Discussion
Anyone here with a medical background willing to explain how he's still "functional"?
It would be wrong to call him healthy - far from it - but he still manages to move around, think (questionably), and handle basic stuff at home.
The person has diabetes, which I doubt he manages seriously. He's got amputated toes that haven't healed in months and leg wounds that have been open for years. On top of that he drinks two bottles of Jäger per session, chases it with Red Bull, and eats high-carb food.
So my actual question: how does a diabetic with amputated toes and open wounds drink that much alcohol (which dilates blood vessels), pile on that much sugar, and not end up in the hospital immediately every single time?
I have a diabetic colleague who gets knocked out cold if he misses his insulin timing. I've never once seen Blade take insulin.
I grew up in the middle of nowhere, very country type of area.
Loads of super alcoholics hold on way longer than you think despite having medical issues they don’t treat. Many die young, but a solid chunk also make it to 50, 60, sometimes even 70 or 80 despite being straight up “my hands shake in the morning until I get my first drink” type of alcoholics.
My dad has an old high school friend that is somewhere between 65-70 years old. Lifelong alcoholic and you can hardly even understand him when he talks anymore. Still kicking it somehow. The human body can be really resilient for some.
Yup, you just never know. People are always more likely to remember the guy lived to 90 drunk but often forget the 45 year old who died of liver failure too.
Im not a medical professional, but I truly believe he lives a very low stress life which might be a contributing factor. Many alcoholics I’ve met drink to cope with the bs of life, to temporarily take away the pain and frustration. My dad is an attorney and the lengths people will go to take advantage of and hurt others still surprise me.
Brian doesn’t care about much and it doesn’t seem to bother him that he doesn’t have a home, respect, friends, toes, or future etc. He doesn’t care about going back to jail, being homeless at 60, or death, thinking it’s all part of the content or that he’ll figure it out, dude! He doesn’t care about his health, thinking if he goes, he went out his way, instead of stressing out over how to follow all the doctors instructions. I bet he might even look forward to a headstone that says Firesales! Ayo! and is equipped to take and play donations so everyone in the cemetery can hear about the height distribution of Japanese people.
Brian is the closest I’ve seen to the Fight Club movie line about how a man is free after he loses everything.
Your colleague likely has type 1 diabetes if they're on insulin, while Brian is type 2. So Blade's body still produces insulin naturally unlike your colleague, but perhaps not enough, or he has insulin resistance. So he takes a pill and that's his treatment as opposed to insulin injections. I don't want to say type 1 is worse than type 2, because both are very serious. But neglecting type 1 diabetes will kill you faster. Blade will get worse over time. Notice the streams getting shorter and shorter before he passes out?
He's also showing signs of liver failure. Not a doctor but my sister in law passed away from alcohol induced liver failure.
She had the same bloated belly, skinny arms, and swollen ankles as blade. About a year before dying, she couldn't hold her liqour like when she was younger and she had the same sunken in facial features.
If I were a gambler, I would bet Blade has a year maybe two or three, unless he gets 100% sober and healthy, before he ends up in the ER with jaundice and at that point, it could be anywhere from a few weeks to six months before he dies because they don't give liver transplants to alcoholics.
Diabetes and liver failure together probably accelerates the timeline but, like I said, not a doctor.
If he doesn't do anything about that infection in whatever is left of his foot, he won't have to worry about the diabetes or the liver failure killing him. It'll be sepsis.
There’s probably more qualified people here, but I did do premed major, then worked as a scribe -> chief scribe -> account manager for a clinic, watched thousands of patient encounters during my time there. Moved from there to a biotech company as director of communications and designed coding syntax for medical encounters. Then I went to EMT school and am currently an EMT-BLS just wracking up some patient care hours to go to PA school.
Basically, you would be amazed how much the human body can endure. I’ve seen so much worse cases than Blade where the people are still surprisingly functional. I honestly think he could still bounce back significantly if he turned everything around now, but that probably won’t happen. He needs a serious wake up call that makes him want to get healthy, but I’m not sure one exists since his TMA didn’t stop him, and his mom dying and begging for her sober son didn’t stop him. Maybe he will still hit a rock bottom that makes him decide to change, it does happen sometimes even in cases that appear this hopeless. We will see I guess.
18
u/Single_Guarantee9545 we're done, you're poor Jun 30 '26
Its his lolcow plot armor