My awesome friend (or, why you should tell people you're diabetic)

That is a great example of why people should know you are diabetic. You're lucky to have a friend like that.

@phdiabetic .
Sending you 2 gold stars ( it's what we used to get back in the day if we achieved something special at school. )
The first gold star is for you. Openness with your diabetes!!!!!! So many could benefit with this attitude.
Second gold star for your friend. A friend like yours always deserves a gold star or maybe a thank you card

@phdiabetic Great story to share, so many people hide diabetes from their friends for fear of being judged but telling them means there are informed and can look out for you should you ever need it.

I’ve brushed it under the carpet for years, but part of my new leaf, with my change in diet and Libre is to make sure people I know understand it as far as it’s possible for a non diabetic to. Also, for my friends to look out for any symptoms in themselves - we’re all into middle age now, some are healthier than others and it’s always a thing to be conscious of.

People have always been very positive when I’ve talked about diabetes things - and are always so surprised when they realise how involved the management of it can be, and that it affects us from head to toes. The common perception is that you just have to do insulin injections (calculating varying doses never occurs) and avoid sugar. But in return, I always try to learn about their health conditions too

phdiabetic said:

Yesterday at uni I had to walk halfway across campus to get to a meeting. My blood sugar was about 6, but exercise drops me a lot so I put on a temp basal and had some juice before the walk. Despite that, I had not gone up at all by the time I had nearly reached my destination. At this point, I met a friend who took a few classes with me last year, but had not seen me in months since he lives overseas. He asked about my health, and when I mentioned my blood sugar was going down, he offered to buy me something sugary from a nearby cafe, then insisted on walking with me to my meeting to make sure I would get there ok.

I know that a lot of young people feel embarrassed about their diabetes and try to hide it from others. This guy knew nothing about diabetes when I first met him, and even though he hadn't seen me in a long time he remembered what I had told him and took (correct!) action to make sure I would be safe. Luckily nothing happened, but the more people know you are diabetic, the more likely it is that someone will be around when you need them.

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This is a lovely story and I hope it will be seen by young people about to go to Uni or already there and worried about managing their Diabetes. There have been a couple on the forum recently and this is so encouraging.

I'd hate for anyone to think I needed help like that.

Yeah yeah I'm wrong and terrible and awful and everyone thinks I'm an absolute stench but that's how I feel.

You might think differently if it was your life on the line

Mike D said:

You might think differently if it was your life on the line

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I really hope not.

I am not a youg peson and T2 (not T1) but If asked ro feel its appropaite I always share that I am T2. T2 (and diabetes in genreal) attracts negative "press" so I fell its my bit to reverese the view (especailly that t" is the lazy disease).

Good on you and your friend.

NoKindOfSusie said:

I'd hate for anyone to think I needed help like that.

Yeah yeah I'm wrong and terrible and awful and everyone thinks I'm an absolute stench but that's how I feel.

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I gave you a 'Funny' award, just as "the Martian" also won an Oscar as a comedy movie!

Not because I found your comment 'silly funny' but actually I found it 'serious funny'!
(As was the movie the Martian, as it was both a funny and a serious good movie)

I am like you pretty determined to take care of my own problems/disease thank you very much.
I don't want other people's pity. And I don't want their overly-nursery attitude or help either.
Not either from close friends or family either.

The story highlighted by the poster above is of course a nice and friendly 'happening' but not in the range of where I myself would reach out for help to 'cross the lawn by walking'. But at same time, we should not diminish what situation other fellow diabetics are going through and some are more troubled with unstable bg and what have you. Some are in a more fragile state than others. And some or more timid and others more outspoken in sharing their disease and challenges with their social network.

All I know for sure, and I am very confident in that, all my friends and family are all aware of I have diabetes Type1 and all of them would jump in instantly if I say at any point of time that I would need their help to get some sugar asap.
That is all I really need. I don't need (and I don't want!) the baby-nursing of me. Not yet for sure, but who knows what I need of care when I get very old and go back using Pampers Ultra-Dry etc...

