Maybe she shouldn’t be out in public if she vomits so easily.
Well, I have a couple questions. First, how does his body know if he’s done eating or if he’s merely taking a breather between bites?
Second, what makes his diabetes so much different than all the diabetics I’ve known in my nearly 50 years who have never had to shoot up in public or risk a serious reaction.
I don’t have a problem with diabetics testing or taking a shot in public, even at teh table. Their need to deal with it, and the serious possible result of not dealing with it, far outweighs any “icky factor” I might feel (which I don’t). Anyone who doesn’t want to see it, can choose to not look.
I know next to nothing about diabetes. However, I know it ain’t contagious, and the attitude you’re projecting onto me is ridiculous in the extreme. Do you prefer to wallow in ignorance, or are you content to merely sip from the trough?
My point was, if Hentor the Barbarian’s son’s diabetes is severe enough to warrant an injection mere moments after eating, eating in public might not be the best option. BECAUSE (and pay attention here, beckwall, because this is the crux of the matter): eating in public introduces a whole host of variables into the process that are completely out of the control of the parents, not the least of which is the number of people around. What if they get accidentally jostled while the injection is being performed? What if they discover, once they open the case, the vial of Humalog has leaked/been broken/is empty?
I’ve never had a strawman built completely around such an innocuous point as you’ve done here. You’ve taken strawman argument to a new level. Congratulations. From now on, I personally will refer to this tactic as “building a beckwall.”
I’m sorry, you expect people to inject themselves in a bathroom? I don’t eat in a bathroom, I wouldn’t inject myself there - unless I WAS shooting smack and desprite. Bathrooms are really not set up for giving oneself injections. They have the perception, at least, of not being the worlds most sterile environments.
(And I’m not a diabetic, the only shots I’ve given myself were fertility shots at home).
I agree, be discrete (and I can’t imagine how you couldn’t be discrete), but do what you need to do.
Amen
Subcutaneous, not intravenous. Fighting tha ignoranz.
Knowing this, as I’m sure you do, please remember this high-horsed attitude of yours the next time you consider walking into a restaurant when you’ve got a cold.
If not, then bite me.
Well, you learn something every day.
Before reading this thread, if i had seen someone injecting insulin in a restaurant i probably would have thought it rather inappropriate, even though i’m not personally grossed out by needles and stuff.
But i was not aware that insulin injections were so time-dependent. My wife and i have a diabetic cat that needs insulin injections twice a day, and the vet has always told us to just give two injection twelve hours apart, with no instructions about injections close to meal times or anything like that. I guess i sort of just assumed that it was the same for people. But apparently giving the injection close to eating is very important.
And, to tell you the truth, the sort of procedure that diabetics go through (the blood test, the injection) seems to occur in such a small, localized setting that you would probably have to be straining pretty hard to see what was actually going on. The chances of inadvertently, just-by-accident seeing the drop of blood from the prick, or the needle enter the skin, seem to be pretty low. As long as the people doing it don’t make a big show, and do their best to be discreet, i don’t see a huge problem. Also, when i’m eating out with friends, i’m usually too concerned with eating my own food and talking to my friends to care what people at the next table over are doing. I probably wouldn’t even notice.
That said, it would also be nice if the diabetic would have a quick look around beforehand and see if there is a clean, out-of-the-way place where the injection can be done without anyone else being aware of it.
What makes it different is the 50 years of medical research during that time. Most of the diabetics you’ve known have probably been diabetics for a while and haven’t necessarily kept up on all the news. It sounds like the OP is keeping very up on the news because his son is seeing the doctor several times a year. The A1C test he referenced indicates how tightly blood sugar levels are maintained over a period of weeks to months; if you consistently go high by an amount that wouldn’t show up in a urine test after each meal, this will show up on an A1C test. It would also show up if he tested by taking a blood sample every fifteen minutes, but how many times a day do you want him to have to jab the kid? I test three times a day and it’s about as much as I can stand. My doctor wants me to test eight times a day, including getting up in the middle of the night for one.
The awkward, working-blind solution to not testing that much is to try very hard to maintain a fanatically consistent eating & insuling schedule, both in quantity and timing of food and insulin. The closer he keeps to his schedule, the lesser the chances are that his son is going to go blind some day.
As I am.
And maybe anybody who is sickened by anything should be perpetually blindfolded to protect the oh-so-delicate sensibilities of those who think nothing of inflicting their anti-social behaviours on the rest of us but who are driven into apoplectic indignance by those who call them on it.
Tell you what, next time I’m down at McDonalds, I’ll bring one of my pet tarantula’s with me. They’re quite harmless, really. I’ll just let him run along my arms, over my face, across my lap and anyone who complains can go fuck himself for being insensitive.
Face facts. A lot of people are afraid of needles, just like a lot of people are afraid of spiders. A lot of people don’t need to see a needle for more than a fraction of a second before they get upset in much the same way as you can upset an arachnophobic just by telling him there’s a spider somewhere in the room. Looking away is not an option for these people. Hentor’s not an idiot, he knows this is a common problem and so he should take care not to risk upsetting his fellow diners by publicly injecting his kid.
