FTR, it sounded hateful to me. I am quite amazed at how people continue to maintain some decorum while discussing this with you, when obviously all you want is 15 rounds of name-calling. I find it much easier to just give you what you want, call you a fuckstick, save my words for someone who will listen, go on my merry way, and let you rot in your own pissed-off world.
Fuckstick.
After reading this whole thread, this is what I don’t get.
For the record, my position on this is that if someone is capable of being discreet about it, then testing sugar or giving insulin at the table is just fine, and if it is some sort of three-ring production that guarantees every eye on you (as it is for some people who do it–probably a rare few), then it’s probably a better idea to excuse yourself to somewhere more private. I skew to one side on this; I don’t blow my nose in public, and I tend to excuse myself even to take the medications I have to take periodically (by mouth). I don’t think less of people who do those things publically, and I’m certainly not grossed out by them; it’s just the way I am.
But let’s be clear–this isn’t about anyone’s needs or welfare. Of course that person needs to check his sugar and take his shot; I spend what seems like half my life reinforcing this need. There are, however, few reasons why it would have to be done right there at the table. I don’t buy the “bathroom germs” argument; it’s only an issue if you’re using poor technique, at which point your location is not your biggest problem. No one’s HbA1C is going to be affected by the one-minute walk to the bathroom or to a less-populated corner.
The issue is one of convenience for the diabetic, and whether that convenience is worth making some people uncomfortable. I say that in most cases, it is worth it, hence my position above. There is an interesting discussion to be had here, but let’s not ruin it by acting like anyone wants to deny the diabetic the chance to take care of himself; it’s just a question of where it is appropriate to do it.
Exactly. And the dinner table is not that place. That’s all I am saying.
And saying, and saying, and saying…
Jimminy Cricket! If the flight conditions are such that a glucose meter is posing a dire threat you’ve got more serious problems than injection etiquette! Then again, the way adrenalin dumps blood suger into the system perhaps an insulin injection would be advisable prior to the Big Crash 
Fucking nosey busy-bodies! As if the average airline passenger would even know what is and isn’t an “approved electronic device” or how to make that determination!
I suppose this same jackass asks pacemaker recipients to turn them off prior to takeoff?
[hijack]Etiquette has a real purpose. The next time you’e in a book store, take five minutes and read the forward to one of Miss Manners’ books.[/hijack]
Interesting. I’ve not met anyone like that. What do they do to make it a three-ring production? How are they guaranteeing every eye on them?
[post=6136559]This example[/post] reads like it came pretty close.
Is this entire thread a strawman?
One reason ought to be sufficient, like the patient’s pediatric endocrinologist instructing her to take her humalog midway thru the meal. Need more reasons than that?
See, there’s a great reason. 
I guess I’m thinking mostly of a subset of people who want full attention drawn to their medical conditions for one reason or another. I have known people (and, again, I’m talking about a very few people here) who will go to great lengths to inject their insulin in public and draw attention to themselves as they do it.
The fact that these few people stand out in my mind, knowing how many insulin-dependent diabetics are out there, tells me that most are able to do this without being noticed.
And once again, no one is arguing that diabetics are showing great courtesy when they turn injections into a floor show. They are arguing that, as long as they take pains towards discretion (which it appears most do), they shouldn’t be sent to the restroom or the car to inject.
There is no way a stranger can determine what protocol the diabetic’s doctor has recommended. Therefore, there is no way a stranger can be in a position to judge, provide dancing girls wearing feathers don’t deliver the syringe.
Frankly, this would make the whole experience a lot easier on me. Or else it would give me a phobia of dancing girls with feathers.
Daniel
I hope this has not been mentioned already, but I have trouble keeping my mind focused on any threads that go beyond about 3 pages (maybe it’s all those 27 blood sugars over the decades) but:
Hentor, I think you need to educate yourself - and I mean REALLY educate yourself - on the effects of abnormal blood sugars.
I can’t imagine that waiting 15 or 30 minutes after eating would make that much of a differnce in the long run. So, two hours later, your son’s BS is 170 instead of 70? More than likely, it’s 120 instead of 70.
Guess what. It has been proven, both by anecdotal evidence and by clinical trials that *repeated, high * BSs are what makes a person more likely to suffer long-term complications. And by “high” the cut-off figure is considered to be 250, not, say, 156.
I think you and your son would do well to learn to relax. Unless you’re going out to eat every meal, or even every day, or he’s having two desserts after dinner, waiting until he gets to the car is not going to cause him to be on a kidney machine.
