February 2014
COLUMN: Ask Your Pharmacist Dr. Bret
Page 7
Captain Byrd Retiring After Decades As A Cop
By Bret Stevens, Pharmacist Special To The Star STOKESDALE - Here are a few things I’ve learned that I believe every diabetic should know. Tip 1: If you don’t trust the reading on your meter, test it on a family member or friend. As meter prices come down, have a backup meter to get a second reading. You may know another diabetic that you could borrow theirs to get a reading on. If your meter is not accurate, you could be overdosing or under dosing your medicine. Tip 2: When you are sick, whether you are able to eat or not, test your blood sugar. A common immune response when we get sick is for our sugar to go high even if we don’t eat. Tip 3: Some medicine can make your blood sugar go higher than normal, especially corticosteroids (prednisone, prednisolone, methylprednisolone). This time of year, cold and flu season, steroids are commonly prescribed by doctors. I have seen some patients hospitalized because their blood sugar went too high due to corticosteroid use and not dosing their insulin accordingly. If your doctor prescribes a steroid for you, make sure he or she is aware you are diabetic. Tip 4: Always keep some form of sugar or quick carbohydrate source close by in case your blood sugar drops too low. Tip 5: Regardless of what the marketing says, the fingertips are the most accurate place to test your sugar. To prevent calouses and nerve damage, switch fingers and sites on the fingers. Tip 6: Keep individually wrapped urine ketone testing sticks. Bottles of ketone testing sticks that aren’t individually wrapped go bad quickly. Even though the individually wrapped sticks are more expensive, in the long run they are worth it. You want to use a ketone urine testing stick whenever you have a several consecutive high blood sugar readings. You and your prescriber should have a plan if you have ketones in your urine. Tip 7: If you are low, have a predetermined and premeasured amount of carbohydrates or sugar to bring you to the level your doctor wants you to be. Also, if you take nighttime insulin, you should have a minimum blood sugar before injecting the nighttime dose OR going to sleep. For example, if your blood sugar is 100, if you take your nightly dose before going to bed, you will probably go low during the night. Tip 8: You and your doctor should have a predetermined plan of action in case you experience scenarios described in 2 and 6 above (high sugars due to sickness or whatever the reason). Tip 9: Diabetics may want to check with their doctor on whether they should be on an ACE inhibitor (lisinopril, enalipril, ramipril, etc) or an ARB (losartan, Diovan, etc) for kidney protection. As a diabetic, you have a higher risk of kidney disease than a non-diabetic. Tip 10: See an eye doctor at least once a year. As a diabetic, you have a higher risk of eye disease than a non-diabetic. ABOUT DR. BRET: Bret Stevens, a second generation pharmacist at Stokesdale Family Pharmacy, earned his Doctorate of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2008. He has 12 years of retail pharmacy experience as either a technician, intern, or pharmacist. ::
Captain Phil Byrd was head of the District One office in northwest Guilford County and recently retired. He says his career was enjoyable. Photo: The Star.
