• Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
  • We seem to be having technical difficulties with new user accounts. If you are trying to register please check your Spam or Junk folder for your confirmation email. If you still haven't received a confirmation email, please reach out to our support inbox: support.forum@diabetes.org.uk

Well what am I supposed to look like?

  • Thread starter Thread starter FM001
  • Start date Start date
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
F

FM001

Guest
Attended a family gathering over the weekend and enjoyed a BBQ between the sudden downpours, a cousin to whom I haven't seen for some time remarked that I looked well for someone with diabetes, I asked what she meant and she just replied ''well you don't look like a diabetic Toby'' 😱 :confused: Just couldn't be bothered to talk to her after this and made my excuses and left soon after, I've heard some stupid things in my time but this is in the top 3.
 
How ignorant and a family member too, what did she expect the word insulin tattoed on your head or a needle sticking out your arm grrr.You should of said you have gone downhill since i last seen you to.
 
Steff said:
How ignorant and a family member too, what did she expect the word insulin tattoed on your head or a needle sticking out your arm grrr.You should of said you have gone downhill since i last seen you to.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately families can be the worse offenders Steff.
 
Hi Toby,

Agree with Steff here, I've had the same c**p said to me as regards to my son Nathan who is type 1, Funnily enough only the other day someone I know, who is meant to be educated said "Has he not grown out of it yet" .... :confused: ... needless to say I set the record straight, so they shouldnt need it ansewered again... :D

Heidi
xx🙂
 
bit in cheek but maybe she though you should look like this
 
Last edited by a moderator:
sasha1 said:
Hi Toby,

Agree with Steff here, I've had the same c**p said to me as regards to my son Nathan who is type 1, Funnily enough only the other day someone I know, who is meant to be educated said "Has he not grown out of it yet" .... :confused: ... needless to say I set the record straight, so they shouldnt need it ansewered again... :D

Heidi
xx🙂
Click to expand...



How stupid can people get. I was asked not long ago if I was still taking insulin😱
 
toby said:
How stupid can people get. I was asked not long ago if I was still taking insulin😱
Click to expand...

Yes ... it leaves me in a state of :confused: sometimes ... another couple of classic lines have been ... "Oh, is it regular diabetes?", forgive me I didnt realise it came in small and large ... :D ... "Does Nathan suffer with it bad?"...

Heidi
xx
 
what i hate is when they are told i have type 2 i often get the reply its not the seriouse kind then
 
toby said:
Attended a family gathering over the weekend and enjoyed a BBQ between the sudden downpours, a cousin to whom I haven't seen for some time remarked that I looked well for someone with diabetes, I asked what she meant and she just replied ''well you don't look like a diabetic Toby'' 😱 :confused: Just couldn't be bothered to talk to her after this and made my excuses and left soon after, I've heard some stupid things in my time but this is in the top 3.
Click to expand...

Now, what are we supposed to look like?


Probably foaming or slobbering from the mouth, have an intravenous drip consisting of cakes, MacDonalds, sugar, takeaways, sweets crisps, biscuits, Pizza's etc. Dragging one foot behind us, with a warning sign saying' BEWARE DIABETIC MONSTER APPROACHING' and a red cross painted on our front door by the well meaning town folk😉 Oh dear oh dear oh dear.
Well done Toby for your restraint. Sheena
 
toby said:
Attended a family gathering over the weekend and enjoyed a BBQ between the sudden downpours, a cousin to whom I haven't seen for some time remarked that I looked well for someone with diabetes, I asked what she meant and she just replied ''well you don't look like a diabetic Toby'' 😱 :confused: Just couldn't be bothered to talk to her after this and made my excuses and left soon after, I've heard some stupid things in my time but this is in the top 3.
Click to expand...

Funnily enough I had occasion to look at my Medical Record a couple of months ago, going back 19 years at the Diabetic Centre.
And at each six monthly visit for years the Professor/Doc wrote in all the latest figures and details etc. Among the recurring entries was the comment "Looks Well". So it seems a visual assessment of your state of health is one of the pointers they look for at clinic appointments.
Wasn't Vegan Lass told she "looked well" at her recent DSN visit ?

I would have taken the comment to Toby as a compliment actually.
 
I don't mind anyone telling me I "look well". But I think the quantifier "for someone with diabetes" makes it sound like you don't look well compared to the rest of the human race! Also it's a bit patronising as I feel it's like the commenter wouldn't expect me to be looking after myself - "ah, I've got diabetes so I'll let myself go....!"
 
I think people get pre concieved ideas of what we should look like. SOmeone told me I was the wrong colour to have diabetes, I should have looked more like sugar!

Slightly off but in a similar vein, when I told one of my friends I was comming to work in a libraray she said she couldn't imagine me in twinsets and pearls with horn rimmed glasses, thats all she had ever seen people in her local library wearing!
 
When assessing me at work an occupational health person said that the problem was that I looked so well........I think she meant in terms of people forgetting that I need additional support because of my health problems but I still found it a strange thing for her to say
 
I had to tell you all this one.

I went to a charity near my dad's today, to get a waistcoat for Tia's dad. I bought it for him and a fluffy white toy cat for Grace. The lady asked if Grace could have a couple of sweets on the counter, Dolly mixtures, I said no because she has type ! Diabetes diagnosed 7 weeks ago ( she has a controlled snack mid morning) the lady said" Oh will she grow out of it" I said " er no" she has it for life like me and has 4 injections a day.

The lady meant well, but instead of asking oh what is Diabetes, or I don't know a lot about the condition, she, like hundreds of others, thinks it's something like, wetting the bed and eventually the child will grow out of it. If only, if only :(.....................................................................

Sheena
 
Sheena, if I had a pound for the amount of times I've heard similar! or, "but she's not big is she", (seriously 🙄!) There has been a surprising amount of ignorance from those we know and if I'm feeling that way out I just find it easier to avoid them and stay around those folks with a bit more about them.
 
I almost got a compliment along these lines today..... Not many people at work know I'm diabetic because it's a new job and it's not the first thing I tell people.

A guy at work said he's neurotic because he's diabetic and all diabetics are neurotic :confused: Another colleague pointed out that I'm diabetic and I'm not neurotic, thus disproving the rule! The original guy was really surprised that I'm diabetic too, and was heard saying things like "but she's so normal... and she goes running...."

Nice to impress someone, I suppose!
 
Last edited:
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Back
Top