Those things are evil. lol
Phew! Imagine if we tried to replicate the other 99% of the work of the pancreas. I will now refer to my “broken” Islets of Langerhans – it even sounds cooler – thanks Scott!
It is my understanding the the alpha cells in the lsets of Langerhans which are responsible for glucagon secretion are actually not attacked by the autoimmune disorder which attacks the beta cells. Talk about pet peeves, that is just so unfair (just kidding).
My dad (who also has diabetes) does it. I think it’s so “cute”, but I was actually told that it increases the chances of infection by drying out your skin. So I skip the alcohol and just wash my hands, but I always carry around a couple alcohol pads in case I touch a honey jar (or something similar) and there is not a place where I can wash my hands when I need to test.
The “Holier than Thou” thread is in another forum.
The topic here is “Pet Peeves” which are things that the posters find personally annoying, possibly beyond reason or the understanding of anyone else. They are letting off steam and possibly going overboard. If you are going to conclude that they despise their families or friends based on a single comment they make in response to a specific invitation you are completely missing the point of the exercise.
People get tired of running into the same behavior day after day after day and explaining themselves to the same people again and again and again. Letting go of their frustrations is not narcissism, it’s just letting go of their frustrations. We have no basis for assuming that people treat their loved ones badly or hold them in ‘contempt’ because of a single message posted in this thread. Would it be better for them to blow up at their mother/spouse/bff or to let off some steam in here? In here, I would think.
What is most absurd is to convert what is clearly meant to be a light-hearted topic into a serious discussion about the proper behavior of diabetics. What’s really narcissistic is lecturing other diabetics about how they should behave. We all have the same disease, we don’t have the same personalities or level of tolerance. We’re not all nice people and we’re not all mean people.
And why go out of your way to tell people how annoyed you are with them. It would be easier to just ignore them, no? But maybe reading people’s complaints is one of your pet peeves and you’re just letting off steam.
Terry
when people tell me i cant have candy and then try to take it away from me. lol you touch my candy, you die. 
and when people tell me if i would have taken care of myself, i wouldnt have gotten D. i mean seriously, there was no avoiding it.
I definitely agree about the wasted test strips. I also hate when I’m roaming around my house and find the used ones in the most random places. “How did that strip get into the linen closet?” Those little buggers sure can travel! lol
Yeah, that is so particularly hurtful, brandi. I hear ya.
I have been experiencing this, lately, myself! Crazy! lol
yup, those honey jars and jelly jars can be an evil deceiver if you check your BS without realizing you have the residue on your hands. and then you spend 3 test strips trying to figure out what happened. 
This is a community of people who share the same struggles of an illness that requires constant vigilance and efforts on our parts but doesn’t show much of our struggles to the world. Maybe some of us are self-centered, but aren’t most people, diabetic or not? The point of this community is to come together and support each other, share our knowledge, and find people who understand what we’re going through.
It can be tough to spend a lot of your time either being treated like a china doll because people think you’re fragile or like someone who deserves what they got because people don’t understand the truth about diabetes. Most of us spend a lot of time educating those who are willing to listen, but there are times when people don’t really listen and continue to act certain ways and say certain things that can be hurtful, intentional or not. I am very grateful for the people in my life who have taken the time to learn and to help me with the battle for good control, especially my husband who has learned all he can and does all he can to help me (staying up with me all night while I monitored stubborn highs, gotten out of bed at 5am to help me treat lows…).
But the fact is, some people never listen and never learn, no matter how much you try to educate or be polite about it. I tend to hold my tongue because I understand much of it is concern and misinformation, but I still need a place to vent occasionally to people who share those experiences. That was the purpose of this forum post. For people to vent their frustrations and annoyances. I hope you don’t think that this is all we are here, because we aren’t. I’m sorry if this thread has put a sour taste in your mouth, but everyone needs to vent and this thread just happens to focus more one the frustrations others can cause. Trust me, we spend a lot of time talking about the non-living frustrations of diabetes too.
The alcohol swabs are just one of those habits that I learned when I was first diagnosed and I can’t make myself break. I was told to always disinfect with alcohol and even after I read (on TUDiabetes mostly) that most other people don’t and for good reason (I guess) I still can’t make myself test without swabbing first.
So if you see me in a restaurant I’ll be the guy waving his hand frantically for no apparent reason because I’m trying to dry out the alcohol before I test lol. As an added bonus though my 1 1/2 year old daughter thinks I’m waving at her when I do it so she has started waving back at me. I think she thinks it’s a pre-meal ritual we must adhere to lol (like putting on lotion after her bath and before bed, and reading her favorite book before going to sleep). Sometimes she’ll start waving at me when we sit down to eat before I even have all my stuff in order for the test.
what do you use? i use the swabs.
LOL
That’s probably the funniest and cutest diabetic ritual I’ve heard of. Very sweet, even if it was unintentional lol
hahaha That’s awesome! Love kids.
That is SOO cute! I’m a creature of habit too. So I can understand!
I stopped using alcohol swabs for fingersticks because they’re a pain in the butt and the create a lot of trash. I just wash my hands. Sometimes I just lick my fingers.
It’s true.
I just use a cleanex, or run my hands through water.
They’re all over the place. Some people call them ‘surfboards.’
Terry