Diabetes Does Not Equal Death, Dumbfuck

The BBQ Pit
21

Just wanted to chime in that I think anyone who takes medical advice from Steel Magnolias needs to be bitch slapped.

My mother insists I am going to die just like Julia Roberts did in the movie because I have a chronic kidney disease. She spent the whole time I was pregnant with my daughter imagining Hollywood deathbed scenes for me and didn’t tell me until afterwards. Now that I’m pregnant again I tease her about it a lot.

I may be sick but I’m not dead yet and I have no plans on living in a bubble.

22

John F. Kennedy had a disease which required injections several times a day. He sometimes responded to such questions buy jabbing the person with a needle.

23

Dementia?

I don’t know about you lot, but when I go hypo (Type 1 for 10 years) I sweat like a maniac and feel weak, but mild dementia? I’m sorry but you’ve lost me on that one.

When I go hyper my thigh muscles ache. That one has always confused me.

24

Sigh
Actually, when she was a child, my wife’s doctor recommended to her parents that she not participate in organized sports or other “stressful” activities.

It’s now very difficult for her to put any real effort into her exercise. She wants to, but she never learned how.

I have two particular “favourites:”

People making snide comments at restaurants or other public places when she takes her shot. “Why can’t you do that in the bathroom or something?!? Ohmygod!” Um. There’s enough germs and other icks floating around here as it is. Have you seen the friggin’ bathroom? Particularly when your own behaviour has been somewhat less than unimpeachable.

And then there’s the “heroin” jokes. Yeah, you know…it wasn’t funny the first time, and it hasn’t been ever since. Get stuffed. No. Nono. Go away.

25

My mother was 19 when she was diagnosed. She and two of her sisters were about to go to Europe for the summer. The doctor told her she couldn’t go. She wouldn’t be able to have children. She would die young, but probably not before she lost limbs to amputation. Her life, in short, would be spent as an invalid.

My mom went on her trip to Europe. She had two kids. She’s got all of her limbs. She has a perfectly normal life. She’s not an invalid.

Knowledge of diabetes has changed a great deal in a pretty short period of time. Maybe some people haven’t heard the news yet.

26

God, that fucking movie. When I reveal to people that yes, I am both pregnant and diabetic, it’s a toss-up as to what the first words out of their mouths will be: “Oh, like Julia Roberts in Steel Magnolias?” or, “I didn’t think diabetics could get pregnant!”

“I could never give myself a shot” makes me want to slap people, too. Oh, you’d rather die/suffer horrible complications than stick yourself with a very small needle a couple times a day? Then you’re a moron. Please don’t talk to me anymore.

The food police can also go straight to hell. I take insulin. If I want to have a cookie, I can take an extra unit or two to cover it. I am not going to immediately keel over on the floor as a result of eating one goddamn chocolate chip cookie. So get over it. I also get a little tired of the continual refrain of, “Oh, diabetics can eat that?”, sometimes precipitated by the most benign foods. I had someone say that to me when eating a turkey sandwich, for God’s sake. Someone told her once that diabetics can’t have bread.

I also concur that the heroin user jokes got extremely old, extremely quick. My brother-in-law is the worst offender. He continually refers to my insulin supplies as my “works” and keeps trying to get me to use illegal drug terminology when I’m talking about shots or whatever. Dude, it’s not fucking funny now and it wasn’t even that funny the first time. Just stop already. Every time I need to take an insulin shot in his presence, he makes the same tired joke about “Oh, you need your fix now?” Ha fucking ha. Much better since I went on the insulin pump, but still, Jesus.

As far as hypo symptoms, by the way, I seem to have lost most of mine, which is of some concern to me. I woke up the other morning and took my usual fasting level, and it was 35. I had no idea. I wasn’t really that confused, I wasn’t shaking. The only thing was, I felt slightly colder than usual. My doctors tell me that’s the result of the tight control I’ve been maintaining during the pregnancy, which leads me to run low more often than usual. It kind of sucks. I’ve taken to checking my blood sugar every time I get behind the wheel of a car, because dude, being at 35 and not even feeling it? That’s scary. This too, however, has got better since going on the insulin pump, btw – I highly recommend it to any insulin-using diabetic.

27

Being in the life insurance industry I have met many people with both types of Diabetes and I have also served on the board of our local Diabetes Associationand helped with fund rasing. There is a tremendous amount of ignorance about this disease but people won’t take the time to educate themselves unless it affects them or someone in their immediate family.

As far as mortality of diabetics I know it is hard for a diabetic to get life insurance coverage because the accuaries go by the numbers. Accuarilly speaking, diabetics lifespans are 20% - 40% less that of a healthy, non-diabetic, non-tobacco using person. If the diabetic drinks on average more than a certain amount of alcohol and uses tobacco (that includes especially smokeless tobacco) the life span is shortened by 50% - 60%. Tobacco use, in all its forms, in itself shortens the average life span by at the very least 20% and when compounded with diabeties issue will cause coronary failure on the average by age 50.

