Jack Fitzpatrick

[JoondalupJ]

Hello Dees
Sorry to bother you with questions on this young man , but I heard some rumors way over here in the West regarding Jacks health . Is he OK and still playing?

 

[LeverPuller]

Hello Dees
Sorry to bother you with questions on this young man , but I heard some rumors way over here in the West regarding Jacks health . Is he OK and still playing?

Been diagnosed with diabetes, probably meant that his chronic fatigue was incorrectly diagnosed.
Believe he's playing for Casey this weekend.

 

[Logger]

Quotes from Jack Fitzpatrick:

“That Sunday after our first win, I came and did recovery with all of the boys and was fine, but from that Sunday afternoon, things got a bit different.

“I was really thirsty and I had to go to the toilet to pass urine every half an hour and I was drinking a litre of water in an hour and still thirsty. I was parched with dry lips.

“By Tuesday morning, I was weighing 86kg [from my usual 92kg] and I thought ‘hang on a minute, you don’t lose six kilos in three days’. I thought something might be a bit strange. So I spoke to the doctor and had a blood test on Wednesday morning and it went from there.

“[Bates said] ‘you have to hang around, we need to get this sorted’. It turned out that when I went into hospital the first time - [my blood sugar reading was] supposed to be between five and 10, but it was too high to read on their machines, when they tested it.

“After a bit of insulin the second time, it was 46.7, so the doctors say that if you’re about 35 to 40, you can generally go into intensive care and drop into a coma. I was probably pretty lucky there.

“I came into the club two Wednesdays ago and was ready to go down to Torquay with the rest of the boys and lucky I ended up packing, because I was going to hospital for two nights. I found out I’ve got type one diabetes and the last two weeks have been full of education about diabetes and how to manage and how to incorporate it back into footy.”

“The doctors say that they are both (chronic fatigue syndrome and diabetes) related to the immune system, but the two illnesses, if you want to call them, aren’t linked themselves. I’ve just been a bit unlucky or unfortunate that I’ve managed to get both in the last 20 or so years, but you can’t do much about that.

“It was nice of ‘The Flea’ (Dale Weightman) to put it out there in the media that he was more than happy to help me, if I need that, which is nice and appreciated. In terms of footy, if mismanaged, it can certainly be dangerous, but with proper treatment it can be dealt with,” he said.

“At the end of the day, there are people worse off than I am. I consider myself lucky that I got into hospital before anything more serious happened - 46.7 is pretty high when you think about it, and chronic fatigue, I’ve had since five.

“You learn to deal with … diabetes, which I’ve just got. I’ve been asked by a few people ‘are you upset or are you annoyed or angry?’ To a degree, you think ‘why is this happening to me?’

“But I’ve always been a big one for believing that there is no point worrying about something that you can’t control. No matter what I did or what I do from here on in, there is no point sooking up about it, so now I’ll just manage it the best way I can to make it as little an issue as possible, which I believe I’ve done with chronic fatigue over the journey.

“Hopefully for my playing career … that lasts as long as possible, because that’s been done by other blokes and is still being done by players in the AFL. Life after football as well, if I can manage it whilst playing football, I think life will be easy after that, because the demands on your body physically and even mentally aren’t as high. Your routine is more consistent.

“You’ll be able to start eating at the same time of day, whereas with training and travel [it can be difficult]. If I can learn to manage it during my footy career, life after that will be fairly easy in comparison.”

“It’s been a tough couple of weeks, but the amount of texts, phone calls, Facebook messages … getting support from random people … obviously family, friends, players, coaches and staff here [at Melbourne] - you’re thankful and you appreciate it a lot. It’s easy to send someone a text when they’ve played a good game or they’ve just made their debut … that’s easy. Are you there for them when they really need you?

“That in itself has been very encouraging.”

This is from Wonna33's match preview.

 

[JoondalupJ]

This is from Wonna33's match preview.

Thank you for that information. To Jack I have two close friends in Melbourne who were both diagnosed with childhood onset diabetes no 1. Both these fellows are fine and both up around the 60 years of age mark.
Both played footy (not at your level Jack but they played). At the footy club you will be directed brilliantly
by your doctors as well as your family doc, with diet and all it takes to be healthy, it ,ll be marvelous for you when your footy is over because you,ll have all the routine.
Go well young man, say hello to grand parents Sambo and Edith. Enjoy your footy carreer, brother.
They know me.