round to watching it on 4od - writing a blog post now 🙂

 

[SacredHeart]

Post is finished and up - http://bit.ly/cdmVtI

 

[Steff]

Post is finished and up - http://bit.ly/cdmVtI

Nice blog piece Bex,I perticularly agree with your last paragraph.

 

[SacredHeart]

Thanks Steff 🙂

 

[Freddie99]

I must point out that when I wasn't carb counting and had bad control that I could be at thirty and not feel it. When I got good control and learned to carb count I started to feel dodgy at about fifteen. Now I feel dodgy the minute it passes 10 or 11mmol/L.

On a good note, I've posted my letter today. Waiting for the hitman to pounce on the way home now hahaha.

 

[Twitchy]

Comments to / from C4 re the programme...

Hi all, sorry for huge post, but thought some might find this interesting; my comments to C4 & their reply (punctuation all theirs!):

Channel 4's reply:
Thank you for your e-mail regarding the recent episode of THE HOSPITAL, which featured teenagers with diabetes. Having spoken to the producer of the programme regarding your complaint that no definite distinction was made between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, he advised the following:-

?Unfortunately when making a 48 minute programme out of over 100 hours of footage we need to make some difficult decisions about what information is and is not germane to the documentary. Please allow me to explain why we felt that the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 was not central to the film:

THE HOSPITAL is a series specifically about the challenges that some of today?s teenagers are presenting for the NHS and a chance for doctors to give their views on what this means for it in the future and also what should and/or can be done about it.

In the case of the film we made at Mayday Hospital, one of the main challenges for Dr Richard Savine and his team is not the causes of diabetes, (i.e. whether it?s Type 1 or Type 2) but the impact on the NHS of the growth in the incidence of diabetes, not just in the general population, but among young people too and the struggle to get younger patients to take the illness seriously once they have been diagnosed with either type of the disease (as exemplified in the film by Francesca who has Type I and Yasmin who we clearly state has Type 2). This is the reality of the situation there as we observed it over several months and hence the main narrative thrust of the programme.

Dr Savine, Mayday Hospital and the patients who featured prominently in the film have all viewed it, agreed that it was fair, accurate, and in line with the editorial aims described to them at the outset of their involvement. Having said that, and although neither the medical staff nor the patients asked for the film to further clarify between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, you will note that the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 is the first link on the Channel 4 website which supports the series, as we are alive to the significance of this difference for those who wish to further understand the disease. (www.channel4.com/thehospital)

One of our aims in making the film was to help the general public and teenage diabetics in particular to see diabetes for the serious illness that it is. We know that in the case of at least one of the patients featured in the documentary, this did happen. Hopefully others who saw it will also take better control of their condition. Our production team spent months with the patients and the doctors, are still in touch with some of them, and care about their wellbeing. ?

We appreciate you taking the time to send us your feedback, which has been noted for the information of those responsible for the programme.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact us here at Channel 4 and for your interest in our programming.

Original Message Follows: ------------------------
As a type 1 diabetic of 31 yrs (I'm 32), I watched The Hospital yesterday with great interest. On the positive side, you did manage to quite graphically get across the complications that can come with diabetes. What was really disappointing however was the lack of clarity between the two types of diabetes, and the way that no mention was made of how hard it actually is to control diabetes in reality. I also couldn't find any mention of how educated the featured diabetics were about their condition - they certainly didn't appear to know any more than that they had to test & do injections, but no link between the two was made - for example when the girl tested and got a 'high' reading, no attempt was made to establish whether she even knew how to effectively respond. This apparent lack of education combined with the poor levels of support the teenagers were getting at home might go a long way to explaining why they have the attitude they have - and from my experience, a couple of appointments a year with no real support in between doesn't cut it! Sweeping statements at the end of the programme about complications being all self-inflicted were not helpful either. I just wish you had also featured one of the many teenage diabetics who DO take their condition seriously - it's hard enough to manage that I imagine such a case study would have provided highs/lows enough for any production team, as well as helping produce a much more balanced, less tabloid looking programme! I have so much more I want to say but i haven't time - I would just say if you at all take this subject seriously, please take a look at the support forum diabetes-support .co.uk - the reading there on this subject may be uncomfortable for you but should be educational!
************

Didn't really expect any other reply to be honest, but at least they replied! 🙂

 

[Sugarbum]

Well done Twitchy!

I am glad that they took the time to reply, I am sure they will have received many letters with the same tone so I wonder if that is the standard reply?

Its more specific than I thought, so its pleasing that there is a response at least.but there isnt much to take from it...

Well done! 🙂

 

[Northerner]

It doesn't really address your points about education and support, does it? I'm pretty sure those issues were the main reason these youngsters had such a poor and confused understanding of their diabetes. But well done for trying!

p.s. there's no hyphen in our forum address - putting the hyphen in sends them to another forum with a very similar name! 😱