Diabetes does not equal a death sentence unless the person ignores the warning signs their body gives them. I have had the hard job of having to pay five death claims on diabetics in the last two years because they would not take care of themselves properly. All of these people did not live to see their 50th birthday. The last client/friend of mine died two weeks ago due to diabetic complications. He self medicated himself and refused to see a doctor about it. Why you might ask? Because he was a doctor and thought he knew best about his health issues.

People are ignorant about the disease. Add in the combination of a caring attitude and they manage to have the effect on people like the OP. Diabetics can have active and productive lifestyles but, none the less, should also remember the added importance of monoriting their health situation and excercise good judgement when it comes to tobacco and alcohol use.

28

Hey - it could be worse:

One of my brother’s friends is in total renal failure and has to leave work early twice a week to get dialysis - one of his idiot co-workers said “Wow, it must be nice to get to leave work early! You’re so lucky!”

I believe at that point friend whiped out his fistula laden arm, flashed it in the guy’s face and asked if he still looked “lucky.”

People are dumb.

29

Dumb, panicky, dangerous animals. :slight_smile:

30

So…um, random question here - why tell people your medical history? :confused: Seems kinda weird for your friends/coworkers to all know about your various illnesses. (Granted, something like cancer, and needing bi-weekly dialysis, but diabetes?)

31

Ninja, Hardy mentioned that she wears a medic alert bracelet and I got the impression some people snooped there and found out.

32

Well would you look at that. She does, doesn’t she? :smack:

33

TYpe II diabetic, found out about 3 years ago. It sucks, but not as much as my friends that are Type I. It runs in the family so sooner or later it was going to catch up with me.

So things might be better if I let a Gila Monster french me? Hey as long as she buys me dinner first.

34

Sometimes, there’s no way around it. My wife has to test her blood sugar levels at various times of the day, and has to have at least one insulin shot at work. As I mentioned, she’s not going to go running off to the bathroom every time she injects. People see it and get curious.

Then sometimes, they’ll offer her some office snacks like candy, non-diet pop, cookies, cake, what have you. Unless she’s having a reaction, she’ll tend to turn them down. Telling them you’re diabetic will (sometimes, but not all) stop the “C’mon! Just one bite! It’s not gonna kill ya!” comments.

And finally, she considers it a good precaution to let her coworkers know what to do if she should suddenly fall on the floor in a cold sweat. It’s happened before; it could happen again. Luckily, her coworkers knew what to do.

Other people’s MMV, of course.

35

I wear a Medic Alert bracelet - it’s amazing how some people will just grab your wrist and read it - god forbid they ask the person wearing it first.

Plus, I do test my levels/do my shots at my desk - if I’m working OT, I will need to.

I turn away from the aisle and don’t make a production out of it but some people act like I’m giving myself a pap smear. :rolleyes:

36

I do love the

I usually ask, “why does it seem to matter so much to you what I eat?” Then they judt mutter about me being a psychologist rather than bugging me about being insulin resistant.

37

I am not diabetic, myself, but I was married to a type II diabetic, and have had diabetic co-workers.

My old office used to throw potluck lunches fairly regularly. These would be the usual four crockpot dishes, high-fat cold salads, and a dozen rich desserts. I made it a habit to bring the fresh fruit and veggie trays, because there were people who couldn’t eat the goodies for various health reasons, including diabetes. In fact, my diabetic co-worker thanked me for bringing something she could fill up on so she wouldn’t have to take a larger-than-normal dose of insulin. After the reminder that there was too much of a good thing going on, we started doing a sign-up sheet so that there was more variety and healthier food choices.

Robin

38

Yes, you would, actually, :wally

39

Well that explains why syringes turn me on so much now :smiley: Do we get a better orgasm with a bigger needle ?

Thank you for starting this thread Hardygrrl. I needed a few good laughs ! (the pap smear thing was hilarious) It’s hard to just be a bitch anymore - someone always has to ask if your blood sugar is out of whack. Granted I’m glad that people are paying attention in case I would get in trouble some time and go too low. It’s hard to find a good balance though.

I’m glad you mention the crying for no reason as a low sugar sign. I have done that a few times and it wasn’t PMS time so I was like WTF ? I will keep that in mind in the future.

I was torn on who to tell at work. I didn’t want to just broadcast it to everyone (for many of the reasons mention here). I can get away with testing and shots at my desk if every person that walks by isn’t geeking at me. People in my department knew I was diabetic, they didn’t know when I started taking insulin a couple of months ago. I decided only to tell management and the 2 people that I sit by. I don’t care if they tell anyone else but I didn’t want it to freak people out or live under a microscope because of it. Plus alot of the people on my team seem to think they are diet and carb experts and I just don’t want to have to be debating them all the time on what is “right or wrong” everyone is different.

Everytime there is a little celebration at work it always involves food. Sometimes there are some healthy choices for a potluck. When they “reward” the whole company it seems to be with ice cream. I need to talk to someone about it - I know I can’t be the only diabetic or person on a diet that would rather have something else. It just seems to happen spontaneously and when I have already just eaten. Not much time to prepare or adjust.

40

I have Cystic Fibrosis AND diabetes, so with a couple of my friends it’s always “Did you take your insulin? Can you eat that? Diabetics can’t eat that! Have you taken your pills? If you don’t take your pills you might die! Are you going to die? Your blood sugar is 113? That’s a hight number! etc…”