I have been type 1 for 25 years now, and I have seen both sides of the BS spectrum hundreds of times, probably thousands, and I can tell you that NONE of them have been traced back to me checking my BS an hour before I eat as opposed to right before I eat. As someone upthread mentioned, these little portable meters are not even that accurate. Unless he’s already eaten an uncovered snack or just come of the basketball court, his BS is not going to change significantly enough in an hour to justifying never varying from the routine.
I always check my BS either before leaving the house, or in the car. Oftentimes, if it’s a spur-of-the-moment thing, I take a “standard dose” and check after the meal when I get home. Same with shooting up - if I can guarantee I’ll be getting my meal within 15 minutes, such as at a fast-food joint, I’ll just take my shot in the car right before going in. Otherwise, I take it right before, but I only do it at the table if I can ensure I will not be noticed (like if I am on the inside seat of a booth, or have a tablecloth to work under AND I am with people who already know I am diabetic and aren’t squeamish. I just pull my syringe and vial out, draw up under the table, and poke my leg through my clothes. If I can’t do that, I go to the lady’s room. Not ideal, but I do know how objectionable the process can be to other people - whether or not I’m at a restaurant. If the bathroom is that unsanitary, I just take my shot in the car after the meal.
To the uninitiated, re: checking your BS in the bathroom - not always possible. It’s a two-handed procedure with most meters so you have to have someplace to lay your meter down. Not possible in a stall, and if you’re not in a stall you’re still “grossing people out”. If the basin and vanity are dirty or wet (and they have no towels, only blow-dryers) you really don’t want to be laying your equipment down in all the filth. But I still believe that’s no excuse for doing it right at the table. Checking your BS can not be done as discreetly with most meters as taking a shot, plus it involves blood-letting, now matter how small a drop. I personally believe it should never be done at the table, public or not. It can wait 30 minutes.
JMHO and experiences.
Hmmm.
I would think that each diabetic is different and their response to therapy is idiosyncratic.
My sister, a diabetic for 30 years, had fairly good control–it was when she went in to the hospital for something “unrelated” (like ankle surgery) that she would get into blood sugar troubles. See, the staff at the teaching hospital thought she should have X dose of insulin for a sugar of Y–my sister was incredibly sensitive to insulin and so she would seesaw terribly( this was in the days before Humalog. I don’t know if she ever took Humalog–she died in August of 2004).
It was only after a few episodes of “watch L’s BS fluctuate like a mad thing” that they decided to let her manage her own dosing. Voila! No more outrageous swings in sugar. She knew her body and its responses much better than any resident or endocrinologist.
I relate this to illustrate my point. Hentor et al are managing the treatment regime just fine for them. While it’s nice that you, lorinada, have had different results, that might not be so for Hentot .
Just saying.
Shoot!
Forgot to add…Bring on the dancing girls!
This could revolutionize diabetes management…
Your experience is not universal, does not allow you to generalize for millions of other diabetics, and contradicts recommendations by endocrinologists and other diabetic specialists for many of their patients.
Many diabetics need to take their insulin during a meal, and yes it does make a difference, and no it can’t wait 30 minutes.
QtM, treating MD to a few thousand diabetics in my career.
Father to an insulin-dependent diabetic.
Taking insulin myself for nearly 10 years.
Gotta disagree with you there. One of the big trials, the UKPDS, showed a reduction in complications in the group with a HbA1C of 7.0 (corresponding to an average glucose of about 150) compared to the group with a HbAiC of 7.9 (corresponding to about 180). (For the uninitiated, HbA1C reflects the average glucose over three months.)
The point of carefully timing one’s insulin shot around mealtime is to prevent the big spike that comes as the food is absorbed. That spike can be huge and fast in some Type 1s, and every one of those spikes raises that average by a little bit. Waiting 30 minutes to take the shot isn’t going to do much to stop the spike.
You might argue that very occasionally waiting for 30 minutes before giving mealtime insulin is not going to raise someone’s HbA1C, and you’d be right. But occasional exceptions are the first step to lousy control.
In short, what QtM said–no, it can’t wait 30 minutes.
I appreciate the thought lorinada, and I would REALLY like to educate myself, and perhaps the physicians at the Diabetes Clinic at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Do you have any references I could show them to help them see things your way? They’ve given us a rather different impression of things than you.
Or perhaps we should just stick to the way that we are doing things now, since, as I said, we did see a rise in his A1c when we were a bit lax. Now, certainly, it could have been that some other factor actually accounted for the rise and fall of his A1c, and our tightening up of the timing of the injections was not actually causal. But like most personal things of such magnitude, we prefer to keep doing those things that are associated with positive outcomes, be they illusory or not!
I’m upset and jealous now. I’ve been hit by cars, fell off motorcycles, got dog bit, cat scratched, had headaches, colds measles, I’ve never ever gotten dancing girls with feathers! AAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHH!