Going on about diabetes too much

[ConradJ]

Lol
I would rather they made that assumption & draw a line under it. Than explain Diabetes to someone who's fist language isn't English... Well, until they met my wife.!

Interestingly, the common term for diabetes in Eastern Europe translates as 'sugar disease'; whenever I've gone abored (sic.) I've always taken a 'Berlitz' phrase book and learnt the term for diabetes... if nothing else, the locals will want to buy you a drink for learning the lingo!

 

[Ilana]

Since diagnosis at the age of 8. I have been souly responsible for my own "care package."

I don't remember my bride mentioning anything about diabetes in the vows...

Surely she could have made a pun about the highs and lows of blood sugar and marriage

 

[Ilana]

Interestingly, the common term for diabetes in Eastern Europe translates as 'sugar disease'; whenever I've gone abored (sic.) I've always taken a 'Berlitz' phrase book and learnt the term for diabetes... if nothing else, the locals will want to buy you a drink for learning the lingo!

But not a gay drink

 

[ConradJ]

Hahaha I've left school now but I'll try it on my friends although I have a feeling they'll be too whimpy to try it How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?

44 and 11 months... like @Jaylee, I've been truly, madly and deeply irresponsible for my own since the day I was released (Nov. 76).

 

[Jaylee]

And ain't that the thing!

The funny thing is when I was at 'skool' many friends were so interested to know what it was like to inject and 'prick my finger' that I bought a pack of 10 'plastipak' syringes (the oldies will remember those - and the fact that we had to buy them until 1985) from my local chemist so that they could all sample the delights themselves!

Needless to say, I went up in their esteem after that.

Perhaps you should offer to give them all a freebie @Ilana! (Do use new needles / lancets for each one ... and sharps bin them afterwards!)

I remember the plastic syringes.. I got caught out injecting in a locker room at college & the rumour went round I was a junkie!
The "bad boy" image gone me some favours though...

 

[Ilana]

I remember the plastic syringes.. I got caught out injecting in a locker room at college & the rumour went round I was a junkie!
The "bad boy" image gone me some favours though...

Are they appropriate for the forum or...?

 

[ConradJ]

I don't remember my bride mentioning anything about diabetes in the vows...

Sounds like a one-sided relationship to me ...Didn't you get her to repeat:

"... To have and to hold, in sickness ..." ?

 

[Ilana]

Loving the diabetes banter on this thread

 

[Jaylee]

Interestingly, the common term for diabetes in Eastern Europe translates as 'sugar disease'; whenever I've gone abored (sic.) I've always taken a 'Berlitz' phrase book and learnt the term for diabetes... if nothing else, the locals will want to buy you a drink for learning the lingo!

Lol just to back this up. Here is a movie from the olden days..

 

[ConradJ]

Yes, I'm glad to be back on (been off for a few months - in more ways than one )

Anyways, off to bed: the eldest (4) will be up in five, maybe six hours at most

I must change my Two-Facebook photo: it really is grumpy (I've just spotted it in the 'like us on...')

 

[Jaylee]

Are they appropriate for the forum or...?

I spent 3 years in a Surrey dance school, the girls outnumbered the guys 10 to 1. Half the guys were gay. Feel,free to do the maths.

 

[Jaylee]

Sounds like a one-sided relationship to me ...Didn't you get her to repeat:

"... To have and to hold, in sickness ..." ?

It was a bit of a weird arrangement. By everyone else's standards... We honeymooned first. Came back & got wed. I went off on tour gigging a couple of days after & 2 years later officially engaged with proper ring... Thing.

 

[Jaylee]

Loving the diabetes banter on this thread

Yep, that's how we roll here... Though, we tend not to talk about it.
There's a section on here for guys more your own age. They got pumps & things. I dare say they have their hoodies up & swigging diet coke straight from the bottle like a youth on the street.!

 

[Ilana]

Lol just to back this up. Here is a movie from the olden days..

That needle looks terrifying

 

[Jaylee]

That needle looks terrifying

What's really terrifying is the scripted reason Hansel got the "sugar sickness" in the first place...

 

[Wildrover]

I'm not surprised at all, just saddened that so many of us have had to live with a condition that affects everything we do, and the simple life-sustaining act of what we can eat and drink whilst those immediately around us prefer to just switch off or glaze over or roll their eyes, etc. etc.

