What did diabetes mean to you pre diagnosis?

[Stitch147]

I knew about diabetes from a young age. My nan was diabetic and injected insulin. I always remember whenever we went on holiday and stopped for breakfast at somewhere like little chef or happy eater, grabbing handfuls of the little packets of sugar cubes and putting them in her handbag. She used to have a chiropodist visit her every couple of weeks and we used to get sent up the shops out of the way when they turned up. Then my uncle was diagnosed as type 2 and then my dad found out he was also type 2.

 

[Flower]

Really interesting to read, thanks everyone 🙂

 

[grovesy]

I knew through work Type 1, 2 and Gestational .

 

[Ljc]

I had never heard of diabetes till in 3rd form, when our form teacher started telling us about it during what was should have been our English lessons. This was over 50 years ago, I remember thinking at the time it an was odd topic for English, extremely interesting though. I too was confused about the difference between hypo's and hypers. Never once thinking I would ever come to know them from the inside.

Off topic, this same teacher later on gave us music appreciation once again during our English classes, I really learned to hate Peter and the wolf , or whatever it was called.

 

[Copepod]

I learned from my Mum, who taught first aid in various settings. During primary school years (until we moved when I was 9 and my sister was 7), she often took us to work, and we often had to sit quietly with a book or drawing kit, but could listen while she taught 1st aid to deaf students doing Duke of Edinburgh's Award and monitors for colony holidays. We were often used for bandaging demonstrations and practice for students. When aged about 12 years, a new family moved in a couple of doors away. It was weekend near 5th Nov, so we invited them to join us at firework display in park. The son who was the same age as me kept buying cans of pop for himself, but everyone thought he was thirsty because of long journey from their former home. After a couple of days getting sorted out after diagnosis, he appeared in my school form. He became known as a good rugby player, occasionally with scabs on face, arms, hands, legs etc from tackles or falling off his bike at speed. Perhaps hypoglycaemia sometimes played a part, but he was efficient about carrying mini Mars bars, plus some were stowed in various teachers' desks.
When doing my own DoE award, I went to Red Cross first aid course - Mum insisted we both did first aid and life saving and enjoyed shocking other parents by saying they were as important as O levels. A doctor / instructor was very clear - if person has diabetes and is acting strangely, give them sugar, as if hyper, a bit more won't make much difference, but if hypo, will cure. Obviously never give food or drink to unconscious person. This was early to mud 1980s, when home testing kits were rare.

 

[Dollypolly]

I was dx gestational 28 years ago and was monitored sort of, but still gave birth to a 9lb 12oz boy 6.5 weeks early.
I wasn't told to go back for any screenings to keep an eye on me at all. Nada nothing.
Then when my mother turned 50 she got dx with T2 and she thought the docs where telling her the right things to do nope she was on metiformin then glizaside and then insulin all within 2-3 years and never once questioned it She was 25 stone at this point and couldn't shift the weight but she wasn't looking after herself either as she was told you can eat it in moderation same diet as before. I knew she couldn't have that full bottle of cola or that full packet of biscuits but she said it was in moderation as she'd have 2/3 before. I was horrified and was dreading this disease because all girls have ended up with all afflictions from their mothers.
IBS, sciatica, arthritis, hay fever all at the same age as my mother I got and then when I turned 50 they ignored the signs and didn't tell me till last year I was indeed T2
My son was 21 when dx with T1 and that was a rollercoaster for us all and he is another that doesn't really look after himself either but is very very skinny and is ill a lot of the time.
I researched T1 because of son and knew ratios to carbs and what to eat and not to eat, but he didn't listen so he was left to deal with it himself. Here's hoping he listens to his girlfriend now eh.
When I was dx I already knew some things and was changing my diet already lost a stone without trying and then went low carb as my diet was the eat well plate and I was gaining not losing but the low carb was for my bgl not weight loss.
My mother got a meter but I was refused one and still being refused on the grounds it'll worry me.
I have since discovered 7 generations had either T1 or T2 all women on my side of the family. I vaguely remember my grandmother taking sugar cubes and having no idea why.
I didnt know anyone at school with it that I remember.

 

[Grannylorraine]

Didn't mean much to me growing up, when I was in my 20's my gran was diagnosed with type 2, but still didn't fully understand it. It is probably only in the last 10 years that I started to understand it and the difference between type 1 and type 2. And of course I thought it was something other people would get, but not me.

 

[trophywench]

Didn't mean much to me growing up, when I was in my 20's my gran was diagnosed with type 2, but still didn't fully understand it. It is probably only in the last 10 years that I started to understand it and the difference between type 1 and type 2. And of course I thought it was something other people would get, but not me.

Well yeah - any and ALL illnesses or conditions are obviously what other folk get, not me. Plus of course when young every single man Jack or woman Jill of us, is completely indestructible. Everybody know that! So anything we're told or need to learn about for eg that Biology O level is utterly and completely hypothetical. I mean - is there REALLY anyone ever in the whole wide world who has ever used the formula for working out a simultaneous equation of alternatively ever needed to know that Pythagorus kept a flock of pet right angled triangles on the slopes of Mount Olympus? Don't be daft !

