My most recent experiance with this is when I went to Barnes and Noble to find some books on pregancy and diabetes.
I have type 1 and have been married about a year now so I thought it would be best to do some research on diabetes and pregancy BEFORE I get there.
The guy who was trying to help me find the 2 books I was looking for didn’t understand why I couldn’t use a book on gestational diabetes. “It’s diabetes when your pregnant.” So that’s when I start explaining that there are really 3 types of diabetes. Type 1, 2 and gestational. I explained that they were all very different and gestational diabetes normally goes away after the birth of your child. Since I already have it, will have it while I’m pregnant and still have it after I deliver the baby, I need a different book!
He rolled his eyes and kept searching. How much educating does a person with diabetes need to do?
I guess there’s always a slim chance that someone will leave the conversation with more knowledge about db, but usually it’s not worth it. NO, they JUST DON"T GET IT.
My favorite is when people ask me if I have to eat a lot of sugar because I am a diabetic. You might find it amusing that the insurance company denied my requests for an insulin pump for eight years because I was too :good" of a diabetc. Meaning that I kept my blood sugars and AIC very well. (Of course it didn;t matter that I needed to take 4 to 6 injections a day to do this and that I didn’t sleep through the night for years because I crashed at 3:00 am EVERY morning.) No offense here. People are ignorant sometimes.
The thing that makes me mad is not that people lack knowledge about diabetes (since most people know very little about things that don’t directly impact them) but that they have so much MISinformation about it. I mean, people feel like they are qualified and free to comment on your “sugar” in a way they never would if you had, say, cancer. Whether type 1 or type 2, diabetes is killing us every day just like a cancer (and I’m not trying to marginalize those who are undergoing the horrible experiences of radiation therapy or chemotherapy by using this analogy), but for some reason people who would never patronize a cancer patient feel justified in criticizing our weight as diabetics, or our food choices, or medications, or pumps or meters, or whatever.
Every time I turn around I see Wilford Brimley talking about “diabeetus” on the TV, or the AARP offering discount supplies to the elderly… this is all most people know about the disease. Even some people who should know better (like my endo while I was pregnant … I was diagnosed diabetic when I confirmed my pregnancy… type 2, NOT gestational, but try to explain that to anyone) just don’t get it.
On the other hand, I have friends and colleagues who are very concerned about my health issues and welcome a little information, and are willing to change their schedules (taking lunch at a different time, offering to let me choose where to eat, understanding when I need to leave rehearsal for a few minutes). It always seems that strangers are worse. I recently had a waitress ask me “not to do that at the table” when I was checking my BG before eating!
No!!! You did not have a waitress say that to you! What did she think you were doing? My husband is fearful that people will think I am shooting up heroin if I discretely inject in public…don’t worry, I am educating him…this is new to us both. Back to your story…do we need to start a letter writing campaign to the restaurant?
I agree with your point exactly …it is mine as well…people think of db as the couch potato disease, with all the negative connotations…something we bring on ourselves. I think if their BS’s are normal, it makes people feel that they must be making better choices…you are “worse” than they are, regardless of their lifestyle.
Chad,
You were really lucky to have found him! I love seeing a Dr that knows what it’s like to go threw this! I cannot say I have been that lucky with my endo though! I’ve only had 1 other Dr that was diabetic and he was a chiropracter the rest well…no! Atleast the one I have had for 23 years now will always tell me I know how I feel he don’t! I like that in a Dr!
Ignorance, ignorance, and more ignorance. Where would she have you do this? In the restroom? Like that is going to happen. Public restrooms are DIRTY. I do my insulin maintenance out in the open. As a teacher, I do it in the classroom right before lunch. I have taught a diabetic student for the past two years. This year I have him at lunchtime. He reminds me; I remind him. We pull out the glucometers and 12:21 and do a finger stick. Then compare notes. Keeps us both honest. I have one person in over 20 years of diabetes call me a junkie. I pointed out to them that what I was “shooting up” was not heroine, but insulin…and showed them the vial. I also pointed out that I put the shot in the subcutaneous layer on my belly, and not in my vein on my arms. But yes, people are soooo…
Well i do agree that insurance company are very ignorant but when i was first dx’d they would only pay for the insulin or the syrings not both. but they were more than willing to pay for the pump
haha i had a friends mom tell my friend she could not hang out with me because i was a junkie (I WAS 10 at the time)
I worry about the drug thing, too. I have to say that since diagnosed (2002), in America I only saw maybe 1 time someone checking their bg or doing a shot. Here in Germany I have never seen anyone doing either. Also never seen a pump on another person. Since we have no car and live in a big city, there is no real way to get privacy for bg tests when we’re out and about. There’s always someone else who could see. And I am NOT going to pay to use a public toilet (to pee is not free in German-ee) just because others are uninformed and afraid of lancing devices. I’ve seen so many people give horrified glances and walk quicker by when I try to discreetly use my meter. They probably the vial and syringe I carry for emergencies in the mesh pocket and think I’m going to shoot up there on the street, lol. Too bad for them! Sometimes I almost expect the cops to show up and try to arrest me. At least it would be an education experience for them, lol.
OK, I’m starting a campaign to have CRAP become an unofficial name for Type 1 diabetes.
See my blog post about this.
Bernard…you are my hero…I needed a good laugh. (It’s Sat night and I am on this site while my husband is GLUED to ACC football on TV.) Poor ADA…
What can I do to help? I am not a good fundraiser, but just give me a chore. Do we need clearance from duisburgbunny to use his/her idea? Or maybe, it’s bigger than one individual now…
yeah ppl just do not get it.