Personally? I’d rather catch a glimpse of a diabetic child getting an insulin shot than a snot-covered infant in a high chair spewing its food, making it ooze out of the corners of its mouth because it can’t chew yet and hasn’t figured out how to keep the pureed grub inside its mouth when it eats.
I understand some people can be squeamish about needles, but please. Just look away. A few seconds and it’s over. Why make a child feel like he has to hide his illness or be ashamed of it? Banishing him to the bathroom is not unlike banishing breastfeeding women. And even there, the shot will take a second or three. The breastfeeding lasts waaaay longer.
Live and let live. It doesn’t pose a threat to anyone. It takes less than a minute. Shut up and chew your salad. Look away.
I don’t think you should go off into the bathroom or anything. It’s perfectly fine to do it at the table, provided you’re discreet, and the only reason I even say that so as not to embarrass the kid.
But I think you way overreacted in this post. Some people out there are a little squeamish about needles, and I think you could have done much better in this thread by putting it elsewhere and trying to educate people. You know, listing the things you do, why you have to do them, and letting people see that you’re not just doing it to annoy them.
Seriously, some people really don’t understand what it’s all about. Yelling at them and telling them you’re going to shit on their food isn’t helping.
Tables in the middle of resturants are? Every resturant I have been to they just wiped down the table whereas every bathroom I have been in they use products with bleach and such to kill germs.
I think ** Mr. Moto ** said it perfectly. Its no secret that people are squemish about needles and you ought to do it out of sight. However if it truely is as critical as you say for him to get an injection right after he eats then by all means inject him but try and be discreet.
I’ve never had to inject in front of others. At Gettysdope last year, I went over to my car and did my shots. Then again, I use the belly for almost all shots so I don’t usually run around shirtless, or have my shirt pulled up in the front to show my belly.
The needle and testers are small enough that it could be done discreetly, even at the table. If someone jostles you while taking an insulin shot it would at worst be a minor pain- the injections are into fatty tissue; it’s not like Dr. McCoy giving himself an accidental overdose.
I think that a restaurant table is just as dirty as the restroom- it depends on the employees. The worst risk is getting something into the injection site and starting an infection.
Regulation of a cat’s blood sugar is much less precise than a person’s. If there were a way to do such simple blood tests on cats as on people, the controls for the insulin could be stricter, too.
With the stricter controls, people can live healthy lives with diabetes. With cats, it’s a lot of guesswork and making do, and their health does suffer for it.
Duly noted. Thanks.
What ‘high-horse’? I personally couldn’t care less if someone shot up next to me. I’m not in the least bit squeamish. However, it seems patently obvious to me that adminstering an injection in public might cause offence, so were I in Hentor’s position I would take it to the bathroom. If the bathroom were filthy I suppose I would have no choice but to do it at the table but I would never patronize that restaurant again. I certainly wouldn’t make a regular administering subcutaneous injections in public.
Also, for the record, the last place I would ever go if I had a cold is a crowded public eatery with (probably) a closed ventilation system. I wouldn’t be able to enjoy my food knowing I might be infecting the person next to me.
Sauron, you’re way the fuck off. All of the above could happen anywhere on the planet. Even they locked him in a steel box, drugged him, and tied him to a board, Hentor might slip on a banana peel. Everything one does in life is a risk, to some extent. Wanting to live what resembles a normal life trumps “what if a swarm of killer bees flies off with the kit?!”, I would think.
Innocuous, my ass. His response was perfectly appropriate, given your suggestion that the needle people stay home.
I’m sorry your ex is a gigantic pussy. I’m not sure why that’s Hentor’s problem, though.
And Sauron, although I generally enjoy your posts, you are acting like a putz of truly monumental proportions. Diabetics shouldn’t go out to restaurants because you might have to look at one of their icky needles? Christ, grow a pair already.
Good rant, Hentor, and good luck to your kid.
Heh heh.
Seconded.
I guess people who need an insulin pump should just shun the light of day and hide out in their homes/caves? My father has to give himself insulin immediatly after eating, so I guess I shouldn’t take my father out to eat in public anymore? I wish people would learn to mind their own damned business. Didn’t your parents teach you not to stare at other people?
My family (on both sides) have a history of diabetes and most likely for me it is only a matter of time before I need medication/injections. So this strikes close to home for me and I for one will give myself my medication when I need to, where I need to, without concerning myself with your comfort level. I’ll be minding my own business and if it bothers you I suggest you do the same.
This is something people who haven’t actually seen insulin shots may not be aware of. I know I wasn’t until a diabetic friend a few years back asked if we minded if she gave herself a shot in front of us. I expected a big-ass doctor’s office needle, but it was a compact little thing. Small enough and quick enough that it was incredibly unobstrusive.
I personally have no problem with diabetics discreetly giving themselves shots wherever they want. Chronic medical conditions must be a huge pain in the ass. Overlooking minor social indiscretions to spare people who have them major inconvenience seems like the decent thing to do.