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Diabetic Complications Poll

Should members be allowed to discuss the causes and reality of diabetic complications

  • Yes

    Votes: 72 93.5%

  • No

    Votes: 5 6.5%
  • Total voters
    77
Status
Not open for further replies.
It doesn't appear that a great number of people agree with Anna . Or perhaps they are indeed so afraid of the idea of complications that hey deliberately avoid any thread mentioning them . In that case hey have their own inbuilt defence against
being upset by reading such things and we don' appear o need to worry about them/
 
Just want to say that as a person with multiple health problems I am aware of the fact that all these have a range of complications
I was scared,frightened angry and upset when I was diagnosed with diabetis on top of everything else and found the support from this forum WONDERFUL
However it would be nice to have an area where any complication issues could be discussed. Not an area that is at the forfont of the forum that may scare us newbees but one that could be accessed as we come to terms with the condition

How else are we to understand the condition fully. It is all very well to say the nurse or doctor but, in my experience a few minutes once a year is not enough!
 
HI all
As a type 2 fpr 18 months i'm still learning about my condition daily and the complications that can arise.
I already have high BP, underactive thyroid, high chlosterol anemic and newly diagnosed with angina and waiting to see a surgeon to discuss bypass surgery.
Yes the complications of diabetes are scary but they are a fact of this progressive illness and feel they should not be swept away but discussed openly with friends and like minded people on here.
Minors should be supervised by an approiate adult whilst on the internet and using this kind of forum and newly diagnosed can choose what they read and what threads they want to avoid until they are ready to read them.
I have been given great advice by people on here and would like to thank everybody who has answered my questions and have talked openly to me.
 
The diabetes compications are fairly low on the Board Index. Do people not feel that i is suffficient?
 
benedict said:
Complications and avoiding them are a big part of diabetes. The key to discussion of complications is appropriate sensitivity.
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In fact where would we be apart from our complications.

A 'No' vote migh make the forum much easier to read but do we want a forum without refeence to complications such as:
BG tests & meters
Blood tests
Insulin injections
Sites of injections
Ulceration
hypos
hyperglaecemia
diets
'forbidden' food
HbA1cs
Plus all the really nasty downstream stuff

Oscar Wilde said: "There's only one thing worse than being talked about, that's NOT being talked about."

I rest my case :roll:

Regards

Robert wt
 
I wasn't under the impression that there was any suggestion that the forum should be without reference to complications. Quite the opposite. But people seem to have latched on to that idea and be running away with it.

From what I understood of the whole situation, the issue is not with the inclusion of discussions and information about complications, the issue was about applying appropriate sensitivity to the topic, as Benedict has said.
 
Gracek, please let people discuss the complications. To restrict this for people new to diabetes is condescending. As is that dreadfully insulting term 'newby' . It also raises other issues such as when you stop qualifying as a new one. Is it six months? A year perhaps?
We are all adults (including those new to the disease) and in all the conversations that take place, there will be those who over dramatise and equally, those who are more balanced.
My own situation is this: after forty years of this disease, I have complications. My first twenty years were very unbalanced through old fashioned insulin, terrible sugar testing methods available and then teenage / student rebelliousness. Then I came to my senses. However, I too have had maximum laser treatment on both eyes, I have mild neuropathy in my feet and the largest patch of necrobiosis lipoidica on my shin. My claim to fame is that there's a photo of my leg in a medical book somewhere.
On the bright side, I have been very stable for the past 15 years ( getting a pump helped) I'm a DAFNE graduate which has been, by far, the best thing for my diabetes control ever. I hold down a senior teaching and examining job, I bake and sell cakes as a side line and I use a gym regularly. In other words, you CAN stop the rot but only if you want to. Should we discuss complications? YES.
 
JanieMc said:
Gracek, please let people discuss the complications. To restrict this for people new to diabetes is condescending. As is that dreadfully insulting term 'newby' . It also raises other issues such as when you stop qualifying as a new one. Is it six months? A year perhaps?

