Most embarrassing moment with diabetes

[notafanofsugar]

I wondered whether anyone had any embarrassing stories to share about their diabetes.

I've got a few -

Most annoying: when I was at college I tripped and fell and my insulin pen came out if my bag and someone stood on it and broke it.

Most embarrassing/recent: almost collapsed due to a hypo in Tesco. I started leaning on the products unintentionally and they thought I was trying to steal something. They took me into an 'office' and had to plead my case.


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[Lovelylivpet]

My friend said to me is this your 'pen' case. I thought she ment a diabetes injection pen and didn't notice her opening the case. Then all of a sudden she said 'THIS IS NOT A PEN'. I totally forgot she didn't know I had diabetes. :lol:

 

[Scardoc]

I accidentally took long lasting insulin one Sunday morning instead of rapid acting. I phoned NHS 24 for advice and they said they'd get a doctor to phone me back. I then phoned Novorapid and they told me not to worry, don't do anything too physical, eat regularly and keep checking my blood in case of hypo's. I then went out for a walk with the family and was stopped by a policeman in town. I forgot to phone NHS 24 back and they had been trying to phone me. Thinking I'd passed out they sent an ambulance and the police to the house!!

Fortunately, living in a small town, they quickly tracked me down. Unfortunately, living in a small town, everyone knew!!

 

[AMBrennan]

DKA treatment - 3 days in the ICU (no toilets) and lots of fluids.

 

[anna29]

The answer to this with myself, is definetely when having a 'hypo' in a morrisons store .

I was acting soooo very strange and weird infront of all customers shopping and the check out girls were
gawping away at me too ...
Security guy was pacing up and down in front of me - watching me sweating and talking oddly too.
Slurring my words dreadfully, trying to get help and unable to explain my weird behaviour to all observing me .
It was 'awful' - I was trying so hard yet getting absolutely nowhere at the sametime .

It was after giving the checkout girl my handbag when I started to shake very badly
needing her assistance to open my dextrose or get my medical alert card out of handbag.
She just very warily smiled at me - gave me my handbag 'back' :shock:
I was so VERY embarrassed too !

Looking back it was this experience that made me get my 'Diabetic' tattoo done inside my left wrist .
Then if ever there should be a next time - I can use this as an awareness factor ...

Anna.

 

[Andy12345]

I'm sorry this has nothing to do with diabetes but the mention of morrisons has made me tell you....I was in the park next to morrisons with the wife and kids one day when I had immediate and most urgent need for a number two, by the time I had run to morrisons I was just about ready to explode so in I run and hallelujah I made it, don't know what had done it but it wasn't pretty, as I'm sitting there I hear a little kids and there mum come into the next stall, hmmm ok I think the kids to embarrassed to go into the girls so the mum nipped him into the gents why not huh, a second or two later in come 2 girls chatting, oops they have come into the gents by mistake........or.........oh no.........please god no.........yup! So do I say loudly, hello! Sorry! I seem to have come into the wrong toilet and leave, nope I opt for waiting them out and slipping out when they leave, the kid and mum taking forever now and they only have 2 stalls including the one im in, so I'm sitting there now, I can't pull the chain because I would have to walk out, I'm just sitting there for ages, now we have a whole group of women in the toilet, they are all chatting away which in itself was very weird, blokes don't chat in toilets. So here I am, 10 minutes must have passed and soon someone's going to knock and ask if everything's ok in my stall, what the hell am I going to do then? Put on a feminine voice and say "no I'm fine" then stay in there? I bite the bullet pull the chain and leave the stall heading for the wash basin and wash my hands to a stunned silent large group of women, one says you do realise this is the ladies? Sorry I say I made a mistake, yeah sure you did, are you some kind of pervert, so have to defend my honour so I stop and start to argue with this woman, in the women's toilet eventually deciding I have to escape and practically burst out of the door with this woman saying things I can't repeat and everyone else staring at me, when people say "I could have died with embarrassment" well I actually could have, my wife spend 20 minutes on the floor laughing, a year later I can't shop in morrisons sorry for going off topic

 

[MCMLXXIII]

Blimey.:lol::lol::lol:

 

[Thundercat]

Oh My God! How embarrassing! I feel bad for laughing but can't help myself. You poor man! I presume you are double and triple checking the sign these days:grin:

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[alisoningold]

I have a couple! Once when I had DKA, I was in the back of the ambulance on the way to hospital, and was shouting at the paramedic that I was going to "fall off" the bed because I was slipping, at which point he kindly pointed out to me that I was strapped to the bed as I had been thrashing about (had I? Oops!) then when I got into the hospital after what seemed like forever, my Mum, who had been called and had rushed in to the hospital in a panic), told me I was trying to "climb" out the bed, my legs were waving about madly, they had to tie me down again, and apparently I was swearing at the nurses... I have no recollection of any of this (and in front of poor old mother too!) DKA obviously puts the devil in me! When I had been sorted out and had been told what I was like, I wanted to apologise but could not remember who had been looking after me... so embarrassing! The other time was when I was out in town, it was quite late in the evening and I had been at a pub but not drunk, I came out and had obviously not realised I was low, but was. As I was walking through town I was feeling like I was going to pass out and I saw an ambulance. I went up to the window and was sort of leaning on the door to get the paramedic to open the window, he opened it a crack obviously thinking I was drunk. I just remember looking at him and not saying anything! He asked "can I help you" and I thought "can't you see my sugar is low?!"... then brain engaged with mouth and I said I was diabetic, they leapt straight out to help me!