But I guess that's a great part of the ignorance of this condition: if you have no other issues, people look at you and say: "there's nothing wrong with you" or even - to quote one member on here - "you're not ill, you have diabetes".

Well, and I suppose this is my take on it, I am ill and I live with a chronic, life-threatening, metabolic-condition that has prevented me from pursuing a variety of career ambitions as well led to the development of complications owing to a gross misunderstanding of diabetes, diet and exercise (that I am now redressing - mostly thanks to this site and the many members on board).

To be quite frank, much of my hard time with diabetes links intrinsically with an unstable childhood and lack of family engagement and support with it, so it is with that experience in mind that I cannot stress the importance of 'loving' family and partners to get involved and share some of the journey with the diagnosed; if it weren't for the love and strength of support I've had from my wife I'd have probably died of dka or hypo-induced heart failure a fair few years ago.

I do agree with sentiments that we should not bore / overdo it, but I also feel that parents and partners particularly should take much greater interest than it seems many do; diabetes may not be cancer, but the long-term effects of poor control can be as insidious and debilitating as many types of that disease.

Here Hear, Well said

 

[ConradJ]

Lol just to back this up. Here is a movie from the olden days..

"From the old days"... Are you sure @Jaylee ? It might as well have been scripted for yesterdays episodes of Dead Enders / Coronary Street / Emmental Farm.

Fab piece to laugh at - cheered me up no end, so thanks!

 

[ConradJ]

That needle looks terrifying

Pah, @Ilana , that's nothing, as @Jaylee and other old-timers will recall: try a 14mm gauge 20 steel needle (and semi-blunt - after repetitive use... most needles are now half the thickness) via the Palmer Injector (see below) or lancets that were the size of carpet tacks that you had to stab without a mechanical device (i.e. with your other hand).

Now that was medieval torture!

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/objects/display.aspx?id=5830

 

[educateme]

I only use the opportunity to educate folk on my Diabetes .
When 'they' ask me anything about it ...
Food , injections, pain/needles/lancets , routine , diagnosis etc .

I do it in a with pride positive manner .
I refuse to feel it should hinder me in any way .

Folk 'listen more' this way I have found .
Everyone has been great about it too .

It is good that you have this approach. My brother can be quite patronising. He talks as if he has a unique form of diabetes, type him. He is in the shade on this warm day today as it is important to stay cool, what with him being a diabetic then it is you know! his words.
I wonder though, these people that are diabetic in warmer countries like Asia, then many are Muslims. My wife says many people with type 2 diabetes (as per my brother) fast during Ramadam. How do they do it??

 

[ConradJ]

It is good that you have this approach. My brother can be quite patronising. He talks as if he has a unique form of diabetes, type him. He is in the shade on this warm day today as it is important to stay cool, what with him being a diabetic then it is you know! his words.
I wonder though, these people that are diabetic in warmer countries like Asia, then many are Muslims. My wife says many people with type 2 diabetes (as per my brother) fast during Ramadam. How do they do it??

Hi @educateme

Firstly, your brother does have a unique form of (Type 2) diabetes: each and every one of us with the condition are affected by it in ways that are unique to our bodies.

That's not to say that there aren't averages and similarities between us all, but that how temperature, stress, wholegrain foods, wheat, milk, fruit, etc., etc., affect each of our bodies is unique to us in composite. For example, stress raises my body's resistance to insulin by a hugely significant factor, whereas another T1 I know barely notices a flicker on their blood glucose when similarly stressed. Some find hot temperatures reduce their need for insulin, whilst others need more. And so it goes on.

How each of us deal with those factors is - again - unique to us; I can empathise with your brother but I will not know how he is feeling or how his mind works out coping mechanisms for various circumstances.

Secondly, as for people with diabetes in warmer climes, the likelihood is that they are already aclimatised to their local weather patterns, just as your brother is to his. Therefore, if the temperature rises suddenly (as it has in SE England today), then perhaps your brother finds it hard to deal with the stresses this sudden change places upon his body.

Finally, fasting during Ramadam: not all muslims with diabetes fast; indeed it is a caveat of the Qu r'an that people with ill heath should be excused the process. That said, those that do fast need to take precautions - especially those on insulin or sulphonyleureas (I think I've spelt that correctly from memory!).

I hope that 'educates' you.

Best wishes.