We are all adults (including those new to the disease) and in all the conversations that take place, there will be those who over dramatise and equally, those who are more balanced.

My own situation is this: after forty years of this disease, I have complications. My first twenty years were very unbalanced through old fashioned insulin, terrible sugar testing methods available and then teenage / student rebelliousness. Then I came to my senses. However, I too have had maximum laser treatment on both eyes, I have mild neuropathy in my feet and the largest patch of necrobiosis lipoidica on my shin. My claim to fame is that there's a photo of my leg in a medical book somewhere.
On the bright side, I have been very stable for the past 15 years ( getting a pump helped) I'm a DAFNE graduate which has been, by far, the best thing for my diabetes control ever. I hold down a senior teaching and examining job, I bake and sell cakes as a side line and I use a gym regularly. In other words, you CAN stop the rot but only if you want to. Should we discuss complications? YES.
Click to expand...


Janie ... I honestly don't know how many more times I have to write this before readers will read my posts more thoroughly and without prejudice and stop accusing me of wanting to stop discussion of complications. But I will write it here again -

I have absolutely no objection to anyone discussing diabetes complications respectfully and sensitively ... I do not want to stop the discussion of diabetes complications. Is that clear?

What I do object to is people using the discussion of complications as an excuse to make very poor taste and insensitive comments relating to complications and calling that 'discussion'. It isn't discussion or information, it's crude, it's insensitive to others and it's using language and tone to scare people and it's totally unnecessary.

I am in favour of discussing complications respectfully and sensitively ... I'm not in favour of anyone taking it upon themselves to decide they're experts in knowing what each newcomer needs or doesn't need as they aren't the newcomer, they aren't the newly diagnosed and they know nothing whatsoever at all about the emotional state of any other individual as they enter this forum for the first time.

Also, I did not complain to anyone about insensitive discussion of complications, but I did witness a couple of newcomers who wrote that they felt so distressed by what some people were posting about complications that they felt they didn't want to come back and if the response to that is - 'well you can always go elsewhere if you don't like it' or 'why should we molly coddle' - I think that's a pretty rotten and patronising attitude on the part of those posters and a sad thing for the forum in general.

As for your claim to fame, that's fine by me too, but I personally would not wish to take a look at a picture of your leg if that's OK with you, I work as a medical secretary so I'm used to all sorts of claims to fame and photos of all sorts of disfigurements and medical conditions. I've also attending and taken medical dictation whilst a surgeon was performing a transplant. Having the stomach to withstand such things is not the issue here, but it seems to be how people interpret things.

The issue as far as my understanding of it is that some people have been posting about diabetes complications in quite an inappropriate way and I agree with and respect the moderators decisions in that respect. There are people who for some reason, feel that on the internet 'anything goes and we should have the right to express ourselves as we wish'. Would any of us sit in the A & E department next to a stranger and start talking openly about our medical conditions and give all the gory details? Would we roll our trouser leg up and show people our wounds? Even in that medical setting, the majority of us wouldn't do that but for some reason certain people feel it's appropriate to do so online - and that's because online, we can't see the reactions or the visual signals of the other person which instantly tell us where to draw the line.
Click to expand...

Does that make how I feel clear?
 
JamieMC

Spot on, let's keep discussion completely open, bar swearing, character assassinations, dictates etc.

Just lately it seems that some posters are more interested in promoting their views and having a pop at other posters who disagree with them.

'An open society is far better than a closed conspiracy' Roy Wood 1966

Superchip
 
Gracek - thankyou for posting in red to us all. Is that just incase there are any dyslexics amongst us?Forgive me if I have misinterpreted your post - it was unintentional. It is however interesting to note that your red response shows others have done the same. That's not a matter of not reading your post thoroughly. Instead You might want to consider that it's your communication skills that need looking at. As for the comment I made about my leg- it was meant to be tongue in cheek. Perhaps with a touch of humour. Was that what your response was meant to be? I didn't get that. I got a very 'insensitive' comment. You seem keen to stop insensitive comments too. As Finally, your illustration near the end... If I set up an office in or near an A&E department, I would very much expect to hear about or see horrible injuries. I might even admit to taking an unhealthy interest in it all a bit like embarrassing bodies on TV. You've got to laugh.
 
swimmer2 said:
DavideB said:
NOT to be told about the complications, their doctor will tell them that,
Click to expand...
Doctors don't always tell you about diabetic complications David - mine didn't - it was a nasty video at a foot clinic that did that but much much later.
Swim
Click to expand...

