Even after 23 years in the ring fighting this disease, it will alarm me all of my days when I experience people who do not understand our children’s diabetes. Not the very details of the disease but the bigger strokes, “you should know better”-type. In discussions over the years, I have come to the conclusion that people believe….and they DO actually believe this……that when our children experience a glycemic reaction (low/high blood sugars) that they get to the point where they can just ‘will’ themselves to move forward.
Really?
Any of these sound familiar?:
(Condescending pat on the head) “You’re okay, c’mon get back out there”.
“Get tough and get back up”.
“Feeling a bit better, okay suck it up and let’s go”.
“Oh she’ll be okay, let her get it out of her system”.
“Okay it’s been 5 minutes, you can go back to class”.
“I just don’t know why you over-react to this……”
“Really, 5 minutes is enough time JUST get going.”
People? Amazing, right?
Ignorance, as the saying states, is NOT bliss…….Ignorance is stupid. I was always taught that if I did not know something, I should ask those who know. It alarms me when people who have no clue about what this disease is about venture to tell me what their version of reality is in my situation (follow that?).
And if you have a brain between your ears, you should never use the word “JUST” to me when it comes to dealing with my children’s disease. There is nothing about diabetes that deserves the word ‘just’. Right up there with, “It’s just diabetes”.
In as much as I have preached to stay positive, to live life to the fullest, to not stop, to not let diabetes hold you back; all of this is said with the fullest of understanding what this disease is all about. But when dealing with a low blood sugar and someone who has no clue turns to me and says after the cookie is eaten and the orange juice is just being finished; “Okay, all good to go now?”
I really just wanted to punch them in the nose. Don’t you?
I am a DiabetesDad.
Please visit my Diabetes Dad FB Page and hit ‘like’.