Trish...wow. I got mad reading this. Maybe they're just making up for lost time? No offense to T2 people, but some T2 people (not to mention people in general) are very arrogant. I think it's bizarre that someone would actually argue or insist.
I have to add another add-water character to this...
I have decided that being a care giver of a T1 or being a T1 comes with an add-water-jerk. If the caregiver or T1 is doing really well, the sequence is triggered. You didn't know it was there, but then it rained, and whoops! Strange phenomenon. There should be a study.
Where does the add-water-jerk attach itself so that it is invisible except in times of high stress? Is it like a burr that sticks to your sock when you walk through a field, except invisible?
Yes!!! It drives me nuts when they look at you eating a cookie or something and go, "i thought you can't eat sugar" i want to rip their heads off and then give a lecture on the differences of Type 1 and Type 2!!!!!!!
My mom and brother don't have "lost times" to make up for. They live 10 minutes from me. My mom, especially, should know better by now.
I let the boys stay with my mom one evening and they were asleep when I returned. I check Brandan's BG and it was somewhere around 400 (this was a while ago.) After questioning my mom to figure out why it was so high I checked his Humalog pen. I had specifically told her to prime it first because it was a new cartridge. She already knew how to do that because she's done it before. She didn't though, I could tell by looking at it. When I pointed it out to her her response was, "Oh well, I didn't kill him." We got into a HUGE fight and it was a looong time before I let her watch him again. So priming the pen before I leave was added to the ever-growing list of precautions I have to take before leaving him with my mom.
I know that probably everyone who reads my posts wonders why I am willing to leave him with her at all. The truth is that I hardly ever do and she is the only person who is willing to watch him. Nobody else in the family wants to give him shots or feel responsible if "something happens."
Yay, I have another to share. The neighbors across the street are going to have a party for a 2 year old boy my kids play with a lot. The grandma said to me, "We would invite Brandan, but we're having cake and icecream and we don't want him to feel left out." Finally I said what I was thinking. "So, you decided it would be best to leave him out altogether? Is he supposed to miss out on the joys of childhood to avoid a little sugar?" Then I explained the fundamentals, how he can eat the cake and icecream, yadda, yadda. They might not invite us, but I don't care.
Go Trish! I am really proud of you for speaking up! Sometimes it is draining to do, but in the long run hopefully the neighbor is slightly more enlightened!
Ugh Trish! I count my blessings of awesome family and friends after reading your posts like this. We have so far not encountered anything like this (I know we will eventually, but just not yet). We have had people ask if they had to have anything 'special' for John when we would be visiting for a meal, and some of the questions, but all have been innocently asked. I guess we are somewhat fortunate to have several nurses on both sides of our family. :)
It would probably really screw them up if you pointed out that you would have to know how many hot dog buns and potato chips Brandan would eat, even if they didn't serve cake and ice cream at the party. I think you handled this one well. My favorite way to explain is: He can eat whatever he wants/your serving, I just need to keep track.
Good luck...the family part would be the hardest for me to handle. You do an awesome job.
I haven't had to deal with it long, but so far my biggest pet peeve of type 1 is "Can you eat this? Can you eat that?" And family members who suddenly gained an MD in the time it takes me to enlighten them on a glucagon kit.
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Yes!!!!!! My biggest pet peeve too!! Also when my mom is all like, "Did you check your sugar? Are you going to? Did you give insulin yet? When are you going to?" Grrrrrr.....and when people cut cake in front of you and are all, "Oh, YOU can't have any." And the more I try to explain, the more they just tune me out because OBVIOUSLY their prejudices are correct!!!!
people not understanding the difference between type 1 and type 2 is one of the biggest things for me. I agree with Cory that it has to do with the fact that there is a lot of type 2 diabetes awareness that is advertised as diabetes awareness. shortly after my son was diagnosed we were in the mall and there was a large display on 'preventing diabetes' with lots of nicely drawn posters by elementary school students. nowhere on the whole display did it mention type 2. I was just glad that my son was not yet able to read as i certainly did not want him to get the idea that he could have done something to prevent his type 1!
it also seems that type 2s are not educated at diagnosis. several months ago i met someone who told me that they were recently diagnosed with diabetes. when i asked it she was type 1 or type 2 she didn't know but did know she was on metphormin. type 2 i told her. a few months after that she told me she got put on insulin so she must be type 1 now. okay...
another type 2 i know will bake with splenda then eat 2 or 3 pieces of splenda cake (rather than a very small piece of regular cake) and will also have 4 pieces of white bread or a stack of pancakes but think it is okay because they were topped with sugar free jam or syrup. this person will also eat sugar free chocolate even though it usually has as much as or more carbs than dark chocolate (which I like to eat). but they can't figure out why their BG is always high. go figure.
aside from that it's the ppl assuming what my child can and cannot eat. 'well he can have grapes right? they're healthy' no, he cannot have any carbohydrates right now even if they are from a healthy source like grapes. he can, however, have a hotdog without a bun (I like to use the hotdog for an example for those who assume if it is healthy it must not have carbs:). 'he can eat this cake- it's sugar free' he can eat it if it has zero carbs, but unless it is a magic cake made with no flour, it will have carbs. he can save it and eat it later, just like he could with a sugary piece of cake. 'we will be having cake at the party. is there something i can get for ezekiel to have instead' no, he can have his cake and eat it too:).
