If I saw a parent injecting a child with insulin in public I would fall down on my knees in gratitude that it wasn’t my poor little child who was getting the needle. My own mother has struggled with type II diabetes for over a decade. In that time she’s suffered from neuropathy in her hands so bad she’s had five operations in an attempt to alleviate the pain.
My heart goes out to the OP and his son. I only we hope we find a cure this ugly disease ASAP.
Same here!
I mean, people blow their congested noses in restaurants. They burp. They fart. They sneeze. Incontinent people sometimes wet themselves at the table, but if they’re wearing their Depends, you won’t know if you’re not sitting near them! So someone needs to discreetly and quickly give themselves a subcutaneous injection. Big whoop. It’s part of reality for many people. If you’re grossed out by reality, then don’t eat in a public restaurant.
Hear hear! I for one would not want to try to do blood tests, injections, etc in a public restroom. Even the restrooms that *look *clean, you have no idea who’s been doing what in there.
As a Type 2 I don’t have quite as many issues to deal with in public, but I still think anyone who raises objections to this kind of issue should just flat-out keep them to themselves. If someone doesn’t like looking at this kind of thing, nobody’s forcing them to look!
Hey…cite THIS. How many people have you seen do their injection at the fucking dinner table? Take a poll. Ask everyone you know how many people they’ve seen injecting themselves with insulin at the table. Use your head for something besides a hat rack.
Y’know, Kalhoun, it might be that not so many people have seen people giving themselves injections at the dinner table because nobody’s noticed, since it’s entirely possible to do it discreetly and not attract attention to yourself. I can name at least 35 people how have seen me give myself an injection at the dinner table, at least 20 who have seen more two people give themselves injections at the dinner table, and at least 15 people who have seen three or more people do the same. And I can name at least forty people who have no issues with it at all. Another thing to consider is that it happens so fast that most people don’t even notice. Or they’re polite enough they don’t stare at other people while they’re dining so they don’t notice what’s going on at other tables.
Dinner table injections are the norm among the diabetics I know who don’t have pumps. Most people are none the wiser for it and some of them actually learn something about diabetes if they do notice what’s going on. My glucometer and insulin supplies fit into a case the size of my hand and I’ve got dinky little hands. With it in my lap, you’d just assume I was searching for my credit card or a picture of a family member as I test my blood sugar and give myself an injection. It’s all done below table level until I raise the syringe to make sure all the air bubbles are out. And then it’s back down below the table to stick the sucker in my thigh or belly. Tuck everything back in my case and dispose of it when I get home.
And, milroyj, you blathering and incompassionate dolt, I fail to see what Guin’s ability to hold a job has to do with the stupidest so-called whoosh of all time. What are paper napkins? Yeah, that’s not elitist at all. As if you’ve never eaten anywhere with paper napkins. Pretty freaking lame.
I saw the original remark in the “Atkins is stupid” thread and was stunned. Bullshit, Campion, you were not being sarcastic.
For starters, the term “shooting up,” with its heavy implications of illegal, recreational drug use, is highly offensive when used to describe someone taking a small shot of life-saving insulin.
Second, I can’t believe the degree of sheer selfishness being shown by some people in this thread. These people have a life-long, debilitating, incurable disease. I don’t care whether they are on the verge of death or simply finding it convenient to test and inject at the table - how dare you demand that they inconvenience themselves because someone in the restaurant just might be looking and get disturbed. You have a problem with it yourself? Look away or get over it! It’s not your concern.
I didn’t realize there were people in the world like you, and I wish I still didn’t.
Oh yeah - lets go to a filthy, germ-ridden bathroom (you’ve read the threads on bathroom filth, right?) to inject something into the body. Potential infection is just an inconvenience. How fucking gross!
I am more offended at the idea of forcing someone to inject insulin in a filth-ridden open-to-the-public toilet than the idea that they might inject insulin at a table that’s (I hope) clean enough to eat off of.
Just like my TV has an Off switch my eyes not only have lids, my head is mounted on a neck that twists so I can damn well look away if someone is trying to stay alive in a manner that upsets me. :mad:
Oh that’s just absolutely brilliant. If we don’t see someone injecting insulin at a restaurant table, then of course they must be doing it in the bathroom. You know, you must be right, because just last night I was at a restaurant and I didn’t see** anyone ** injecting insulin at a table. Of course the line to the bathroom was out the front door…
Or maybe no one was injecting insulin. Or they did it and I didn’t notice. I think what you have here is a false dichotomy Kalhoun. It is an error in logic. They should be avoided whenever possible.
I gave myself a test at the table last night and a shot too, and only one of the clients I was with noticed. The waiter didn’t notice either, as he took my order while I was testing. Of course, the waiter also didn’t notice that my $30-fucking steak was fucking blue-green along one side from “dye” either, so maybe he wasn’t very observant…and since when did “medium” mean “blood flows freely and the meat squeals as you cut it”? Fuck, there was a lot more blood squirting out of my steak than my finger, that’s for sure…
Wow. I’m a nurse and deal with diabetics alot at work, but I have never seen a diabetic in a restaraunt! Never. And that is something I would have noticed.
It sounds like the son (and some other poster who should be tested overnight- sorry, I forgot who you are) is a ‘brittle’ diabetic. They need more attention than most. That means more frequent testing and more frequent insulin injections. Our unstable diabetics may get stuck more than 12- 16 times a day until we get them better regulated!
For these folks, injection before food is actually present, like in the car or in the restroom, can be dangerous.
