Adam Brown above

I just read Adam Brown’s unfortunate, and wonderful, review of his recent hospital stay, “My Appendix Ruptured: Scary Lessons Learned About Diabetes in the Hospital.” Adam has type 1 diabetes, is a patient-expert and works for diaTribe. In other words, he knows diabetes inside-out.

He went into the hospital with appendicitis that turned into a ruptured appendix during surgery. It also turned into a horror show of 4 days in hospital with doctors wanting to give him more than two times the amount of insulin he needed, an IV drip full with high amounts of sugar, a hospital full of nurses who’ve never heard of a continuous glucose monitor and diabetes ignorance and standards that put any patient with diabetes at risk. All this at one of the nation’s most prestigious hospitals.

You owe it to yourself to read the post. And you owe it to yourself to have an advocate should you ever be in the hospital, and to expect to continue your own care if you manage your diabetes well and know what you’re doing.

I have long told my husband if I ever go into the hospital, “You must make sure I can manage my diabetes on my own.” What a sad statement that going into the hospital with diabetes can worsen your health.