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Type A - that's a new one

PhoebeC

PhoebeC

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Yesterday I was asked in the pub what my "patch" was for, my omnipod on my arm. I explained I have diabetes and its my insulin pump, that it gives me insulin based on my sensor (I also displayed that). The person asked if I was born with it, I answered no at 16, and then he said " Yes, Type A".

I must admit I did check that there hasn't been a few type with this name, maybe he was an expert on latest medical developments, but no, its new question. I find it refreshing in a way.
 
helli said:
Is that the good one or the bad one? 🙄
Yes, I have been asked that in the past.
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If I had a pound for every time I heard that one 😉
 
Also - maybe she's born with it, or maybe its diabetes
 
helli said:
Is that the good one or the bad one? 🙄
Yes, I have been asked that in the past.
Click to expand...
Yes, diabetic lottery this one is a hit, as well as "I couldn't inject" and "can you eat that".
 
I would like to know if I have the good one or the bad one if anyone can enlighten me..... just so I know to be more grateful or disappointed with my diagnosed type!
 
rebrascora said:
I would like to know if I have the good one or the bad one if anyone can enlighten me..... just so I know to be more grateful or disappointed with my diagnosed type!
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I believe it is a self definition.
You can decide for yourself because no one else can define what is good or bad. I have tried asking!

You can even change your mind day to day. Or hour to hour if you want.
 
On the bus yesterday a lady told me she’d been diagnosed with diabetes, I asked what type and she said it’s the serious kind & she was having to take insulin tablets. I asked if she was injecting but no she was taking insulin tablets.

I did a quick check of medical breakthroughs when I got home just in case I’d missed something!

-I did try to say insulin has to be injected & doesn’t come in tablet form but I was told I was wrong- I couldn’t face saying I’d got T1. It does worry me when education/ advice given at diagnosis is so limited or non existent :(
 
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I was once mansplained that you do not have Type 1 or type 2 diabetes. You have child or adult onset. Only child onset requires insulin. Therefore as I was diagnosed as an adult, I am on the wrong treatment plan and I should stop taking insulin.

Sadly, another colleague had a young son who was diagnosed with Type 1 ("child onset") and this colleague was looking at alternative therapies which meant he would never need insulin.
We stopped working together soon afterwards so I don't know what happened but his son is still alive.

The two of them in the same room discussing diabetes was scary.
 
To be fair, they did used to be known as “juvenile” and “maturity onset” diabetes, so maybe that person was just a bit behind the times! Was the person who said that quite old?
Mind you though, I was still quite young when it was changed to type 1 and type 2 (presumably because it was found that the juvenile and maturity onset names were incorrect and misleading)
 
I once had someone tell me that they had a diabetic friend who was a bit wobbly one day (proceeded to describe exactly the symptoms of a hypo) and said that she needed her injection. This person knew that my daughter is diabetic, that’s presumably how we got onto the topic. I said it sounded more like she needed something sugary to eat, the woman thought for a bit, and then said “No! She needed her injection and then she was fine!” (facepalm)
 
Sally71 said:
To be fair, they did used to be known as “juvenile” and “maturity onset” diabetes, so maybe that person was just a bit behind the times! Was the person who said that quite old?
Click to expand...
No, this guy was younger than me.
Even if he had the terminology wrong, I was shocked someone who did not have diabetes, was not close to anyone with diabetes and had no medical training was telling me to stop taking insulin.
But he was renowned for his inability to listen and his confidence in his own knowledge/opinion/stupidity.
 
helli said:
No, this guy was younger than me.
Even if he had the terminology wrong, I was shocked someone who did not have diabetes, was not close to anyone with diabetes and had no medical training was telling me to stop taking insulin.
But he was renowned for his inability to listen and his confidence in his own knowledge/opinion/stupidity.
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There are too many people like that, sadly. My daughter has had all sorts of problems over the last few years, including being diagnosed with autism and now being in a wheelchair, and I’m very bored of well-meaning people thinking they know all about what she should be thinking and feeling, and how we should be dealing with her problems, when they don’t live with her, have never been to any doctor/specialist appointment with her, and have had nothing even remotely similar happen in their own lives. I just end the conversation at that point, you’re wasting your breath trying to explain, some people don’t want to listen.
Not to mention all the diabetes ones - my daughter had a science teacher in year 8 who thought that you were always born with type 1 and was quite shocked when my daughter revealed she developed it at age 6. She at least listened, she was going to let my daughter run the class when they got on to diabetes in year 10; that would have been great, but that teacher left and unfortunately daughter spent most of year 10 in lockdowns studying at home :(
 
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