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Essay On Diabetes Andie

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At her teenage years, Andie would not have realized how her behavior could impact her future health and her love ones. Her older sister Denise, who also had type 1 diabetes, was Andie’s role model growing up. Despite being told otherwise, Denise would reuse her needles, intentionally miss shots, and not alternate her shots, and yet nothing happened to her. Andie has watched Denise and followed her non-adherence until Denise passed away in her thirties. Denise’s death was a cue to action that made Andie recognize her susceptibility to the complications of uncontrolled diabetes and started to seek and trust medical help. Her developed retinopathy also raised her susceptibility of other complications. These factors are consistent with the …show more content…

From school, we know that diabetic patients need to monitor their diet, their blood glucose level, as well as insulin dose through shots, pumps, or pills on a daily basis. The things that we often times neglect is the emotional impact that comes with the disease. For juvenile diabetic patients, not only did they have to deal with the symptoms from the disease, but also ignorance from friends, peers, and sometimes health providers. Andie had to deal with bullies in school who tease her, nurses who took away her candy during her insulin reaction, and paramedics who wouldn’t listen to her. Diabetes had forced Andie to face many challenges and we as future pharmacist need to learn to acknowledge those challenges. This book definitely has an impact on my practice of pharmacy by emphasized the importance of empathy and partnership with patients. One of the challenges that Andie should not have to deal with was feeling alone in her disease state. As future pharmacist, I want my patients to know that they are not fighting the disease by themselves and that I am there to support them along the way. To sum up, I really enjoy reading this book and the insights of diabetes from the patient’s perspective. The book did help me understand diabetes more and the core of PHRM 826

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