I don't really get upset the first couple of times and i use it to educate. but when i have educated and educated the same person and still here the same things, i get a little bit ticked!
my husband has a similar mindset to your SIL. He has been type 1 for 23 yrs and was told sugar is bad unless you are low. we were taught carb counting with our son (diagnosed last year at age 4) and i have triple checked that when carb counting a carb is carb and they tell us yes, yet, somehow we still seem to argue sometimes about what he is eating (as well as how much insulin to give, especially if he is high. it's the carb ratio plus correction, but it doesn't always seem like enough to him, especially if he is eating low carb meals. we have also argued about correcting or not as our team says to wait for meal but hubby always wants to correct now). anyway, i was just wondering if your husband counted carbs before the pump (I think mine should try the pump too, but he doesn't seem too interested for himself) and if your husband already having type 1 has ever caused issues for you (sometimes mine thinks i don't know cause i haven't lived with it).
on a completely different note, if our son had been a girl his name would have been willow. I really like that name:)
anything along those lines. anything about eating too much, espicially when ur really low or really high and eating everything in sight. I had a friend say to me "gosh maria, I'm really suprised you're not super fat, considering how much you eat!" I'm 5'3 and 115 pounds! I'm not big! (though a lot of people seem to want to convince me otherwise!)
i'm just wondering (please no one get me wrong)...
a lot (i won't say all) of these people make these comments out of ignorance... and i don't mean "they're stupid" ignorance, i mean they don't have the eduaction we do. so can we really blame them for saying silly things when they simply don't have the knowledge?
i am certainly not knowledgeable on every subject, and know even less about topics that don't pertain to me. so i wouldn't expect others to be experts in diabetes etiology, care, and management. just like we hate for everyone to stereotype us as and assume we are overweight and lazy, we shouldn't turn around and stereotype type 2s assuming the same things.
I agree- about not discriminating about Type 2er's also. Seems to me there is still a lot of research and information to be conducted and found about both kinds of diabetes. The media needs to catch up with that big time. Type 2's are the butt of many jokes and remarks, and honestly it amazes me about how callused people can be about it.
I was watching some show and they said something about a character being hypoglycemic and needing a pump if they didn't eat. Wow, way to do your research, granted it was a sitcom but still.
On an opposite note: someone asked me what my pump was once and I told her. There was a pause before she said " Wow that sucks". It was the perfect response.
i'm just wondering (please no one get me wrong)...
a lot (i won't say all) of these people make these comments out of ignorance... and i don't mean "they're stupid" ignorance, i mean they don't have the eduaction we do. so can we really blame them for saying silly things when they simply don't have the knowledge?
i am certainly not knowledgeable on every subject, and know even less about topics that don't pertain to me. so i wouldn't expect others to be experts in diabetes etiology, care, and management. just like we hate for everyone to stereotype us as and assume we are overweight and lazy, we shouldn't turn around and stereotype type 2s assuming the same things.
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I totally agree with you, C. That's why when people say ignorant things I respond politely and educate..... then I come here and rant about it!
However, when it comes to my family, I'm running out of patience. They've had plenty of time to learn the basics. They obviously haven't been paying attention to anything I do or say. I would rather they just leave it to me and keep their opinions to themselves.
As far as my last entry, about the neighbors, it burned me up that they stood in my front yard and talked about a party and that Brandan isn't invited. They could have either not told me about it at all or had the decency to ask me if it would be OK Brandan instead of coming to their own conclusion. What upsets me the most is that I know it won't be the last time that somebody makes their own assumptions and leaves Brandan out.
OK, rant over. It wasn't all directed at you, C, got nothing but love for ya. ;)
Hi Trish,I wish someone would so a post on this--Left Out--to see if this goes on.I remember shotly after dx,I had started thinking about this.Rather worried about it.My daughter had her close friends and was friends with all her class mates.So I just watched and waited.Then one afternoon I saw a group of her close friends being picked up together from school and thought-here we go...It turned out to not be the case.In fact,this mom was one of the first to include her in a spend the night party.The moms always included her and so did her close friends.I have not read much on this thread,so I am not sure what happened.But if someone is having a party and leaving him out-Shame on them !!! He is young and maybe he won't know,but I think she is so wrong doing this.I am sure that you would be with him and see about him.Maybe if this is someone like a neighbor-you could teach littlt by little to them,maybe she is just afraid.Still enough to upset any parent though...My daughter was older and could do d care and maybe that helped other parent feel more at ease.I will do that post.maybe someone has some ideas...
Hi Meme. These neighbors aren't people I particularly want to spend time with anyway, it's just the principle. They know I would have been with Brandan, that wasn't their hesitation. They were under the impression that it would hurt Brandan's feelings when the other kids got cake and icecream. He will see the party, it's right across the street. If he was a little older he would question why he can't go. Who knows, we may end up going. Haven't got an invitation yet.
Hi Trish,be a party crasher,ha and just show up with gift in hand :) I mean really,she is so wrong about this,it makes me wonder if she is even thinking !!! Maybe she will send the unvitation and it will be a fun party.Is the party person in his age range ? I bet she sends that invite...Let us know..I also bet your son will one day have sooo many friends and fun at your house,she will be crashing your house all the time to get her child in there :)
Haha Meme. The boy is 2, Brandan is 3 1/2 and I also have a 19 month old. The funny thing is that her kids always come to my house to play! Her kids like to come over here because we have lots of cool stuff to play on/with outside. :) Also, I'm not being judmental here, but they don't live in the best conditions.
You're right anyway. Brandan will have tons of friends one day. Everybody falls in love with him.