o.k. I get the whole " your not fat how can you be diabetic" and "you must have ate alot of sugar when you were a kid" from strangers.comments like that just irritate me. but it is pretty sad when my own mother says stupid stuff I was going to visit her this past week and she asked "are you going to be wearing your pump-thingy". i told her that i really didn't have a choice. i was diagnosed when i was 15 and she still doesn't get it. i think that with most people, if you don't live it you just really don't get it.
I think every diabetic goes through this. My favorite that I get when I tell people I am diabetic is, "ohh well your not fat." I started on an insulin pump two years ago and I have had a couple of people tell me, "if you don't start taking care of yourself you will have to wear that forever." And of course the classic, "you have the bad kind." I don't think people are trying to be mean at all, it is actually funny to me some of the things they say.
Amen to that heidi i totally agree
That is hysterical! LOL!
My favorite is " I could NEVER give myself shots, you're so brave!" Okay first.... it isn't like I ever got to choose to "be brave" or not, and second like you said, I prefer living to my other options!!!!
[quote user="Kate"]
Every time someone says something ignorant, I give them a 10 minute science lesson... Also a good response is: "You are confused. Type 1 is an autoimmune disease, Type 2 is a metabolic disease, they are not even the same disease. The similarity is only in the end result which is high blood sugar."
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Kate, I'm going to use your response whenever someone asks...Much more succinct that anything I can say and it's to the point :)
It seems like after 11 years my grandparents figure I can't have normal sweets, so they still insist on buying me the disgusting russel stover sugar-free kind :( I'm like "I HAVE A PUMP!!!" haha.
I've told people I'm low so many times and that I need something that has carbohydrates. My friend goes, "Oh...is cheese okay?"
Or when people ask me if I can have sugar.
When I was first diagnosed kids used to stay away from me and yelling and screaming because they thought that diabetes was contagious and then when I got my insulin pump kids used to ask me if I was a robot.
One time in 7th grade, the Miss Minnesota woman came to our school and she happened to be there in support of type 2 diabetes. Well she didn't say that. She just kept saying diabetes and how people tend to be obese and they need to exercise and lose weight and that will cure it. For the next week I was randomly called obese and fat from kids in my grade or some kids would say, "Your not fat. How come you have diabetes?" . It was humiliating and I had to stand there and explain to them that it was type 2 diabetes and I have type 1.
I also love if I ask someone to walk down to the nurses office with me that they always seem to walk a few feet away from me like I'm going to pass out on them and they want to get rid of me quick and they tend to ask me if I'm going to die! Now days I just have my bf walk me down.
A work related contact heard that I was a diabetic and then proceeded to tell me his friend had the bad type. I said unfortunately that I am Type 1 so that is the bad one and expained the difference. He then said no and that his friend had the really really bad type worse than me...I just looked at him. Seriously people don't listen.
If I wasn't trying to win work from his company I may have turned his lights out.
[quote user="Courtenay"]
When i told my class when i got back from the hospital when being diagnosed, there where a few people who asked tons of questions. Some of them even said things like my grandma has diabetes... I thought I explained the difference to them,do they still not get it!?
[/quote]
exactly; the general public confuses T1 and T2. Everyone says that I got diabetes because I had too much sugar, but they'll be shoving a gigantic candybar down their troat. I just say, 'Actually, that's type 2...'
and when i get my desert in the lunch line i've actually had kids take it from me and tell me I can have it and i just say, 'well, if I couldn't have sugar, I wouldn't be able to eat becasue practically everything has sugar in it one way or another.
My 5 year old daughter was diagnosed last summer. The most common phrase I get is "she'll grow out of it" from a coworker. After the 5th time, I gave up since there is no use in correcting someone who won't listen.
Well, I've got 2 stories to share. First, coming from my sister in law (who is type 2 diabetic - by the way) telling me that I shouldn't give him cupcakes and treats and so forth because it is so dangerous. When pressing further she stated that there was such a thing as "insulin toxicity" and that I was recklessly killing my son.
Second story from a parent of a type one child who said she hoped her son never got "bad enough to need the pump", when discussing my son's new mini-med.
"Wow, it must be so cool that you get to eat all the time"
"If you are diabetic, why aren't you fat?"
"So.... can you have cake?"
hahahah I could go on and on
I find these pretty funny!! After being married 10 years, my mother-in-law still offers me diet coke evertime I say I am low!! And She will say, oh, i bought you OJ, with 50% less sugar, b/c I see you drink it sometimes!!
And how people don't know the difference between T1 and T2!!
[quote user="Cathy"]
Second story from a parent of a type one child who said she hoped her son never got "bad enough to need the pump", when discussing my son's new mini-med.
[/quote]Whoa! Those are fighting words. May I ask what your response was? I hope, for her son's sake, that she is more educated on T1 now.
"losing so much weight before you were diagnosed sounds cool. i want diabetes"
Little do they know that a lot of people gain the lost weight and more back after starting insulin.
I think the one thing that drives me the craziest is the lack of understanding about differences between type 1 and type 2. For example, that a change in lifestyle could make my diabetes go away. I WISH!!!
Katie
This is a great topic to come accros after the incident that happened today for me....
on the city bus to school since im newly diagnosed alot of my friends are getting me to teach them about diabeties so the can better understand what i have to deal with now. Well me and my friend were sitting together and i was showeing her some of the papers i got from my endo. She askes me suddenly if ide ever be able to stop takeing my insulin and not have to worry about what i eat. Well befor i could answer her this lady beside me looked at her and said "If she looses some waight and exercises she wont have to anymore." I started to laugh because im a tiny girl i waigh between 120-130 if i lose any waight ill land in the hospital. I explained after to my friend the fact i will always be stuck on insulin
[quote user="Courtenay"]
When i told my class when i got back from the hospital when being diagnosed, there where a few people who asked tons of questions. Some of them even said things like my grandma has diabetes... I thought I explained the difference to them,do they still not get it!?
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Maybe their Grandmother does have type I. Just because old doesn't mean she has to be type II? Talk about saying randomly possibly incorrect statements? Surely we're not all going to die of type I before we become grandparents!
The one thing that bothers me the most is when people comment about my weight and how I'm not fat so I must be lying like type 1 is something I made up to make myself feel better...or say "should you be eating that". It bothers me that the media only usually covers Type 2 so that is what everyone is educated on.