By R. Gregg, The Star SUMMERFIELD – Although Captain Phil Byrd started working as a Guilford County Sheriff’s Deputy almost 30 years ago, he certainly remembers his first day on the job as a Guilford Sheriff’s deputy. He first started in 1985 and on the day that he started work, the famous Fritz Klenner case came to an end with a vehicle chase and an explosion on Highway 150. The murder case involving the deaths of nine people was later recounted in the book “Bitter Blood” and then in a movie. “I was on the way to the range,” said Captain Byrd. “I had just been sworn in.” “They talked about the explosion and I thought maybe I ought to do something different since that was my first day,” he joked. Despite an interesting first day, Captain Byrd stuck with the job and says he always knew he would work in law enforcement since he was in high school. He applied on his 21st birthday and has been working in the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department ever since. After so many years of being on the job, Captain Byrd said that he has pretty much seen it all. “I guess after you’ve been in it so long, nothing surprises you,” he said. As a regular citizen, you are not often privy to all of the crimes that take place, but as a police officer, you learn about the darker side of society, he said. “Early on, it’s a wake up call,” he said. “You don’t really know how many domestic calls there are...and DWI’s, and things like that...a number of things that go on in the community that people are not aware of.” Although when he retired last month, he was head of District One which includes northwest Guilford County, Captain Byrd has seemingly done it all and has worked in almost every division. He has worked in field operations, the jail, major crimes, narcotics/vice, the emergency response team, training division, as a school
resource captain, firearms instruction, internal affairs, and patrol. “We’re a large department so it allows you exposure to a lot of different divisions,” he said. “I’ve been very fortunate.” When asked if there are any major cases that stick out in his mind, Captain Byrd said the Mary Holder case was very disturbing. In 2011, she shot her boyfriend and then killed her four children before taking her own life. “Things like that shock you,” he said. He also said the Colby Malone case, where she was killed on High Point Road and it was made to look like a burglary also was memorable because it has not been resolved. “There was an acquittal on that case and nobody’s been made to get justice for it,” said Byrd. “A case like that is one you don’t forget. You always hope for justice for the families.” As a vice/narcotics detective, Byrd said he saw a wide range of drugs in the area, but from around 1992-1998 the biggest issue was crack cocaine. More recently, Byrd said that drug problems have included legal drugs that are being abused or sold. “Believe it or not, one of your most problematic drugs is prescription drugs,” he said. Also, he said that crystal meth is still a problem compared to more traditional drugs like cocaine or marijuana. “You can interdict cocaine, you don’t grow cocaine here,” he said. “With a meth lab, you could make it right here on this table.” When asked what the biggest change he has seen over the last 30 or so years, Byrd said it was definitely technology. He said that when he worked as a deputy out in the field and you went on a call, you were on your own. There were no personal radios, no mobile phones, and no in-car computers. He said he would go on a call at a house and often ask to use their telephone to report back in to dispatch. “You’d go on a domestic call and to
let communications know you were okay, you’d ask to use the telephone,” he said. On patrol in the 1980’s, they would be equipped with a flashlight and a .357 magnum revolver and that was pretty much it, said Captain Byrd. “When I started in 1985, we didn’t have walkies [radios],” he said. “If you wanted to make a phone call, you knew where all the payphones were,” he said. When you typed up a search warrant, you did it on a typewriter with carbon paper, he said. “There was no email, if you wanted to leave a note for a detective, you’d leave it [on their desk],” said Byrd. Detective Byrd said comparing 1985 to law enforcement now is probably hard for some folks to imagine. “If you took a young officer and zapped him back to 1985, he wouldn’t know what to do,” said Captain Byrd. “You’d think I was living back in 1929.” Byrd said that modern tools like DNA matching and video cameras have helped law enforcement immensely and also they have helped clear people too. “It helps us find the facts, not what he said or she said,” added Byrd. “When a judge or jury can be shown a video, it’s a lot better than someone explaining it.” Also with new technologies like pepper spray and tasers, Byrd says that police officers can use intermediate force without having to use their guns. Byrd did say that he has had to draw his gun but luckily has never had to use it. “I’ve been shot at, but I’ve never had to shoot anyone, I’ve been lucky,” he said. “But I can’t count how many times I’ve had to pull my gun on people...there have been some tense moments.” Byrd said he was shot at during a standoff with a man in Gibsonville in 1991 that left other two deputies wounded. He said the man shot out the tire of a truck he was behind. “That’s the closest I’ve had a bullet come near me,” he said. Byrd added that Sheriff B.J. Barnes has been great to work for and that his implementation of the district system many years ago has reduced response times and increased interaction with the public locally. “The community likes having the officers in the districts,” said Byrd. When asked if he had any advice for new police officers, he said to remember that they are all role models. “Especially in uniform, we should be held to a higher standard,” he said. “Once you’ve tarnished your image, you’re done in this job.” Captain Byrd said he has really enjoyed his career in law enforcement. He said helping people is what motivates most police officers. “Anytime you go on a call and resolve it to the citizen’s satisfaction, that’s what drives this job,” he said. “Remember, before you got there, things were all to pieces.” He said that despite being on the job for decades, time has gone by quickly. “There’s always something different, it’s never the same,” he said. “I swear it seems like I got hired yesterday. Can you believe it’s been 28 years? If you like what you do, it just doesn’t seem like it.”