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Type 1 Been told something on holiday (upsetting) type 1 diabetic!


As someone who has injected in a restaurant toilet once so speaking from experience here. The toilets are simply contaminated to hell and back, When you see liquid all over the sink area that you need to put your monitor, test strips, lancing device and ultimately your pen on to sort everything out. Your brain thinks "Now is this just water or is it something else?" With a million and one particles of bacteria. I've seen public toilets that has pubic hair in the sink and also empty weed bags strewn across the floor like nothing.

I would rather sit at a table where I am about to eat, with whoever I am with knowing that the table is disinfected after every customer. The problem itself is for people similar minded as you sir - Some of us almost died at diagnosis, and would rather avoid dirty, contaminated areas where I am sticking a needle into my body for medical purposes. I didn't want to have Diabetes and I still don't want it now, but nothing can change it. This is now apart of my every day life.

I have injected in front of a ten year old today - not because she was staring or gawking at me. Because she was interested in what my life entails, I taught her that it's not a massive deal that people think it is, and that my routine is a little different to others. Hopefully she will remember and if I ever can't do my insulin myself for whatever reason, she could possibly do it for me.

I have a question for you - If you had a mother in your restaurant with a newborn that needed breastfeeding, would you tell them to go into the toilets that anything could of happened in there between cleaning? And if they refused to - kick them out aswell?

They are both the same principle, life saving stuff happening. All it takes is to have 5 minutes of compassion and not make a big fuss - At the end of the day we all just want to be treated the same - with respect for our lives.
 
I would never inject in the toilets, to many germs. I usually use the top of my leg under the table. You can do it very discreetly and no one sees, most of the time on holiday you would be in shorts or a flowy dress, so its easy to bare a bit of leg. You can get everything ready out of sight if you get a table near a wall and turn towards it with your back towards the open floor. If some people are squeamish about needles that's their problem, don't look its none of their business what you are doing. Also have they thought you may not be able to Make it to the toilet without passing out. In answer to your question I would report these actions to a higher authority. Hope you enjoyed the rest of your holiday.
 

Love your life lesson for the ten year old. That's brilliant...well done.
 

I have been type 1 for 46 years and do both discreetly when on holiday and never had a problem. As for your opinion I think you have an ancient view from the dark ages! No one needs to 'watch' unless you do it in full view.
 
Of course people look if you are doing something unusual in a restaurant or anywhere else . it's not being nosey at all, pity people didn't take a bit more notice of a individual leaving a package on a train at Parsons green. it's called manners not to inject in the eating area and most restaurant toilets would be clean as they have regular inspections. probably cleaner than a lot of toilets in peoples homes. How would the onlookers know you are diabetic? , you could just be shooting up with your fix of a drug. As for leaving the restaurant were it my business i would throw you out,could be better than all the other clients walking out because i allowed it.
 
**** happens... name and shame and move on... Funny thing was my sister once called me out for doing this in a posh restaurant in France.... I just gave her the Meh.... She was diagnosed this year.. I wonder what her opinion is now.
 

Nobody on this planet can actually tell you what to do, unless you are breaking the law & I have never heard of such law stopping you.

Some people may not like seeing what you do, but that's there problem, not yours.

If you need to do it in public, so be it.

You are potentially saving your own life every time you inject, so how anyone can begrudge you doing this, is beyond belief.
 
You think thats bad - I once had a uniformed cop pull his gun on me in a cafe toilet. I told to stop being a complete a-hole as it was insulin not crack I was injecting. He went very quiet and then left. It takes all sorts I suppose.
 
lovinglife said:
That's awful - don't know the answer to your question but I hope you left quick sharp and found somewhere more accommodating (())
Click to expand...
It's not a good Idea to inject when people are eating have some discretion
 
I am absolutely dumbfounded that anyone thinks it's wrong to inject in public, especially those of you taking insulin!
You should be ashamed of yourself for having that attitude!
 
SRO said:
I am absolutely dumbfounded that anyone thinks it's wrong to inject in public, especially those of you taking insulin!
You should be ashamed of yourself for having that attitude!
Click to expand...

