of diabetes and the drug-addled situation

diabetes tutorials that I've done in 4 days: a grand total of 3.
plus a few hours spent on writing up notes on this bread-and-butter topic.

and whenever I knuckle down and read about diabetes, the face of that young man in Samrong floats in my mind's eye.
he's barely 16 and he suffers from DM 1.
he's already had an episode of diabetic nephropathy and he swells up every so often.
he has this shy smile on his face whenever he sees me in the hallway. he recognises me as one of the few med students tagging along on ward rounds, one of the Asian barangs. first few times he sees me, he ducks around the corner and watches us from afar with that smile of his face.
and he's just younger than me by a few years. and that's the most heartbreaking part.

and the 2nd heartbreaking part is he's on friggin' metformin.
no life-saving/life-sustaining/life-giving insulin for him.
he's on a DM 2 drug which technically doesn't do much for his DM 1 condition.
it's like giving a starving man one measly jelly bean.
all because there are no fridges in the village, no equipment for insulin therapy, no funds for it.
and DM1 has crappy prognosis without insulin. period.

and that's the absolute absolute absolute worst part.
and there's still people who are not squandering away their insulin stash by not adhering to their regime.