Frances,
My point exactly!!!! I love them too. I sprinkle them with rice flour or potato flour and they come out really crispy. (This has a little carb but it's a sprinkle so nothing over the top.) Perfect for dousing with hot sauce. Yum!
I think another pet peeve for me... is the insistence on focusing on the differences, constantly. Some even make comparisons as if they were two completely different diseases on the lines of like Alzeheimer's and Arthritis, as if they had nothing in common at all. Sometimes, it gets said with such vehemence that it makes me feel as if they are just disgusted by us... Certainly, the pathologies are different... But how different are they is something that we truly don't grasp quite yet. Type 2's also have beta cell failure, even if much slower. Type 2's also have an autoimmune element to their disease, that instead, creates many issues with body fat, insulin and leptin (and even with thin Type 2s). Studies have shown a spectrum of Types of diabetes, and a lot of crisscrossing between pathologies... things that do not get accounted for in the simplistic labels of Type 1 and Type 2. Much of the struggles become the same when you add huge amounts of insulin into the mix, for many Type 2s... But just... the mere disgust with which a lot of people react .... "It's not the same, and don't you ever dare compare the two!" kind of thing... Is really.... bothersome to me.
Well, the ignorance about Type 2 is appalling. And so little is known by scientists. There is overlap between Type 2 discrimination and obesity discrimination -- obesity is another disease about which pitifully little is known, so people just resort to blame the victim tactics. The most important thing Type 2's and obese people (not necessarily the same people!) must do is not accept the blame, and actively push for more research concerning the causes and treatments. Diet and exercise are simply not the whole answer, although healthy eating and exercise are important for EVERYONE.
Come on over to the new group called Type 2, and let's keep these discussions going!
I just found a nice image, on the web... And than did a right click on it, and selected "copy image url", and then clicked on the image icon above in the little toolbar of the commenting window, and pasted it in there... under the url tab. It's a lot easier than it sounds. :)
That's a tough one, Danny... I think probably I'd want the guilt and blame gone. Anything with "You could cure it, only if you really wanted to," kind of mentalities... It's really very heart wrenching to hear.
I *hate* being asked if I breastfed my daughter. She nursed for 2 years...and I weaned her 3 weeks before her dx at the age of 24 months.
I remember seeing an ad on the wall of the hospital that showed a nursing baby with a statement that said something like "Breastfeeding decreases her chance of developing diabetes."
I was holding my second newborn and we were waiting for the elevator on our day of discharge. I had spent 3 days alone in the hospital, because there was no one to tend to our diabetic 2 year old at home.
In my brain I was leaping out of the wheelchair with a big fat sharpie screaming like a crazy loon and writing LIARS all over the face of the poster.
Blame it on hormones.
I have to agree with you, MrsCandyHearts. I'm pretty sure my mom breastfed all of us, too... And I still got Type 2. lol I hate all those stupid fringe research studies where something comes out kind of "spuriously" indicating something, and people just run with it... Adding to everyone's guilt. :/
I hope this post is referring to the media and not Type 1s. As a Type 1, my niece has to deal with all these issues, even though she is in the 20th percentile for weight, just as she has been all her life. This is because the general public makes no distinction at all between type 1 and type 2. Hence, kids in her class, clearly twice her size, have made comments about her diabetes being brought on by diet and lack of exercise. So she is in the same boat re misperceptions. I am aghast at the lack of medical care and advice Type 2s are given (I know quite a few at work). Type 1 is taken very seriously and we were given very good information at diagnosis; otherwise death would be immediate, not at some point in the future. She share the same risks for future complications as Type 2s; but I believe Type 2s could probably reduce their risk with proper intervention and medical help. Type 2s are denied access to appropriate blood sugar testing, insurance does not cover strips (I do not call 1 to 3 strips per day "coverage."). Type 2s should test as Type 1s do and be given access to meds to lower blood sugars if high. I cannot substantially reduce her risk of complication with the tools I have available, but if Type 2s had access to all that she does, I think they could reduce their risk.
This post is referring to anyone who holds ignorance about Type 2 Diabetes, and that may include Type 1 Diabetics who believe some of these things about Type 2's. And believe me, there are many. I do agree with what you have said... Though many times, complications often show a genetic trend as to whether or not a person will get them, I think if patients got more access to things, and better education, and kept in the dark, they would also help avoid things... While many Type 1s receive better care than Type 2s, unfortunately that is not always the case, either. I know many Type 1s just simply kept in the dark under sliding scale insulin regimens, denied pumps, and given outdated information... At the end of the day, the patient, regardless of the type of diabetes, has to be his or her own advocate and give a serious fight for his or her own appropriate care. Sadly, we are the only illness that I know of where we have to know as much, or more, than are own doctors... :/
I have a lot of these pet peeves when it comes to doctors. One doctor tells me go on the south beach diet. So I do my a1c drops to 4.7 My cardiologist goes thru the roof saying that the south beach diet is why I'm having angina pains due to the lack of certain carbs says my a1c is to low he wants it no lower than 5.7 which is where its at now. I start having pain and stiffness in my hands hips knees and ankles so I get it checked out it turns out I now have rheumatoid arthritis. I go see a rheumatologist he tells me that I contracted ra because of my diabetes and heart disease. I have done everything these doctors have told me I needed to do to get rid of these diseases But nothing they have perscribed has worked its only made things worse that before.
I'd like to add another peeve by sharing a story about a very unpleasant encounter with a bigoted witch of a doctor many years ago.
I showed up in her office with a brownish and itchy circle on my thigh that was growing by the day. She asked about my family medical history and I said there was T2 on both sides. At that time in my life I was also overweight (though looked obese due to the crap way the fat is carried on me). I also mentioned that I had just returned from a holiday in a tropical country where I had spent a few days in the rainforest.
She said it was likely to be diabetes because one of the symptoms of diabetes was wounds that don't heal properly. I told her I didn't remember hurting myself there, and anyway the problem was not that it hurt but that it was itchy and that it was growing. She ruled out all other possible causes and said it had to be diabetes. She had her nurse do a blood glucose test; I don't know why she didn't give me the results there and then but anyway the nurse telephoned me later and said the BG was high, and I should come in again for more tests.
I told her of course the BG was high, I had eaten a big bowl of noodles 5 minutes before stepping into the doctor's office. I went off to get a second opinion from another doctor. He took one look at the ring (now the size of a dinner plate), asked if I had been going for walks in the rainforest (YES!) and immediately diagnosed ringworm. (Not as yucky as it sounds, it is a fungal infection like athlete's foot and I'd picked it up on my forest walk.) I was given a cream for it, which started working immediately, and in a few days everything was gone.
Four years after this incident, I took an OGTT as part of investigations into a different medical issue. The results were fine. Looking back now I should have sent a copy of the results to that bigoted first doctor who would have let the fungal infection rage on untreated just because of her prejudices.
Liz I have learned ALOT here that I didn't know about Type 2. I think either Type we're all in it for the long haul! That said I feel much better.
You go Liz! I LOVE the pic you put up! I started laughing! Oh, how I need that laugh today!
I haven't read everyones comments here but I LOVE number 6. I HAVE to laugh at it because I was/am a vegan BEFORE getting diabetes so I can prove without a shadow of a doubt that meat/dairy does not cause diabetes nor does avoiding it cure it - if it did I would have cured myself even before I got it. Send all those people my way and I will put myself on display as Exhibit A in support of your statement. Let's see how they like them apples! :)
(next statement to be said after they learn I am vegan would be: "oh, so you got diabetes when you were a meat eater than?" or " oh, so you were FAT when you were dx'd?" NO! Please allow me to smack you now! lol!)