However - I do know how to test to see if a food contains starch, which Mr Willetts showed us one day. You get a retort stand and grab a crust of Mothers Pride white thick sliced in it's jaws, so that it's up on high and thus visible to even the people at the back, unscrew the stopper of the thick opaque glass bottle the Lab Tech has just brought you, and is waiting at the side to return to its place under lock and key, and which says Iodine on its front - and pour some of the bread. It instantly turns the most fantastic shade of purple you've ever seen. Fantastic!

Oh - and he'd drawn a pancreas and told us about those Islets, before he did the practical. Just as much future use to me as the lifelong knowledge that the earthworm is a cosmopolitan, really. Still - some other things stuck there too cos I passed my O Level Biology. Job done now forget it again and get on with life.

Six years later .... now, what was it he told us again? LOL

 

[trophywench]

PS It's a bloody nuisance having to be followed about by a bloke in a white coat goggles and rubber gloves, when I go out for a meal.

Nobody else seems to mind it - dunno why?

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

Interesting thread, @Flower

There was a girl with type 1 in my secondary school - one day for English we all had to do presentations about a subject of our own choice, and she told us all about her diabetes and how she managed it. I tried as hard as possible not to listen because I didn't want to faint (and if I hear about needles or injections I do tend to faint). But I suppose that just the fact that she spoke about it meant I was aware of the illness, and that it was to do with bits of the body not working properly (had no idea the relevant bit of the body was the pancreas until I was diagnosed), and that it required regular self-injecting. I wouldn't at that time have realised there were different types though, or that not all diabetics have to inject.

People with ME often get diabetes or other auto-immune diseases, so once I got ME I came across other people with it, and learned a bit about finger-pricking and monitoring and what the numbers were supposed to be - I had a couple of friends with type 2 who'd say things like - I keep getting 8s, wish I could get it down to 6. And I knew they had to be careful what they ate, and that they took meds for it rather than injecting insulin. So I did know a reasonable amount about diabetes by the time I was diagnosed (and was very relieved when told I was type 1 and was to be given insulin, despite my needle-phobia, as I knew all about Metfartin from my friends!).

 

[Rosiecarmel]

The only time I came across diabetes was in guides. One of the older Guides (probably about 14, I was 11ish) had diabetes and I remember one trip away camping, looking back she must have had a bad hypo, as all I remember were the adults crowding around her trying to pour lucozade down her throat but she had clamped her mouth shut. They also were crushing up boiled sweets and trying to get her to eat them. She was shaking violently and refusing to sit down so was being held up by a guide leader. We were all assured that she was okay and that was that. She never spoke about it and certainly never let it stop her doing anything!

I also remember in school we had a friend that constantly ate sweets and our English teacher would always tell her her teeth would fall out and she'd get diabetes!

Fast forward to being an adult, I'd heard of the differences but it wasn't until I started my nursing degree that I realised just how many people are diabetic and how often you hear people say "oh my nan is diabetic and she's blind..." etc..

Especially in mental health, we see a lot of type 2s! (well, antipsychotic induced type 2)

 

[Ditto]

I was first aware of D when I read a book and a character had to carry a sugar pig around, I didn't really understand it though. Then decades later an episode of Casualty had a young black lad who they said "wouldn't look after himself" and then decades after that when trying to lose weight I discovered Dr Atkins and read his book which is a lot about D so some of the ignorance was lifted. My sister was still trying to tell me "you can eat everything you want just in moderation" which I now don't believe. I've learnt most from being on here.

 

[Bloden]

I knew naaathing. 😉 My nephew had a friend at junior school with T1. I only met him once and thought "He looks normal" and my SIL explained that he was dx as a baby...shock horror 😱...then I forgot about diabetes, until it was my turn.🙄

 

[SB2015]

An interesting thread Flower. Thanks for starting it.

I only knew that there were two types of Diabetes. I thought that T2 made you go high, and T1 made you go low. That was it.

I had had ne student in my tutor group, but that was before MDI so she was only on two injections. The only help she needed was when I drove her home as she had forgotten to do her morning jab.

 

[MikeTurin]

I knew absolutely nothing about it. Neither my GP or the cholesterol specialist warned me, even with my blood exams were showing a rising fasting blood glucose level and diagnosed with "metabolic syndrome" and put on statins.

 

[SerialLurker]

When I was in 6th form there was a lad who was diabetic, all most of us knew about it was that he was allowed to have a Mars Bar on him at all times. I vaguely recall being told that my Nan had Diabetes when she was in her 70s, I assume it was T2, but being a self-absorbed teenager at that point didn't really pay much attention to it. When I was pregnant with both my sons I had the usual tests for sugar in urine, had a high result at one point when pregnant with my youngest and had to go to the hospital for a GTT which came back negative for Gestational Diabetes. Nothing further said about it then. About 5-6 years ago my mum & MIL were both diagnosed as T2 within about 6 months of each other (both in their 60s), so hubby & I started reading up a bit more about diet & stuff so we could make sure we weren't going to make them worse when they stayed with us. Then last year I was diagnosed T2 (aged 38).