Further Confessions of a GP

Stuck in the middle

It was rare to see Tilly with both of her parents. They had split up the previous year and, although they were still being forced to live together due to the negative equity on their house, the break-up was less than amicable.

Tilly was sitting between them and she didn’t look well. She was thin and pale, and her parents were clearly sufficiently worried to try to put their differences aside for long enough to come together to see me.

‘Well, Dr Daniels, Tilly’s not been well since he took her camping that time. I told him not to take her but he didn’t take any notice.’

‘Well that’s nonsense, Dr Daniels – it was nothing to do with the camping. If her mum didn’t let her eat so much junk food she might look a little healthier.’

‘Hold on,’ I interrupted. ‘Can I just ask what symptoms Tilly actually has?’

‘She’s tired all of the time, Doctor, and she just wants to sit on the sofa and drink orange squash.’

Tilly didn’t look like the lively six-year-old child I had once known.

‘Any family history of anything?’ I asked

‘Drinking on his side,’ Tilly’s mum jumped in, pointing an accusatory finger at Tilly’s dad. ‘Practically all of them are pickled by the time they reach 40.’ She started miming a swaying drunk downing a bottle of wine added with her own ‘glug glug’ noises

‘Well at least my family have a bit of fun once in a while. The only thing that runs in your family is misery and bitterness. If you cut your mum open she’d bleed lemon juice she’s so sour—’

‘How about diabetes?’ I interrupted

They both looked at me with concern.

‘Does diabetes run in either of your families?’

For the first time Tilly’s mum and dad actually looked at each other. ‘No,’ they both said shaking their heads in unison.

I’d just tested Tilly’s urine and it was full of glucose.

‘I think Tilly might have diabetes, which is why she’s been feeling so unwell.’

I went through the diagnosis of diabetes with Tilly and her parents. It was scraping the surface really as there was so much new information for them to take in. I couldn’t really begin to tell them everything they needed to know, but perhaps for the first time in a while they were a family again, and Tilly’s mum and dad were able to put their differences aside in their shared love for their daughter.