The first reaction that I got from my relatives, friends and ex-girlfriend are “can you get cured?”, “would a surgery fix your problem”, “it sounds like a HIV symptom”, “why are we having souplantation again?”, and on and on …

And yes AAD has been surrounding me all the time and it is why I don’t longer want to test and injections in public; I was once told to do the blood check somewhere else since other ppl may feel uncomfortable too see blood from a coworker. I think this is a pessimistic act but it make me more pessimistic when i see their “you look ill face”.

Life Support!??!

I know what you were going for, but yeah, life support may not have been the best phrase.

But I’ve had horribly embarrassing moments with other people, and you can’t imagine how a person will react. More often than not I don’t bother to mention my condition. What I hate is when others insist I eat a piece of cake because either I’m depriving myself of a pleasure in life, or I have an eating disorder, or I’m just playing good-diabetic (because I must obviously sneak and cheat when I’m alone). I just think these folks are plain ignorant, and I more often than not do not feel in the mood to be this illness’s education advocate. Sorry. I’m human.

You can ‘feel’ when a person is really interested and curious to learn. And you can ‘feel’ when they are not. You don’t have to educate, and why should you?

There are moments of grace when you know who really respects you, and those moments are a blessing.

I totally understand what you are talking about! There have been countless time when I have had similar conversations. Maybe we should just walk around handing out pamphlets about diabetes. I’m a pump user who checks my bg levels very often, so I’m always exposing my ‘alien’ technologies to those around me which seems to be when you get hit with questions. It seems like I end up explaining the same thing to the same people about once every 3 months.

My list of annoying conversations/questions in no particular order:

1) Just because I’m diabetic, my feet won’t fall off.
2) Yes I’m diabetic and not fat. It happens.
3) Yes I’m diabetic and not old. It happens.
4) No, don’t give me insulin when I have low blood sugar. Please don’t give me CPR either.
5) Because I’m diabetic does not mean I need to eat candy all day.
6) Just because you know someone with diabetes who eats junk food all day doesn’t mean I should.
7) No I don’t wear special socks. Yes I’m aware of sugar free candy. I’m also aware of the affects on my bowels. I appreciate the offer of sugar free candy, but would rather just have a piece of regular candy and bolus myself.
9) ….and the candy is “sugar free”, not “diabetic”. There is no such thing as “diabetic gum”.
10) No the finger pricks, needles, infusion sites don’t hurt.

Sorry for venting….

I used to suffer from AAD Syndrome constantly, and now I only get it from time to time … which is not to say I don’t feel ambivalent – I do, and how! But I don’t experience the same intense reaction (or I do, but less often) to clueless well-meaning friends, family, and strangers. I’m wondering if in fact it’s a bit of a “stage” we go through — something that comes and goes cyclically throughout our lives.

I’m 43 years old and now in my 28th year with Type One (yes, you can applaud now – you know how freaking tough that is! ) (– which means I got it when I was 15 years old, which is an abysmal time to get it, if I do say so myself). Anyway, it took about a decade to “come out” and take charge of my illness. At that time, I was constantly ‘educating’ and often became annoyed at all the mistaken perceptions I was up against.
But since my (prolonged) “diabetes warrior” stage, I’ve become a lot calmer dealing with others (geez – I hope I don’t jinx myself!). Amy, your story reminds me of many similar ones I had at another period of my life.

Sometimes I tell people “it’s an insulin pump” and change the subject. Sometimes I say “it’s a medical device” (with a look that says – Do Not Ask Any Further). Sometimes I say, “you’ve probably seen this, no? It’s from Minimed, my insulin pump?” (I live in a busy urban area.) Sometimes I tell them, and then wait patiently for their questions. It’s so context-specific, isn’t it!

But here’s one I just love, from our med student above: “my low blood sugar [is] a dangerous side-effect of exogenous insulin” — get me sugar fast! (hee hee – I hope they shrink away feeling awed at my superior medical brilliance!) — hey… that’s a good one for the diabetes police!