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Verbal attack!

noblehead

noblehead

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23,618
Type of diabetes
Type 1
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Pump
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Disrespectful people
This lady came under a verbal attack whilst eating out in a restaurant, seems a fellow diner took exception to the fact that she give herself a insulin injection before eating:

http://www.wigantoday.net/news/jab_row_ ... _1_1159413

Makes my blood boil really :evil:.......... more-so when he compared it with the same social unpleasantness as breaking wind in public! :shock:

Lets hope neither he or any other member of his family are ever unfortunate enough to get type 1 diabetes, and should they, well I would imagine he'll be whistling a different tune!

Nigel
 
Nigel.
It's not just Type 1's who get this attitude, my brother and sister in law both objected to me injecting my Byetta when about to have a meal at their house !!

Needless to say I pulled no punches and told them, first of all, exactly why I do it and that I have a timescale, within the hour of injecting that I have to eat. I usually inject and eat within about ten minutes of the food actually appearing. That is just something I have to do. I do that in Pub's, Restaurants wherever I choose to eat. I have had some odd looks but nobody has actually challenged me whilst doing it in public. I then told them that if they objected then that was THEIR problem.....not mine. It is my medication and I need to take it when it suits me.

I usually inject in the stomach area so it is fairly discreet and most people don't even notice. I don't draw attention to myself. However, if the 'gentleman' had approached me in such a manner.........I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions....... :twisted: I suspect that this person is the same sort who would object to a Woman breast feeding in Public too........an oaf !

As for injecting in a loo.....YUK ! No way, possibly one of the most unhygenic places on earth ! Do what you need to when you need to and tell the folks who object to ......'go whistle !' :wink:

Ken
 
So did your brother and sister-in-law see sense after your explanation Ken?

I too always make my injection as discreet as possible when eating out, years ago I would use the toilets but not any more, they are unhygienic places and not suitable for such purposes. Occasionally I have had the odd look from some people when injecting, but on the whole most choose to ignore the fact and carry on eating, after all we are not shooting illegal substances into ourselves! :(

Nigel
 
noblehead said:
So did your brother and sister-in-law see sense after your explanation Ken?

I too always make my injection as discreet as possible when eating out, years ago I would use the toilets but not any more, they are unhygienic places and not suitable for such purposes. Occasionally I have had the odd look from some people when injecting, but on the whole most choose to ignore the fact and carry on eating, after all we are not shooting illegal substances into ourselves! :(

Nigel
Click to expand...


No.....I haven't eaten there since. My choice. They still think it is something that I (and I presume any other people who inject) just shouldn't be doing. We have had a thread on here last year in which this was discussed, the prevailing view was that people should 'just go for it', just don't give it a drum roll before doing it !! Discreet every time, not sure how this lady actually did it.....appears to have been discreet........but..... :?:

Ken
 
My mother in law is the same, last year when I was on insulin before diner she related a story about when she was on a cruise and a lady at her table injected herself "right there at the table" :shock:

I explained that I did that all the time and she gave me a very odd, squeamish look. Later I felt obliged to inject myself in another room, it was the only time I made a concession like that and the next night we ate out at an Indian restaurant and I injected at the table as soon as we were seated, allowing 20 minutes or so till we were served, she didnt say anything but I could tell she didnt think it was 'the thing to do'.

So some people will never understand but as cugila says "that's their problem" And as has been said never ever undertake an invasive procedure in a toilet, the very idea is disgusting.
 
I inject Khaleb where ever I need to. I've had some funny looks at times and am respectful to the needle phobic but that's about it. I'd like to be discreet but that isn't always possible with a 3 yr old. My worst experience so far has been a woman who went "tut-tut-tut" and shook her head as we walked past but this was because of Khaleb's down syndrome. I can just imagine what this woman would have done if I'd then done a finger prick test and injection :shock:

Luckily my family/relatives are all fine.
 
I'm also respectful to the needle phobic and always try to be as discreet as possible when injecting at the dinner table in public, and like others, there's is no way I'm rushing off to the tiolet to do it. I used to but I remember a comment someone made (can't remember where, could have been here) that really put it into perspective; "would you expect someone to go into a toilet to take life saving medication?" I think that's what I would say to someone objecting to me keep myself alive. After all, bet they wouldn't expect someone to run off and use their asthma inhaler in a grubby old bog or their angina medication.

I do always remember this one time, though. I was in the cafe of a museum I had been visiting and having my lunch. Right opposite was a group of young women, probably in their late teens. One of them looked quite unwell and I noticed she had a tube running from out of her abdomen. Anyway, I don't know what it was she was doing (from the description someone might be able to tell me) but she emerged with this kind of large test tube looking thing which was hooked to this tube. She was holding it aloft above the table and it was slowly filling up with grey/milky fuid from, I assume, from her stomach.

Now, obviously it was something she needed to do, but my god, it was making me heave. I couldn't not look because she was right in my eyeline and she was being very blatant about it, so I turned my chair around. Now, obviously, I wouldn't expect her to have used the toilet for whatever it was she had to do, but in a cafe when people were eating, it was rather a bit too much. I did wonder if it was really necessary for her to have the equipment held up right in plain view or whether it would have been possible for her to have been a bit more discreet about it.
 
From your description, I guess she was getting liquid food into her stomach through a PEG (surgical hole direct into stomach). Usually the person needs to fill a syringe from a bottle or bag of fluid, then hold syringe vertically, and remove the plunger so it can fall into stomach by gravity (the remiander of the syringe looks like a funnel - the higher it's held, the quicker it goes in. The only more discret way would be to "inject" by depressing the plunger, then there would be no need to lift the "funnel" so high. Usually it's a large 50ml syringe, but it takes quite a few fills to get a full "meal". The fluid is white / grey, because there is no need for it to look nice enough to eat, because it's not going by mouth. While a baby changing room would be ideal, provided it had a chair, there might have been objections from parents wanting to change their babies' nappies or breastfeed them.
 