Different insulins have different times of onset- some immediate and some long acting (that’s probably what cats get). The best diabetic management would get insulin levels as close to normal as possible. Because levels nearly constantly change all day and all night, the best management would be frequent “tinkering” type management for the brittle types. Pumps are very useful for these folks but are not always appropriate for kids.
Anyway, surely someone has managed their diabetes in a restaraunt while I was there at some point in my life.
As I understand it, “brittle diabetes” is when people suddenly and unexplicably experience sharp drops in their blood sugar. My son does not experience these, and the problem with his A1c’s that we experienced was more the opposite - his blood sugar was going too high when we delayed a bit in giving his injections.
He is on what I understand to be a fairly common current regimen. We did switch recently to Lantis and Humalog, but otherwise it is a regular “tight control” schedule.
Oh, and btw? While I’m not aware of Miss Manners having addressed this specific question, in one of her earlier books she does discuss the concept of “sensitivity” and the quickness of many people to go “Ewwwwwwwwww!” at little or no provacation. Her take on it? “Get over yourselves!” (paraphrased, of course).
I have little doubt that she would come down in favor of test/injection at the table, as long as, has been stated, it wasn’t done ostentatiously (and why would it be?). That doesn’t mean making sure it’s impossible for absolutely any one to see; it just means not making a big, attention-grabbing show of it (which would be in poor taste for almost anything, not just test/injection).
Just thought I’d post here since I actually have a needle phobia.
Would it bother me if I saw someone using a needle in a restaurant? Hoo yeah. Massive case of the creepies.
Does that mean that they should inject it somewhere else? Nope. I’ll get over my case of the creeps way before they get over their diabetes. Serious illnesses always take precedence over heebie jeebies.
Breastfeeding in public, however, should be restrained to women with really nice racks.
Wow, I already knew you were an asshole, but you just sank to a whole new level.
What a fucking tool!!
It sounds like your son is on the same regimen as I am, and I’ve always done (or tried to do) tight control. Most of my diabetic friends do tight control too. I’m supposed to check four to six times daily: breakfast, lunch, dinner, bedtime, and then mid-morning and mid-afternoon if I have a snack or if I feel like I need it. The only time I have problems with surprise lows is when I miscount carbs, which I blame on university dining for not clearly labelling the foods.
Make sure he knows how important it is to maintain that tight control before he goes off to college. I’ve been extraordinarily lazy this semester and halfway through, things went to hell in a handbasket fast. The stress of trying to get things back under control and doing finals finally got to me on Saturday, and I had a bit of a meltdown lifewise. My next A1c is going to be completely bumfucked and it’s going to be years before my mother stops yelling at me.
My name is auntie em, and I am a Needlephobic. I can’t watch people get shots on TV or in movies, and I cry when somebody sticks a needle in me (and Honey, forget about blood donation). However, I have a very good friend who’s diabetic, and imagine my (initial) twirliness, during our first restaurant meal together, at seeing her whip out her insulin and jab herself in the stomach. I had been given no warning, and we were deeply engaged in animated girly conversation at the time, so the whole thing was rather sudden for me.
But, as it turns out, that “look away” thing works like a charm. Even sitting right across from her, I was (and continue to be) able to glance away (while continuing the conversation, even) and be just fine. I think if I didn’t know her, I might be inclined to be among the “Ewwwww”-ers (though not to the extent that I would suggest that diabetics avoid restaurants altogether), but since I’ve been hanging out with this particular person, I’d say that if I can put the “look away” technique to good use with someone at the same table, it could certainly work with a person at another table, assuming there’s a modicum of discretion on his/her part.
Frankly, the idea of him going to college scares the hell out of me. He is a great kid with a good head on his shoulders, and is responsible well beyond his years, but college will be a challenge. My heart goes out to you.
Additionally, we have already seen academic difficulties associated with hypoglycemic events - he may score in the 99th percentile on national standardized testing, and then get B’s or C’s on other tests. We try to make sure that he is not going low during test times, but he is out of our hands during the day at school. I can only imagine how difficult it must be for you to prepare for finals. How can you pull an all-nighter and screw up your schedule without suffering highs or lows? Best wishes to you.
That’s great. YOU are doing it discreetly; our OP is not. He’s turning it into pageantry. And my guess is his poor son, already saddled with a hideous disease, is going to be known not as “Johnny the star shortstop” or “Johnny the brain”, but “Johnny the diabetic”. The obnoxiousness of the whole thing is not nearly as bad as the disservice he’s doing to his kid.
Sigh.
Look, I have no problem – as I stated earlier – if someone with diabetes needs to inject themselves in a restaurant. Needles don’t really bother me.
Hentor the Barbarian has since qualified his/her remarks regarding the timeframe needed for the injection. I admit I didn’t understand exactly what he/she was saying, and my concern was that someone with diabetes (or any other disease) who had to have an injection mere seconds after eating shouldn’t be taking any more chances than necessary. Was that an uninformed opinion? Yes. But I submit that based on Hentor the Barbarian’s original description of the timeframe required, it was a logical inference.
Some diabetics and others have said that it’s not the most polite thing in the world to do at the table, and I still think that if it’s possible a diabetic should test/inject in private. However, if they need to test/inject at the table, so be it. It’s not a big deal to me.
I will somehow attempt to live with your poor opinion of me. Please, if you see me walking by, and the tears are in my eyes, look away. I don’t want you to see me this way.