When I was diagnosed my Doc said that I need to take care so that I don't get "Diabetes complications". I asked him what these "complications" could be and he told me. Isn't that what every patient does when he/she has been diagnosed with any illness/disease?
 
An earlier post hit the nail on the head: if you get offended or scared by this stuff then don't read it. It's not exactly a discussion being pushed down people's throats. My experience was like the last post.. When I was first diagnosed at 8yrs, my GP warned me of complications. I asked what they were...
In 1974 the way technology was and the poor understanding of the condition then, complications were almost inevitable. Well.. I coped. I'm not traumatised and I'm still here and still learning about how to improve things for myself. Before I upset anyone though, that's just me. I was okay with it all. There are clearly others who might be too traumatised to click on the cross in the top right of the screen. Bless them. :wink:
 
JanieMc said:
An earlier post hit the nail on the head: if you get offended or scared by this stuff then don't read it. It's not exactly a discussion being pushed down people's throats. My experience was like the last post.. When I was first diagnosed at 8yrs, my GP warned me of complications. I asked what they were...

In 1974 the way technology was and the poor understanding of the condition then, complications were almost inevitable. Well.. I coped. I'm not traumatised and I'm still here and still learning about how to improve things for myself. Before I upset anyone though, that's just me. I was okay with it all. There are clearly others who might be too traumatised to click on the cross in the top right of the screen. Bless them. :wink:
Click to expand...

I'm really glad you've never been traumatised by anything Janie. That's really wonderful.

I'm sure you weren't intending for your last sentence to sound patronising and sarcastic were you? Perhaps it's just my poor communication skills playing up again.
 
Not at all gracek - you got that one right! As for trauma - oooh dear, there's been more than plenty but to reiterate my point (should I write it in red? You seem to like it) this complications discussion is just one area on a massive board. People have a choice whether to read the details or not. Your ideas have people's sensitivities in mind which is honourable but to my mind ( and others who posted mr privately) you go too far; You are not the thought police and this is not prime time tv. Plus , how can you be so concerned about sensitive issues on one hand and yet slinging out really childish and crude insults on the other? It's so bad it makes me smile and no that's not sarcasm.
 
I am not alone in thinking this thread has lost it's way. :thumbdown:
If you do not agree with a fellow poster then it is better to agree to disagree then to keep firing missiles at each other IMHO.
 
JanieMc said:
Not at all gracek - you got that one right! As for trauma - oooh dear, there's been more than plenty but to reiterate my point (should I write it in red? You seem to like it) this complications discussion is just one area on a massive board. People have a choice whether to read the details or not. Your ideas have people's sensitivities in mind which is honourable but to my mind ( and others who posted mr privately) you go too far; You are not the thought police and this is not prime time tv. Plus , how can you be so concerned about sensitive issues on one hand and yet slinging out really childish and crude insults on the other? It's so bad it makes me smile and no that's not sarcasm.
Click to expand...

Have you finished yet Janie?
 
Ticked yes, I don't just want to know about complications I want to know what treatment what works for the individual and limitations faced and dealt with, "knowledge is power" and in a situation where we all feel powerless the more info the better.
 
Given that 125 people want to discuss complications, and 12 dont, I would say the conclusion of this poll is clear.

Perhaps a reminder of this rule:

Read the posts, if you don’t agree with something then just ignore it or ask constructive questions. Do not rip it to pieces because it is not your opinion or way of doing things. It is obviously someone else’s way of doing things.
Click to expand...

is in order to those who do not agree with the clear majority who voted.
 
I think this thread has served its purpose and proven a point. I don't believe any further discussion is warranted.
 
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