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SparkleGirl

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Hi, my name is Jen and I have type one diabetes.

I was diagnosed 2 weeks before my 10th birthday which is now over 20years ago (my, how time flies!) I'm now treating it with an insulin pump which I've had for 4 and a half years.

I've pretty much seen and done most of it. The ups, the downs, the tantrums, the misinformed judgements of ignorant people. I've lost friends, made friends.

And even after all these years, I've realised I still need a little support from people who know, really know, what it's like.
 
Welcome to the forum 🙂 Lots of lovely friendly people here, so join in as and when you wish 🙂
 
Hi Sparklegirl
Welcome aboard, I'm fairly new to all this, 6 months exactly, but this forum is a massive help and possibly saved me from losing what sanity I had left :D
 
Thanks guys, already feeling the love! haha.

It gets so tedious when you're trying to explain to a person without diabetes when you have a hypo or hyper and they automatically accuse you of doing something wrong, even though to your knowledge, you did everything right! - what's more frustrating for me is that I work in the medical field where I'm surrounded by nurses who are still ignorant to it. One of my colleagues actually said she was going to start calling me 'Stumpy' (with the assumption that just because I had one chocolate from the box of a thankyou gift from a patient that I am incapable of looking after myself and will therefore end up with complications such as amputations that we in our area see a lot of) I found this highly insulting!
 
SparkleGirl said:
Thanks guys, already feeling the love! haha.

It gets so tedious when you're trying to explain to a person without diabetes when you have a hypo or hyper and they automatically accuse you of doing something wrong, even though to your knowledge, you did everything right! - what's more frustrating for me is that I work in the medical field where I'm surrounded by nurses who are still ignorant to it. One of my colleagues actually said she was going to start calling me 'Stumpy' (with the assumption that just because I had one chocolate from the box of a thankyou gift from a patient that I am incapable of looking after myself and will therefore end up with complications such as amputations that we in our area see a lot of) I found this highly insulting!
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Some folks are so bloody narrow minded and if they actually took the time to educate themselves they would think twice about opening there cake hole!! 🙄
 
That's a pretty disgusting comment to make, and people feel they can make such 'jokes' because diabetes has been given such a negative press, with massive ignorance abounding :( They don't joke like that about cancer.
 
Hiya Sparklegirl! 😛 nice to meet you.🙂
 
Hi SparkleGirl and welcome 🙂

The best support possible is from people who know what a full time challenge diabetes can be and know that sometimes it just exasperates you. There are lots of lovely, helpful people here.
 
SparkleGirl said:
Thanks guys, already feeling the love! haha.

It gets so tedious when you're trying to explain to a person without diabetes when you have a hypo or hyper and they automatically accuse you of doing something wrong, even though to your knowledge, you did everything right! - what's more frustrating for me is that I work in the medical field where I'm surrounded by nurses who are still ignorant to it. One of my colleagues actually said she was going to start calling me 'Stumpy' (with the assumption that just because I had one chocolate from the box of a thankyou gift from a patient that I am incapable of looking after myself and will therefore end up with complications such as amputations that we in our area see a lot of) I found this highly insulting!
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Stumpy? I'd have been threatening to wash her mouth with soap for such a foul comment 😡
 
KookyCat said:
Stumpy? I'd have been threatening to wash her mouth with soap for such a foul comment 😡
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She wouldn't have been able to do that with her mouth, after I'd punched her in it, Kooky.

You really have to practice looking down your nose at people and saying eg
'Well my dear - that just shows how EXCEPTIONALLY poor your knowledge of Type 1 diabetes is, doesn't it?' - and maybe even patting her on the head, smiling beatifically, turning on your heel and walking away. Probably saying 'Tut, tut' to yourself, not quite completely under your breath ........



Still, I've had an extra 20 years practice at it, haven't I? ROFL
 
Welcome to the forum Sparklegirl 🙂

I'm afraid I would have said something unprintable to the person who made the "stumpy" comment - how dare she!! 😡

I too have collected some ignorant remarks over the years (as the Mum of a type 1 boy). People couldn't wait to tell me about their old gran's amputations or their brother dying from diabetes complications - not really what the Mum of a newly diagnosed 4 year old wanted to hear! 😱). Then there are the pitying looks and "was he a really big baby?", " did he have a sweet tooth?".... moving on to classmates' Mums saying things like "can he go to people's houses?". My personal favourite is "is he stable yet?". 😎
 
Northerner said:
"Will he grow out of it?" 🙄
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Yes it's probably just a phase! Or "it'll become less serious when he grows up and turns into a type 2" - that's another gem someone said to me....
 
Welcome SparkleGirl

Even after 55 years of T1 it's nice to talk to others. I've learned a lot since coming on here. 🙂
 
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