I concur with you.
Getting a pen out, with a very small needle at the end is not like, holding up a vial and drawing up Insulin, then tapping the syringe to make sure you have the right amount, then shooting some out into the air . Sometimes I find it hard to believe that we are actually in the 21st century and some posts have made me feel like a 'freak show act/performer from the Victorian period .............. I'm sure no one wants that !
 
I've been T1 for 45 years now. There have been a few occasions when things like this have happened to me. If it has been because people have been eating, I've asked if they have a medical or private room. Knowing that the answer will most likely be No, I then point out that you wouldn't expect someone to eat in the toilet because it's simply not hygienic. This generally shuts people up. I refuse to do it in the loo. I remind them that they are not making adequate provision for disabilities.
Once, the people who complained, got up and left. I wanted to myself after that complaint, but I stayed on principle.
 
I should have said that I've been using a pump for the last 8 or 9 years now. the problem has gone.
 
sinbad said:
It's not a good Idea to inject when people are eating have some discretion
Click to expand...

So shall we just not eat then to spare others? This isn't about waving needles around in front of people, doing air shots over their dinner and then aggressively staring them down whilst we plunge the units into our subcutaneous tissue.

Do you think those of us who are insulin dependent enjoy needing to do this whenever we eat? Especially in a restaurant environment where we're already having to do best guessing to figure out the carb content of what's being served to us and then taking the dose (discreetly) hoping it's not too little, not too much because of what that will result in for us.

I am fed up of reading small minded opinions that feed stigma in this thread so I'm off out of it now but with a thought similar to what @evj95 has already touched on: if a young child can handle this and ask intelligent questions beyond their years which I have also personally seen - why can't fully grown 'adults' deal with this situation (if they happen to notice it) with a moment of empathy before returning to their meal?
 
Just to add a bit of humour - I was in a restaurant to have a meal. I tested (as discreetly as I could) and injected and wrote my results in my little notebook. The waiter brought the meal and became so very attentive. I was treated like I was the queen. He just couldn't do enough for me. It transpired that having seen all the diabetic paraphanalia he had presumed I was a restaurant inspector.
 
I would go to Tenerife next time.......they are not as"Snobby" as Lanzarotteners.
 
Sorry Martin, you are just wrong. It's called staying alive to inject oneself with something that looks like a pen. And I don't give a monkey's what the onlookers think. I may have something other than Diabetes that requires me to inject something. As others have said, if you don't like it, don't look at it.

If you have the opinion that everyone injecting something is injecting drugs, then a) you'd be correct - just in this case to stay alive rather than for kicks - and b) you're demonstrating a blinkered, prejudiced and downright judgemental approach that is particularly unpleasant in this day and age. You are one of the reasons that "stigma" exists.

And if you came over to try and throw me out, I'd make every other person in the restaurant aware exactly what it is that you were doing so that they could ask themselves whether they wanted to eat in an establishment where the proprietor was such a prejudiced boar. That would be fun:

In a very loud voice:

"Excuse me ladies and gentleman. The owner of this here establishment has decided that as I am a Type 1 Diabetic that requires insulin to eat, rather than see me inject at the table, he'd prefer me to leave and never darken his door again, because he considers long term medical conditions akin to drug abuse. I 'd seriously consider what conditions you have and whether you want to eat here. Watch out when you're taking pills for Angina, or anything else. He may think it is Speed and kick you out too".

I'm very glad that I don't know you (or any of the other members that have expressed such opinions) personally.
 
I’ve actually had this in the work place. Started at a firm called Elcometer in Droylsden, Manchester and when I told them I was diabetic, was promptly told I couldn’t do my injections on the shop floor, had to do them in the toilet!! And also, if I was hypoing. go & find the first aider who would take me to the first aid room to try and help me.... basically they hadn’t a clue!! I left after a week....
 
I do not understand many comments on here about this chap who assumes it is ok for him to test and inject in a restaurant in front of other people. He shows a complete lack of understanding that other people could be put off by his injecting alone. Why could you not use the toilets. To suggest that a restaurant should put up with people injecting unknown substances into himself is ridiculous, how are other customers supposed to know what he is doing. Would it be acceptable for drug addicts to do the same thing, no you would complain.
 
You make it sound as if anyone testing and injecting insulin makes a big show of it when it is actually done discreetly. The great majority use pens, not syringes, so could not be taken for drug addicts.
 
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