Celtics’ Allen spending time with sick son

[duncan228]

Celtics’ Allen spending time with sick son (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ap-celtics-allen&prov=ap&type=lgns)

Celtics guard Ray Allen is spending time with his ill son and may miss the opener of Boston’s four-game road trip.

Allen was not at Celtics practice Saturday and coach Doc Rivers didn’t know whether he would make the trip to Miami for the game against the Heat on Sunday night.

Allen went to a hospital to be with his son Walker after Friday night’s victory over the Raptors. Walker Allen was diagnosed with diabetes during the 2008 NBA finals.

[weebo]

Hope his son is doing well.

[iggypop123]

im suprised there arent haters like there was with fisher

[Donkeybong]

family comes first. just a sport.

[Kai]

Hope he recovers soon.

[ffadicted]

Best wishes!

[Basketballgirl25]

family comes first. just a sport.

amen to that, I know people who would be pissed if a player from there team missed a game, which I find stupid. I mean fans being mad at a player for missing a game because of family matters

[TheSullyMonster]

family comes first. just a sport.

It's just a job. Everybody would take off time to be with their kid in the hospital, or want to. I don't get the hate that sometimes comes out.

[lefty]

I wonder if he's going to ask for a trade to LA since theres a clinic in LA.
:lol

[duhoh]

im suprised there arent haters like there was with fisher

i think ray ray would have haters if he dropped .4 on us :lol

[boutons_deux]

I wonder if Ray's insurance coverage per year or per lifetime is capped?

Will his insurance company cancel his policy?

In either case, Ray should have 10s of $Ms banked so unlike many diabetes families, he won't live out his life in poverty or go bankrupt.

=========

Here's a perspective on SELF-INFLICTED (Type II) diabetes:

Diabetes Cases to Double in 25 Years

By LiveScience Staff (http://www.livescience.com/php/contactus/author.php?r=editorial)

posted: 27 November 2009 09:24 am ET

If Americans don't eat better and exercise more, diabetes cases will double by 2034 and costs to care for the patients will triple, according to a new report that paints a bleak picture of the future.

With diabetes, the body fails to metabolize glucose, or blood sugar. Diabetes is the leading cause of amputations, blindness, and end-stage kidney disease.

Obesity, poor diet (http://www.livescience.com/topic/diet) and lack of exercise are all known factors that have contributed to an already serious increase in type 2 cases, the variety that is largely preventable (http://www.livescience.com/health/080325-bad-diabetes.html) and comprises about 95 percent of all diabetes cases.

One example of how out of control the situation has become: A 1991 study projected U.S. diabetes cases would double, from 6.5 million in 1987 to 11.6 million by 2030. We're already at 23.7 million cases.

"If we don't change our diet and exercise habits or find new, more effective and less expensive ways to prevent and treat diabetes, we will find ourselves in a lot of trouble as a population," said the study's lead author Dr. Elbert Huang, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago.
The study is detailed in the December issue of the journal Diabetes Care.

It projects costs associated with the disease will rise from $113 billion per year now to $336 billion by 2034, even with no increase in the prevalence of obesity. The researchers project that obesity (http://www.livescience.com/topic/obesity) rates will level off. If that doesn't happen, even more cases of diabetes will develop, they say.
Much of the increase in cases and in costs will be driven by aging baby boomers, the 77 million Americans born between 1946 and 1957 who are approaching the age of retirement. Because diabetes is now diagnosed earlier in life and treatments are more effective, people with the disease live longer.

"This leads to a longer history of disease, opportunities for more aggressive therapies, and time to accumulate complications, which are costly to treat," the researchers said in a statement.

Boomers are generally less healthy (and less happy (http://www.livescience.com/health/080416-happy-americans.html)) than the previous generation. Half of Americans aged 55-64 have high blood pressure, a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke, according to a 2005 report from the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention.

"The public policy implications are enormous," said co-author Michael O'Grady, senior fellow at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. "This is a serious challenge to Medicare and every other health plan in the country. The cost of doing nothing is the significant increase in the pain and suffering of America's population and a financial burden that will threaten the financial viability of public and private insurers alike."

[Flintstones32]

Those diabetes cases that are so common are of the type 2 variety. They make up about 95% of diabetes in the country.

Allen's son as type 1. My youngest daughter was diagnosed with type 1 at 18 months, She is 5 now.

As for the person who said I hope they get better. There is no cure for type 1 diabetes. He will have it for the rest of his life. Which on average is 15 years shorter than if he did not have diabetes.

Type 2 has a cure. It is to stop eating all that junk food and go out and exercise once in a while and you will no longer be insulin dependent.

[duncan228]

Updated.

Celtics’ Allen says leaving ill son was difficult (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ap-celtics-allen&prov=ap&type=lgns)
By Tim Reynolds

When Ray Allen left to join the Boston Celtics for their road trip, his ailing son began to cry.

Walker Allen’s tears dried, though, when reminded that his father would be playing basketball on television.

“That was a beautiful thing,” Ray Allen said.

Thanksgiving was a difficult time for Allen and his family, with his diabetic 2-year-old son in and out of the hospital, even getting brought back in the middle of the night because of vomiting—3 1/2 hours after leaving the hospital. The Celtics’ guard missed practice Saturday, but when the plane took off, Walker Allen’s condition had improved enough to allow his father to be with the team.

He was in the starting lineup Sunday night when Boston opened a four-game trip in Miami.

“Our policy is ‘family first’ and we made that clear,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “If Ray thought that he needed to be home, then he should stay home. That’s always. And if he needs to get home, he needs to go home. He knows that. He thought everything was good and that he could come on the trip.”

Allen said it was difficult to leave his son.

“He wanted to come with me,” Allen said.

Allen learned of his son’s diagnosis during the 2008 NBA finals. Less than 48 hours after leaving a Los Angeles hospital with his son and taking a red-eye flight back to Boston, Allen scored 26 points in the Celtics’ 131-92 championship-clinching romp over the Lakers for the franchise’s 17th NBA title.

This latest spate of hospital visits was not originally related to Walker Allen’s blood-sugar level. He vomited repeatedly and was lethargic, Ray Allen said, prompting the first hospital visit. Upon returning home, Walker Allen began getting sick again, this time in his sleep, and his blood-sugar got very low.

“That’s what we’ve been dealing with,” Ray Allen said.

But on Saturday, improvement seemed to start. Walker Allen danced a bit when his father turned on some music—“that’s one of his favorite things,” his father said—and that put Ray Allen’s mind more at ease.

“I have four kids,” Rivers said. “I don’t know how you do it, honestly.”