I always let people around me know I am T1D and what to do in certain situations.
When I started work at the tender age of 17, I started on the Monday morning, full intention of telling the nurse I was diabetic after lunch. Needless to say `I had a severe hypo before lunch. The nurse was called and she treated me for an epileptic fit!! Ambulance was called, tested my blood "LO" and gave me a glucagon injection.....5 mins later was as if nothing happened.

It’s hard not to feel like an idiot if you do ever need help. But lots of people occasionally need help with a whole variety of different things, be it illness or accident related. I’d feel more of an idiot if I needed help being picked up drunk out of the gutter than if I had a massive hypo in the middle of Grand Central Station while on holiday in New York...

phdiabetic said:

Yesterday at uni I had to walk halfway across campus to get to a meeting. My blood sugar was about 6, but exercise drops me a lot so I put on a temp basal and had some juice before the walk. Despite that, I had not gone up at all by the time I had nearly reached my destination. At this point, I met a friend who took a few classes with me last year, but had not seen me in months since he lives overseas. He asked about my health, and when I mentioned my blood sugar was going down, he offered to buy me something sugary from a nearby cafe, then insisted on walking with me to my meeting to make sure I would get there ok.

I know that a lot of young people feel embarrassed about their diabetes and try to hide it from others. This guy knew nothing about diabetes when I first met him, and even though he hadn't seen me in a long time he remembered what I had told him and took (correct!) action to make sure I would be safe. Luckily nothing happened, but the more people know you are diabetic, the more likely it is that someone will be around when you need them.

Click to expand...

You are lucky to have such nice, dependable people around you! In general I think it wiser to let people know I have type 1, but I must admit I don't often feel safer when I do. In my country there is no special awareness about the different types of diabetes and even in my own family (husband, cousins, sister in law, nehpews – the latter are about to graduate in a medical school, by the way) there is NO clue about what exactly my condition is, or what it requires. No matter how many times one instructs people, they just seem unable to retain the gist. I had a most severe hypo in a remote area, in the night, with nobody else awake (I could not even whisper, let alone shout for help), exactly because I had let the landlady know I had T1D. So she had served some ungodly thing for dinner that was 'very good for you who have diabetes', only she couldn't tell how many carbs there were in it … Nor could I, cause I had never heard of it before. And bingo!
And it happened so many times, again and again: I say I have T1 (stressing the 'T1' part) diabetes, they just catch 'diabetes', and diabetes means either T2 only, or the rubbish you find on the media. I have explained over and over again what T1 is, but the problem is either people don't listen, or they simply can't believe or can't remember my words. It's not only frustrating, it has also proved risky for my own health a little too often for my taste.
So, believe me: you really ARE lucky to be surrounded by such well-informed and sensible people!

I think we have a responsibility to make others aware of our condition, for the simple reason of getting the 'right' treatment if necessary, it doesn't matter how fiercely independent you are and how much you want to fight this on your own.

It simply boils down to the fact that would you rather be treated as a drunk or a diabetic experiencing a hypo ? A recent case on the forum related to a young man who was arrested as a drunk when in fact he was experiencing a hypo, as a result he may have a police record now.

Please folks, tell your friends and colleagues of your diabetes status, it could mean immediate treatment and a quicker recovery if people around you know you are an insulin dependent diabetic and susceptible to hypos requiring glucose treatment. There's no weakness in telling people this.

I work in open space with around 100 people on one fleet. I found out with big surprise that there are around 10 other people with diabetes (8 T2D and 2 T1D). We started diabetes club and we are fighting jointly. One of our members had an idea to create the club flag and elevated it at his seat
I never ever had any complaint about my diabetes. Contrary to it we prepared as one of the club actions measurement of all our colleagues if there is some unknown diabetes among them. Thank to God no new member of our club was found...