If you have anyone in your family or network of friends that is diabetic and they stubbornly refuse to take their doctor prescibed diabetes medicine, by all means, try your damnedest to get them to take it before it's too late.
He's one of those guys that no matter who you are, you couldn't keep a bad mood when you were around him. He always brought a smile to your face and made you want to be a better person regardless of how good of a person you already are.
He died on the 24th, 4 days before his 42nd birthday. He had gone down to a junkyard near atlanta to pick up some parts for a Nova he was restoring. After pulling some parts, he went back for one more around 10:15am. Around 11:45am, the yard manager told his assistant to go let Mike know that they closed at 12p. The assistant found him with his head resting on the steering wheel. From his obituary: " Mr. Michael “Mike” Anthony Broyles, 41, of Sugar Valley, son of Judge Marvin Broyles, died Saturday, May 24, 2008 at Polk Medical Center in Cedartown, following a sudden illness suffered a few minutes earlier." His bloodline has a history of heart problems, including heart attacks. The coroner told the immediate family that his death was from him not taking his meds for his diabetes. One of the things that i love about his sense of humor, he had a daewoo leganza [he's an extremely accomplished mechanic] and replaced the daewoo emblem on the hood with a real Lexus emblem. lol. It was an inside joke in the family that Mike would never pay for the Lexus name, so he instead built his own. lol.
So, like i said, if you know anyone that is close to you that refuses, try your damnedest.
That really sucks about your cousin. He sounds like he was a really neat and fun guy. Know that it's not your fault that he didn't take his meds tho. You need to know that. Heart and diabetes go hand in hand. (My Dad has borderline diabetes that could pretty much go away from what the Drs say if he loses weight. He has had heart issues and his drs say that since he is borderline diabetic that he is instantaly a heart paitent cause of it.) Feel free to vent or talk about Mike. We are family here and will listen. Please give the rest of your family our thoughts and prayers for them as well. *HUGS*
sorry about your situation Jason, It always hurts more when you feel like it could have been prevented. he sounded like he was a nice guy who just wanted to live to the fullest. I'm sure he was doing things he wanted to do.