I’m an open book, babe!!! I figure that people will ask me dumb questions about why I’m in a scooter and then notice that I have a pump. If I don’t get them coming, then I get them going. I feel that if they knew my whole story or more about diabetes, the world would be a better place.
When they say dumb things like “stop eating sugar and lose weight” tell them that you will when they take their heads out of their a**es and learn the facts!!
Sorry, that’s how I feel about those stupid, stupid remarks!!! You see, they think that being fat means diabetes and being diabetic means fat! Not all T2 diabetics are fat. AND not all fat people are diabetic. You can see some pretty in-shape ones around. Just take their remarks with a grain of salt and silently wish their little thingies would fall off or atrophy at a most inopportune moment!!! HEE HEE HEE HEE
Lois La Rose
Milwaukee, WI
P.S. I realize that I responded the other day in a more demure temperament. Well, today has been a real b*tch for me and I told it like it is!!! Sorry if I offended someone. I’m not always this brash.
But what if you need help? If they don’t know you have diabetes and you have a hypoglycemic event, then what? THEIR ignorance could hurt you. Yes, it was a challenge educating and informing my community ( family, friends, coworkers ) but after a while the questioning stopped and diabetes was just a part of THEIR lives.
You are not “justifying” your behaviour. You are being responsible for your health and well being.
True, and I feel that the more of us who are open helps to remove the negative connotation diabetes might have to the general public. Somehow I am not there. The other factor is that only having T1 for 5 years, I still am very hypo aware. Of course, at what point that will change makes me being private a gamble.
Hi, my son now 7, doesn’t want to “expose” his D with everyone. He does his tests in class but boluses outside, so kids don’t know what the pump looks like.
In public, we will test (he’s not shy with that), we will weigh food with nutritional scale and will take out his pump for boluses or modifications, but that’s about it. But, that’s a different story with people with D, he will gladly show his pump to those who do not have one, he’s quite happy with the technology
He doesn’t want to be treated differently, he doesn’t talk about it at all outside our home…
I can understand that, Gina. I had a student who was dxed a year before I made a comment to her about my own diabetes in front of another classmate. My hand was slapped incredibly by my principal for taking away her decision to share it with others.
I got so carried away in advocating for myself that I overstepped my bounds. While I know I want my students to know about diabetes and what to do should I ever be passed out or low, I can understand children wanting to feel like they’re no different from anyone else.
I didn’t grow up with this disease - or at least not in myself - I took care of all four of my grandparents who died of complications thereof, and my attorney boss when I worked for him.
I have a student now who is on a pump who comes to me in secret to talk about her pictures of her with Nick Jonas and everything, since she knows I’m diabetic, but I can see that when we talk and someone else approaches, she clams up.
It’s very hard for me to back off - that will be something that will be hard for your son to explain.
I’m not ashamed at all. I can’t help that I have diabetes. I let everyone know that I have diabetes, and I wear a medical alert bracelet (which are easy to make!!).
Right now, I do 5 shots a day, so, within those 5 shots, I’m bound to have to do home in public. But, I’ve found that if you take a pre-loaded needle (in a protective case), it is much easier than having to deal with viles.
I have gotten comments like
-testing my sugar in class: can you turn that thing on silent?
-DIABETIC! show everyone your bracelet.
-doing a shot in the lunch room: do you HAVE to do that?
-explaining that I have diabetes: but you’re not fat
As I am training to be a licensed professional counselor and many of my clients are type IIs, I am really open about it. It helps the clients feel like they aren’t alone with the big D. Up until I got a pump last year and really started taking care of my diabetes, I never told anyone I was diabetic. It was like my dirty little secret. People don’t really treat me different other than “suggesting” things I should and shouldn’t eat. I just explain that I carb count and my nutritionist is fine with my food choices.
I was just diagnosed about a month ago, and honestly im not very open. I have a hard enough time trying to deal with it and dont feel like having to explain about it or getting stared at. Im just not comfortable with it yet. Im sure over time I will be
When we are diabetic I figure we have to say it out loud. You know if they dont me as a diabetic, they wont like me any better as just me. I is what I am, unless of course I am dressed up like a lumberjack. When that happens, and I wear women’s clothing and hang around in bars, Oh never mind.
