Are you Diabetic or diabetic? Work with me on this one...!

[tim2000s]

I had a clinic appointment this morning as a follow up to getting the 640G (as it's required), and the DSN was massively impressed with the numbers and the CGM traces. We were discussing how one opts to deal with T1 and one comment she made was "I wish some of our other patients were more positive about it!". It raised an interesting point about how we think about ourselves.

It set me to thinking. How do you think of yourself?

Are you Diabetic with a capital D. It defines everything you do, how you live your life and stops you doing things, or are you diabetic with a small d, where you have a life, and diabetes is just one aspect of the characteristics that define you, and not the overwhelming one?

(Before anyone says, neither or "I'm not Diabetic I'm a person with diabetes, if you consider yourself the latter, the same logic applies)

 

[azure]

I'm very disappointed @tim2000s as I thought you were asking a simple grammar question : D

I'm diabetic - small d. I have to bear it in mind all the time, but it's most definitely not part of me. I see it more as something nasty stuck to my shoe that I can't get off.

 

[KevinPotts]

diabetic.... But 3 months ago at diagnosis I would have screamed DIABETIC....time, knowledge, distance and perspective often alters our life lens

I guess a healthy dose of pragmatism helps and my heightened sense of assuming personal responsibility doesn't do any harm


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[lovinglife]

I'm diabetic - there are far too many things for me to list mostly good some not so good before I get to diabetes

 

[britishpub]

Lower case.


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[xAoifex]

It does stop me doing things on occasions, it does define how I do things and it has implications in many aspects of day to day living but it still only represents a small part of who I am.

(diabetic vs person with diabetes = same thing in my opinion and not bothered by either!)

 

[noblehead]

Neither, I'm a person living with diabetes.

Diabetes shouldn't/doesn't define who we are.

 

[Wurst]

I'm a bit of both, Diabetes does stop me doing things liking smoking , binge drinking , binge eating which can only be a good thing. It also motivates me to stay fit ,eat well and exercise regularly. It doesn't define me and I rarely mention it to anyone but I certainly don't live as I did before diagnosis.

 

[tim2000s]

Neither, I'm a person living with diabetes.

Diabetes shouldn't/doesn't define who we are.

So by the definitions that I've described you would be little d. It is a characteristic, not a definition in your case.

 

[CarbsRok]

I have diabetes, not I'm diabetic.

 

[desidiabulum]

Neither -- I'm MODY

 

[ickihun]

On forums I'm Diabetic, we are all here because of the same common enemy.

With my family and friends i'm diabetic.

At my diabesity appointments I'm Diabetic. Not obese. (Note small o for obese)

 

[BeccyB]

a lot of my life I've been iabetic - as in I've pretty much ignored the 'd' altogether.
Because of that I'm now Diabetic - knowing I have to get to grips with this beast but not doing all too well at it, and letting it take my brain on some horrid journeys of regrets and what-ifs.

 

[tim2000s]

a lot of my life I've been iabetic - as in I've pretty much ignored the 'd' altogether.

I think that's "Deny-abetic".

 

[tizzy]

Before I eat I'm Diabetic before I drive I'm Diabetic before sleeping the same and when I get in a lift DDDiabetic other times it just gets in my way I don't consider it defining me but since my pancreas broke parts of my life are different tizzy

 

[Snapsy]

Not that I'd ever write it with a capital 'D', in the context of this thread I am very definitely 'Diabetic'. It defines me, yes, very much so. That's just the way it is.

It's a very profound question, and I notice that so far I'm the only one to have picked the capital 'D' in this poll, @tim2000s .

Just putting it in the context of what you've said in your post, though - specifically this bit: "I wish some of our other patients were more positive about it!" - I am extremely positive in my attitude towards looking after my diabetes - it's just that my micromanagement of my diabetes to get my numbers right ends up making my diabetes my number-one priority. I don't see my way of dealing with my diabetes as negative, as such. It just is this way, because it has to be.

Life has changed massively for me in the last two years, though - getting married, getting fit, getting an insulin pump - and my boundaries have become more fluid and my horizons wider. And yes, my capital 'D' is very gradually getting smaller. Will it ever be lower case? I doubt it. But it is what it is.

Thought-provoking, @tim2000s . Thank you for this thread. And I'm really glad to hear that your DSN was so impressed at your appointment - that's brilliant!

 

[Lamont D]

I didn't get a chance to vote!

 

[tim2000s]

I didn't get a chance to vote!

Your signature answers the question....

 

[Robbity]

I've voted to be diabetic which puts it in it's rightful low position in the great manner of things. But I think that I'm "a diabetic" rather than being just plain "diabetic" or god forbid "Diabetic" - much in the same way as I'm an English person, an old woman, a dog lover, a migraine sufferer (and this last has actually had a much greater negative impact on my life than diabetes has). It's more, I feel, something that can perhaps categorize me rather than actually define me.

Robbity

PS Initially I was definitely a "WHY ME???"

 

[zand]

I'm diabetic, asthmatic too. Never ever considered using a capital letter.