A touch of diabetes

[Caroline]

OK so I know Roald Dhals The Witches is a childrens story but I had to laugh. We were watching the DVD yesterday evening as 75% of my family are Roald Dhal fans.

The little boys grandma has been taken ill and the doctor is saying to the boy 'your grandma has a touch of diabetes'. Bit later in the film the grandma says she can't have cakes, biscuits, sugar or cream cakes ever again. In a third scene the little boy says he can't tell if it the diabetes or something else working on the grandma.

I know it is a kis story and they wont go into too much detail, but the detail they have is not accurate and I am assuming the grandma is lucky enough to be diet controlled which is why it is described as 'a touch of diabetes.'

 

[Lauren]

I saw that recently too and it really annoyed me! 'Your grandmother has a very mild case of Diabetes'! If it comes in a mild form, I'll gladly take that instead...

 

[PattiEvans]

I saw that recently too and it really annoyed me! 'Your grandmother has a very mild case of Diabetes'! If it comes in a mild form, I'll gladly take that instead...

Aghhhh... it's akin to "Your mummy has a mild case of pregnancy" 😱

 

[trophywench]

OK that's Roald dahl. That's bad enough.

How about the Head Honcho of my l;ocal PCT Long term Conditions section, standing up at a 'Link' meeting and making that statement?

I went ballistic and he was really put out that I didn't find it acceptable for him to have said that in an open meeting.

 

[Caroline]

It is a DVD I have watched before, but hadn't seen for some time although others had while I have been out. When I first saw it (pre diabetes) the remarks just went in one ear and out of the other, but I tend to notice them more now.

 

[rustee2011]

That is how the misinformation starts. Prior to being diagnosed. I thought that it was just because you take excessive amounts of sugar in your diet. I even believed that you just got hypos within a split second, and that you would get them every day. It was a shock to the system when I was firstly told "early diabetes, or mild diabetes", to discovering that it is diabetes, no mildness in it.
Very, very strange......

 

[Northerner]

That is how the misinformation starts. Prior to being diagnosed. I thought that it was just because you take excessive amounts of sugar in your diet. I even believed that you just got hypos within a split second, and that you would get them every day. It was a shock to the system when I was firstly told "early diabetes, or mild diabetes", to discovering that it is diabetes, no mildness in it.
Very, very strange......

I suspect this is something that has persisted for decades, from the time when there was no distinction of Types 1 and 2. Those with Type 1 would get very ill very quickly, and usually die without insulin or a starvation diet. Those with Type 2 might survive for years, gradually succumbing to complications, so was seen as a 'milder' form of the disease. Maybe also 'a touch of diabetes' was what we would now call more formally 'pre-diabetes' or 'impaired glucose tolerance'. Language is evolving all the time and it is now possible to make more precise distinctions by assigning more specific labels, although they can still cause confusion.

 

[Caroline]

Actually it did open the door for discussion in our house and we talked round it for a while. My grown up son did first aid about 4 years ago and was told you treat a hypo with insulin. Fortunately he had taken one of my books to have a read (he wanted to help me by finding out more) and told them they were wrong and gave them places to conatct (like DUK) to get their facts staright.

 

[PattiEvans]

Hi Caroline

I find it really shocking that anyone teaching first aid would teach that. I wonder what else they got wrong?

 

[Copepod]

I checked the dates when The Witches book was published - 1983 - and the film released - 1990. Roald Dahl lived 1916 - 1990 - I saw him at an expeditiopn society meeting, definitely January, probably 1986 to 1988.

Since use of the terms type 1 and 2 diabetes only came into common public usage in 1980s, and prior to that "insulin dependent diabetes mellitus" (IDDM) and "non insulin dependent diabetes mellitus" (NIDDM). I know medics were using terms before, but authors and film staff are not medics.

So, I think this should be seen in historical context, in the same way as TB or tuberculosis used to be called consumption, for example.

 

[Caroline]

Hi Caroline

I find it really shocking that anyone teaching first aid would teach that. I wonder what else they got wrong?

I think it was one of those courses done on the cheap and the organisation my big boy worked for dropped using that course providor

 

[Caroline]

I checked the dates when The Witches book was published - 1983 - and the film released - 1990. Roald Dahl lived 1916 - 1990 - I saw him at an expeditiopn society meeting, definitely January, probably 1986 to 1988.

Since use of the terms type 1 and 2 diabetes only came into common public usage in 1980s, and prior to that "insulin dependent diabetes mellitus" (IDDM) and "non insulin dependent diabetes mellitus" (NIDDM). I know medics were using terms before, but authors and film staff are not medics.

So, I think this should be seen in historical context, in the same way as TB or tuberculosis used to be called consumption, for example.

My big boy was born 1986, and I was diagnosed 2006 so I probably wouldn't have noticed it before