I’ve always been pretty open about my diabetes with friends and the people that sit near me at work. I figure that if they know about it, then they would be informed in the off chance that something would go wrong with me. When I was on an MDI routine I would often just give myself my doses out in the open - people hardly ever noticed. However, now that I am on the pump I am finding that I get different reactions.
For example, while my co-workers knew I was diabetic and knew that I did my shots at my desk and knew that I was going to be getting a pump I got a few bad reactions. One of my co-workers noticed my “Pump Log” book on my desk and asked if I had finally gotten the pump, as they knew I had been going through the steps to obtain one and training on it for a few months at that point. I was in the process of pulling the pump out of my pocket to show them the device (I figured it wouldn’t be a bad idea for a few people to know what it looked like) they waved their arms wildly and said, with a look of horror “Oh! I don’t want to SEE it!”.
Now, with this aspect of my diabetes, I am little more discreet about what information I share. I just say “I have type one diabetes, I have to take take insulin before food”. I don’t want to deal with negative pump reactions - at least not at this stage in my pump education. I still educate people, though. If someone tells me that I can’t have ‘such and such treat’ I point out that it’s fine because I just took enough insulin to compensate for the carbohydrates in it. Hee.
I love it. It gets me out of having to eat stuff I don’t want to eat at parties. “Oh…I am sorry I am diabetic. I can’t eat that…uh…great…uh…looking dessert.”
and heck, it’s just diabetes. It’s not contagious. I just take insulin because my body doesn’t make it. So what?
And before the pump, when I was in college, I used to use my old hypos to keep the sagging ceiling material from hitting the top of my head in my 79 Buick Regal. I would snug them in where the roof and ceiling met, and then extend the plunger out to keep the material from hitting my head. Got pulled over a few times and the cop was like …“uh…are you uh…diabetic or something?” I came to realize that was not a great idea, especially when my sister got pulled over in my car. “I swear my brother is diabetic!”
I want to get a t-shirt that says “My diabetes makes me cool” or something.
Now that I am older and allegedly more mature, I have no qualms about testing my sugar in public, or shooting up in public (using my pump).
Hey and if anyone give your son business about being diabetic, he can always pull the “Yeah well your ugly (or stupid) and I can take insulin.”
I use to be kinda nervous telling people but now I’m more open about it. I had a pump and my first day of high school and the teacher told me put ur cell phone away or go to the office but it was my pump.He didn’t believe me until i showed him the tubing and stuff so I think its good to educate people about diabetes.
For about 15 years I was very closed about being a Type I but was also not in very good control. As I loosened up about shots and testing I started to find people getting neurotic FOR me about what I ate. This is how I learned to be an educator of the NON diabetics of the world. So many people have only been exposed to relative or friends with Type II diabetes and have a negative impression of the condition. I have heard so many stories about grandmothers that were BAD diabetics and died or had an amputation… Sickening. I had to learn to take a deep breath and educate about the difference between Type I and Type II. The more open I am about the diabetes, the more people come around for their “lecture”
I work in a huge corporation and we also have plant workers in the thousands… Mostly men. Being a single girl may be a big draw for some but for the most part they come to me to learn more. I have even had people come to my office to have me test their blood sugar. Some are just curious about whether they could be Type II since they have a relative that just got diagnosed. They still get to learn about the difference in each type of diabetes…
One girl was told by her doctor that she was going to become diabetic (Type II) because her blood work showed a blood sugar of 150 AFTER she had eaten. I got to calm her down and show her that she had a long way to go before she “turned” into that monster. She even lost 10 lbs and got her blood work done again, just to prove to her doctor that she was NOT gonna be a Type II.
It’s really about changing perceptions One Person at a Time! Not a job I asked for but a job I MUST do, for myself too!
most people think i have a pager so they ask what brand opf pager i use .
i work for a cell phone company so its easy to see with my work phone.
people can be very stupid but dont let it bother you
i have had diabetes for nearly 25 years and heard so many things
wes
If someone tells me that I can’t have ‘such and such treat’ I point out that it’s fine because I just took enough insulin to compensate for the carbohydrates in it. Hee.