 

[nclemale]

i have had a similar incident in asda as the rest of you guys .wasnt particually embarrassing .went for lunch from work as walking round to asda new i needed food quite quickly but instead of going to kiosk and paying over the odds for a bottle of lucazade or coke i wander to main aisle and try and get my lunch at same .my blood drops further and am starting to bump into fixtures and ppl as if am drunk .thought theres no way am gonna be able to stand in Q at till to manage to pay for my stuff without getting irrate and having a go at someone for talking there time. so i decide to drop my basket and run back round to work and straight to the drinks chiller in my shop .pick up a bottle of coke and all my colleagues thinking what the hell . But after that episode when i feel low now i get what i need straight away.

 

[rochari]

The most embarrassing for me was about 10 years at Heathrow, right in the middle of a busy restaurant. I’d taken my Novorapid and had started eating dinner when I began to feel hypo. You all know that feeling and I couldn’t figure out why it was happening as the injection had only been about 5 minutes before when sugar level was about 7.5 – there was no sign of blood when I took the needle out so feel sure it hadn’t gone into a vein. Some things though you can never explain!

This was a very rapid drop and as I tried to get more food inside me it wasn’t making any difference. Next stage was the emergency glucose I carry but again this hypo wasn’t for stopping. Those darn shakes started and off I went. My other half had run over to a member of staff to ask for sugar and water but in the interim, an American closeby had decided I was having a heart-attack, got me down onto the floor and started to try and give mouth to mouth resuscitation.

I honestly don’t remember much about it but Jane said it all went into slow motion when she saw my arm rise and aim a punch at the poor American who was trying to help. And, I didn’t miss. When the haze cleared and I was back in the land of normal (and after the restaurant kindly removed the screens they’d placed around us!) I was horrified to see the poor guy’s face and clothes covered in blood from the nose I’d hit so accurately. We offered to pay for the cleaning of his clothes but he wouldn’t have it and he was very kind and understanding. The irony is, in a non-hypo state I'd never have been that accurate!

I still get embarrassed when I think of that day

Bill

 

[andywright]

fghhtrrfdfgghhhhjhjjjjhhhghghg

 

[DiabeticDrummer]

Being recently diagnosed in 6th form I was a bit careless and left one of my insulin pens in my music class (I had back-ups on me so didn't think much of it). The next week or so my teacher went to grab a board marker out of her pot of pens and grabs...you guessed it my insulin pen I left. The class spent a good few minutes trying to figure out what it was until I owned up lol I would of found it funnier at the time if my teacher didn't have a go at me saying "That's disgusting, I touched it" don't think she realised it wasn't a needle even though she took the lid off it.

 

[Mand19]

Had to contribute to this 1!
I'd been with my new partner a few months when we decided it was time for a bit of fun.. About halfway through, he said that I started talking utter rubbish and was scratching my hands like crazy. After about 15 minutes of arguing, I realised I should probably have tested my sugars.
1.7 ...
I got my bloods up, and he was left incredibly frustrated as I passed out, absolutely shattered...

 

[mo1905]

Mand19, great story lol ;-)


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[cp1943]

My most embarrassing moment was at a time when glass syringes were stored in alcohol (I have been diabetic for 51 years now): I was out for a meal and went to the Ladies for my injection. I pumped the syringe to make sure it was clear and the needle shot off and went down the toilet! I've also dropped a glass ampoule and broken it and then stood in line with the drug addicts at the night chemist to get a replacement. Those were the days: I've learnt from my experiences and am better prepared now (most of the time anyway).

 

[cm123]

I've been diabetic since I was 10 and in my late teen years I had my first serious hypo. I was 17 and in good physical shape (if I do say so myself) playing rugby etc. Anyway, I had a serious hypo at home and an ambulance was called. I vaguely remember seeing the blue uniforms of the paramedics speaking to me and trying to treat me. Unfortunately, I decided against it! Showing unnecessary aggression I decided to try to get the two gentlemen out of my house! When my blood sugar finally returned to a safe level there was one paramedic with a torn shirt and he was treating his colleague on the ground who had a bump on the back of his head and a bloody nose.

I was so embarassed (as was my mum who had never seen such violence from her son!!) but the paramedics were so fantastic and understood the risk of aggression and hypoglycemia. One of the pramedics was diabetic and told me how he'd bitten his own brother and making him bleed when he'd been low a few years before!

 

[naillig]

In the 1970s. I worked in a very busy shop. Collapsed with a hypo on the way home. As I layed a man bent over me and called me a drunken *****. I have never forgotten this, or the man who said it.

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[renee]

Suddenly starting wetting yourself I often wonder how men cover up the fact. I now make sure I wear a panty liner. :clap:

 

[ronialive]

I went hypo when i was 14 in spain and stripped my swinning costume off and dived into the swimming pool where i sat at the bottom staring at the lifeguard. Came to on the side of the pool wrapped in a towel and had no idea what had happened. just wearing my towel.

Another time when i was a student i went hypo and they called an ambulance- aparently after having iv glucose i ran to the toilet. Came around naked on the toilet and then had the mabulance men outside the door and had to get back to my room. They did get my dressing gown.

Lastly, i went hypo when i was pregnant and in asda. iw ouldnt tell them because i had just found out and my mother didnt know. they took me to a little office in a wheelchair and called an ambulance and they pullled my trousers down and gave me a glucagon injection. When i came around i hear them say we should pull her trousers up before she because conscious - so i decided to stay unconscious until my trousers were up lol