In Reply to: VERY WORRIED!! posted by Sara on November 27, 2000 at 22:52:47:
: Hello there! My younger brother who is 18 has lost 20lbs in the past year. He also drinks about a 12 pack of pop a day. And he goes to the bathroom more than a pregnant women. He is always craby and has no patince. My mom took him to the dr and he just yelled at the dr and refused to get any kind of test done. I am just wondering if these are any kind of signs and what can we do to make him get tested? Any info would be very much help thank you!!
I don't know of a way that you can make him do anything. Anyone who drinks that amount of soda pop is bound to go a lot. Sounds like he has some other issues. Yelling at doctors and not heeding mother for starters. You can go to the drugstore and get some urine sticks that will test for sugar and ketones in the urine. If you can get him to use one, that will tell you what you need to know. If he's diabetic, that amount of soda will cause sugar to spill in the urine and will give you your diagnosis. Doctors and others cannot make him follow their directiions, though. He will have to decide to do that. There are lots of other things that will cause weight loss besides diabetes. Untreated diabetes can cause no symptoms whatsoever. Sometimes there is thirst, excess urination, weight loss, funny smelling breath due to ketones on the breath, fatigue, sleeping too much, infections, wounds that are slow to heal. Good luck.