Yeah, spot on, your descripton fitted exactly. Like I say, it was something she needed to do, and I'm not normally a queasy person but have to admit that was hard for me to stomach (no pun intended).

One thing I wanted to ask, looking at the photo in that article; how do you inject in your arm when you're meant to pinch the skin first then release when the needle goes in? I've never got that.
 
Taking the topic slightly sideways......

PEG feeding should always be given by gravity, giving by the plunger method has a risk of damaging the stomach due to the pressure involved using the plunger.

I feel sorry for the girl in her teens having to use PEG feeding and think she is very brave doing her feeding in public while having a good time with her friends.

As for using a babies changing room for this !! :shock: Sorry... but imagine the bacteria that floats round there from the contents of nappies, would you really like that to contaminate what you are eating. Would you eat in a toilet or changing room ?
 
I wouldn't want to eat (or feed a baby) in a baby changing room, but many people do, and in many ways, PEG feeding is comparable to breast or bottle feeding a baby (not an open plate of food, but a breast or bottle or small surface area cup / syringe / funnel), although a baby can't feed themselves, while someone can PEG feed themself. If there's no flushing toilet, just a chair and fold down shelf for baby, then there won't be much airborne bacteria, but as I said, I'm not really advocating it.
Also, PEG feeding is more pleasant for the person gaining their nutrition that way than alternatives eg a naso gastric tube, which means there's a tube down one nostril into stomach, taped to face. As the tube can move, before putting any fluids down, it's necessary to suck out some fluid and test for stomach acid, to confirm it's not in a lung.
 
As Bacteria can exist virtually anywhere I would be extremely wary of using unhygenic places such as the supposed 'clean' baby changing rooms for procedures such as PEG feeding. You need to be so careful that any possible Bacteria whether airborne or from bodily fluids wouldn't end up in the wrong part of your body or just that they are actually designed to invade areas of the body. I really don't see why anyone should have to hide away anyway.......I too wouldn't advocate using those places.

Sue, with all your many years of practical experience regarding these procedures I am sure you are well aware of those risks as well.

Ken
 
Having seen culture plates of swabs taken from door handles and so called 'clean' surface areas then I would never advocate anyone to undertake an invasive procedure in any toilet or changing area ! :shock:
 
victry77 said:
One thing I wanted to ask, looking at the photo in that article; how do you inject in your arm when you're meant to pinch the skin first then release when the needle goes in? I've never got that.
Click to expand...

Wilt the very short needles you don't need to pinch up. I use the 5mm ones and never have
 
NIgel, stories like this infuriate me too.
The article describes Mrs Ashcroft as producing a "hypodermic syringe" when she's shown using a pen in the pic :?
I use syringes and vials, and inject where and whenever I need, and the same with finger-pricking. No-one has ever said anything and they'd soon feel my wrath if they did! As for offending someone who's needle phobic, the needle's not going in them so I don't see the problem, they can look away;we don't have that luxury do we?
My son Matthew was peg-fed for 3 months after cancer treatment left his guts in a bad way. He had a pump in a backpack, so there was no need for the gravity method. He was also bald and had a badly disfigured head, should I have kept him indoors to save upsetting the squeamish?-no chance :evil:

Also the current trend to have a dig at mothers breastfeeding in public sickens me to the core, I remember how nervewracking it was on my first outing on the bus with Matthew, and I was bottle-feeding. Can't imagine how it must feel having to worry that a complete stranger might start laying into you for breastfeeding. Scary times we live in.
Jus
 
Justine,

I agree with everything you've said, why should we cower away from public view and feel less of a human being just because we have a medical condition that doesn't allow us to sit down and promptly eat, if people don't like it............look away!

Is Matthew fully recovered from his cancer?......that most have been a awful time for you all, and one which every parent dreads, hope he has long since recovered and is back to leading a full and active life now.

Best wishes

Nigel
 
Regarding breast feeding on buses - a friend of mine worked in Pakistan and Nepal when all her children were young, although they were all born in England. Her middle son had health problems from birth, so looked a bit different, but was loved by all who met him, particularly in Asia. One one bus journey, he started crying and all the women passengers gestered / spoke to tell her to breastfeed him, which obviously solved the problem. Not sure she'd have got the same sensible approach on a bus in the UK, sadly.
 
Whatever the condition involved, people have to live their lives and society should accept everybody for who they are. Always put yourself in that person's shoes, they usually have enough to contend with and don't need offensive comments from members of the public. As for breast feeding, it is not like baring all as you can be discreet and nobody should be made to feel guilty about such a natural way to feed a baby.
 
Totally agree Catherine, wanted to ring Nick Ferrari's neck when I heard this subject being debated on LBC last week. He was probably playing devil's advocate, but I don't think there's any debate to be had when it comes to feeding a baby or diabetic's injecting.
Nigel, my Matt is ok now, coming up to 7 years in remission, but still with after effects from the treatment. He is still disfugured, although the scarring is not so obvious,and we're looking into a cranioplasty to make his head a more "normal" shape. He's got permanent hair loss also to the back of his head and is very self conscious-having had people, even adults, make comments and laugh :evil:
While we're all being so careful of offending people's cultural and religeous beliefs, less thought is given to people with health problems and disabilities who encounter discrimination. But it's discrimination all the same.
Jus
 
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