That is awkward, DrBB. You don’t want to fail to acknowledge the consideration extended to you. Yet you know that the choice made by your coworker/friend/relative does not work well for your BGs.
You’re then faced with gently giving them the bad news about their choice or just go along get along, suck it up, eat the “thoughtful” food and try to reel in the BGs later.
That’s not a good choice either, since that person will do that again thinking their choice is a good one. Perhaps the best way is to use that situation to discreetly explain why their idea of safe food for you is not really safe.
Have some good replacement suggestions in mind like nuts or cheese or sweet dips that can be portion controlled by the diabetic. Some of us can even enjoy a scoop of full-fat vanilla ice cream from tme to time. (Finding full fat ice cream can be a challenge.) I’ll take mine with berries on top!
Yup, that’s the essence of the whole bind. If you don’t say something you’re really screwed because then you’ve established the answer to How To Solve That Awkward Little Problem, and it’s going to be an order of magnitude more uncomfortable to correct it now.
Worse than any of that is when someone says: “Oh we can’t do cake and ice cream, Bill can’t have any of that and he’ll feel left out!” Actually, no, what I’ll feel is like a pariah because my stupid problem has just deprived everyone else of a treat. I’ve had to head that one off a few times.
On edit: and of course like you say, you actually can have it if you’re willing to put up with the hassle involved in getting things balanced out afterwards.
Since I can’t eat cake I can obviously eat sandwiches! Usually when it is a function they are cut into little triangles and I eat one and nibble on it for ages. The other thing is sushi plates - ha! no sugar there. Oh what I would give for a bowl of dips and some vegetable crudites.
@DrBB and Terry4,
You guys have hit on the exact situation I used to deal with all the time at my work. I finally pulled my supervisor and the HR manager aside and told them they shouldn’t do anything special for me. I would be fine having nothing to eat or if it was a lunch function I’d either bring my own or not attend. They “got it”. I also explained to them that my avoidance of those kinds of social functions was strictly because it is so much easier for me to do my usual thing than participate and I don’t miss or need the social interaction. I think they finally got that as well.
Some people will say I’m being anti-social and they’re correct, I am, but the trade off is I get to deal with oscillating BGs or spend time with co-workers I see too much of anyway. Not a tough decision for me.
The one comment that sticks in my head as ridiculous was made by a guy whose mother-in-law is diabetic. We both belong to the same auto-cross racing club and at an event one day I turned down one of the girl scout cookies he’d purchased, to which he said, all you have to do is take a shot and you’ll be fine!!
Little did he know I’d been working to get the correct dose of my shots so I could deal with the strenuous activity of auto racing and keep my BGs under control. Not only that but his son, who is a paramedic, stood there and agreed with him.
I’m from another country, Let me adjust that sentence.
…there does seem to be tendency to believe that “we” XXX are all networked together in some way. Someone will say something like, “Oh, I have a friend who from XXX. His name is John Do. Do you know him?”
I don’t eat cake or cookies either. Unless the cake is the “Dark Side of the Moon” from Old Man Rafferty’s. Dark fudge cake layered with truffle cream and dark butter cream icing. I need only a small bite. Delicious. I’ve never been an ice cream person either. All it does is make me thirsty.
We have these ice cream parties at work a couple of times a year, and I have to admit it’s easier for me just to avoid 'em. It’s not so much having to resist eating the stuff, that’s no big deal, but being the only one NOT eating ice cream, when it is after all an ice cream party, kinda makes you stick out. I don’t want to have to explain it, so it’s easier just to not go.
I had a remark about heavy diabetes??? I don’t know what that means, I tried to explain to her that no one has used that terminology, still not sure what that means. Like I was explaing how I schedule my snacks and meals a little by like every 4 hours while awake and she was like “So you have heavy diabetes then?” I’m so confused by some people’s ignorance.
I’m 25 years old, I was diagnosed 7 years ago (I was 18) so whenever someone finds out, they would say with a pitiful tone: "But but you’re so young!"
Like I didn’t know! Or when they ask if it was because I had too much sugar and soda! Sigh
Another thing that drives me even more crazy and I’m gonna try to explain it, is when someone asks me in Arabic if I have diabetes! They wouldn’t ask if I have diabetes, their questions would be like (and I’m trying a literal translation here) like saying I have sugar in me! Which is true I guess yet I feel like they put me in this “term” or name and I just hate it.
Not sure I made any sense but i swear it does in Arabic lol
It reminds me of people saying, “Oh, he has the Sugar Diabetes!” As if there are a bunch of flavored diabetes - Salt Diabetes, Pepper Diabetes, Tart Diabetes, etc.
Although I have no doubt the ignorant masses we encounter are unaware of the term diabetes insipidous, there may be some historical precedent to the use of " sugar diabetes "… Diabetes insipidous is a lack of OR decreased response to antidiuretic hormone causing symptoms similar to untreated diabetes ( thirst and frequent urination) …so at some point long ago the term " sugar diabetes " may have been relevant … Maybe ?!?
