Is Pride the TRUE #1 Killer of Americans?

Frank is walking up and down the aisle at his home tow
Superstore impatiently waiting for his wife to hurry up and pick a purse. The game is coming on in a half hour and he still needs time to set up the den for the fellas to come over, and he STILL has to make the nachos. She said this was only going to take a half an hour, an hour and a half ago. On top of everything else, he’s been feeling a little off lately. There are times he feels a little dizzy and has had a little chest tightness, but stress will do that to you. And neither one of his parents had heart issues when they died. Mom was 80 and dad was 72 and a chain smoker…They lived good long lives.

“Maybe I’ve got a touch of the flu”, he guesses to himself. Of course he dare not tell his wife because he was supposed to make a doctor’s appointment for a physical 3 months ago. Of course he lied and said he went and everything was fine…but deep down, he just can’t get past the fact he’s gone 20 years without needing a doctor, and he doesn’t need one now. Besides, he’s 55 now and he knows how unpleasant some of those tests can be at that age. “And they want to do that to me every year? Yeah right!” are the thoughts that grow stronger and stronger leading up to the missed appointment.

His thoughts are getting a little more agitated. “Will you please just pick one!” he barks at his poor wife. Then he gets real dizzy for a brief second. “What the hell was that?” he thinks to himself. Beads of sweat start forming and his chest tightens a little. He realizes this is a little more different than the tightness in the past…kind of like a full fledged hug. He tells his wife in an annoyed voice “I’m going to the car.” He steps outside and the fresh air makes him feel instantly better.

Once they are home he decides to take it easy and watch the game in peace. He calls all of his friends to tell them he is going to have to back out this time because he has something manly like food poisoning or something. His hand falls asleep as he’s grabbing a beer causing the bottle to shatter on the floor, and he immediately steps on a small piece of glass. “Dammit, something else to get yelled at about,” he thinks only half out loud. He quickly cleans up the evidence and off to the den to fall asleep in front of the game.

“Frank! Why is your foot bleeding?!?” awakens Frank with a shock. An hour has gone by and Frank does not remember falling asleep…nor does he know why there is a blood stain in the carpet, which angers him more than conce
s him. He shrugs and says he stepped on a piece of glass. She insists they go to the emergency room and he agrees only to shut her up.

On the way, Frank is getting a little nervous. His heart is starting to beat rapidly and his wife keeps asking him annoying questions. He thinks to himself, “And why does she keep accusing me of eating all of the kiwi because she can smell it on my breath? She knows I don’t like that healthy crap…Steak and taters with a beer all the way for me…That’s all I’ve ever needed!” She drops him off to park the car, and an orderly greets him at the counter and asks if he needs a wheel chair because the 20 steps he’s taken has caused him to sweat profusely. He declines and begins limping toward the double doors marked “emergency”. His foot feels like it is tingling and wet. Then as he pushes through the double door he noticed the sounds were getting muffled and his vision begins to blur. “Well that’s it, I’m going to drop dead of a heart attack in front of all these people” he assumes to himself, then blackness.

He opens his eyes seemingly seconds later with his wife by his side with tears in her eyes. “We almost lost you,” says the doctor in a monotone almost condescending voice. “So how long have you had diabetes?” he says. “Diabetes, I don’t have diabetes! What makes you think I have diabetes?” Frank persists. The doctor looking just as alarmed as Frank looks at him point blank and says “Because your blood sugar was 705 when you came in here. The highest I’d ever seen in my career was 650 and that guy died! In fact, we guesstimate you have had this disease for at LEAST 5 years based on your A1C counts!”

Of course the rest of the story doesn’t go very well because Franks wife now knows he lied about his appointment, and because of that he nearly left her a widow.
Frank didn’t want to ask the questions, because he didn’t want to know the answers. He was working on the assumption since his parents didn’t die from a heart attack; he wasn’t having a heart attack. Which he was right about; it was a completely different disease causing a very similar symptom.

Type II diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance are two of the most under diagnosed conditions in the nation right now according to www.wrondiagnosis.com
The symptoms Frank went to the hospital with could actually point to diabetic ketoacidosis which is a condition that can be deadly if left untreated. I’m going to leave it up to you to research this particular disease, because I think you will get a better understanding searching for the answer, than having someone just unload it on you.

Bottom line is this. If you are even the slightest bit conce
ed with what appears to be a symptom of something serious, SEE A PHYSICIAN as soon as it becomes a concern. Don’t wait for the problem to become acute. This goes ESPECIALLY for you guys. I know firsthand some of these test and exams or downright unpleasant. But you’ve got to ask yourself, 15 minutes of discomfort now, or possible years of preventable suffering…maybe even death later. It’s up to you!
Sometimes you have to ask the question, even if the answer isn’t what you want to hear.
Sources: www.wrongdiagnoses.com, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabetic_ketoacidosis, How the Body Works by Dr. Peter Abrahams