Diabetic Etiquette

1. IT DOES HURT. Stabbing yourself with needles and pricking fingers to test blood sugars always hurts. Sure, callouses develop, but making yourself bleed never feels "good".  There's no really "getting used to it". So don't ask me. IT DOES.

2. YOU COULD DO IT IF YOU HAD TO. If I had a dime every time someone said "I could never give myself shots, put in a pump, only eat eggs for breakfast, poke my fingers 10+ times a day..." then I would be a rich women.  Bottom line: YOU WOULD DO IT IF IT KEPT YOU ALIVE. 

3. I CAN EAT SUGAR.  This is a generational idea about diabetes.  In the olden days, they didn't have the drugs or testing devices that they have now.  Today,  with type I diabetes I can eat basically whatever I want, as long as I shoot up with the right amount of insulin and TEST TEST TEST!

4. I DON'T MIND TALKING ABOUT IT, BUT IF YOU'RE SUPER CURIOUS WIKI IT OR ASK YOUR DOCTOR. Feel free to ask me questions about it. I'm not ashamed of it, it's not embarrassing like a YEAST INFECTION. But REMEMBER I'm not an expert. I know about diabetes and I explain it to people all the time.   I can tell you the symptoms and the "gist" of it. Sometimes I get my facts mixed up, I'm not a doctor. I was diagnosed when I was 13 and the "crash course" they gave me at the hospital was a million years ago.  Since then I have done research and asked questions for myself, but again, I'm no endocrinologist. 

5. I AM GENERALLY A NICE PERSON, IF I'M ORNERY, I MAY BE LOW.  Forgive me for my lows. They suck. A real symptom of low blood sugar is ornery-ness. Even dear old Mr. R forgets that sometimes.

6. THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME FOOD WHEN I'M LOW. I try to be prepared and have an emergency granola bar, or bits of candy in case of low blood sugar.  But when I've already eaten the emergency carbs and have ANOTHER LOW,  I've had to lower my pride and ask others for food. It's embarrassing, but thank you for having some and saving me from passing out.

 7. NOT ALL DIABETICS ARE OVERWEIGHT. Type II diabetes is GENERALLY the type of diabetes that overweight people have, but there are always exceptions. Skinny people can have type I or type II diabetes.  Diabetes can't always "go away" I will forever and always have it.

HELPFUL LINGO: 
LOW= needs sugar (if a diabetic is passes out, this is likely the case DON'T GIVE THEM A SHOT OF INSULIN).
HIGH= needs insulin (usually a diabetic can feel highs, then tests, and adjusts insulin accordingly).
BLACK THING= what I refer to my glucose meter as. It is black. It's a thing. Every meter I've ever had has been black.
PUMP= Kind of like an I.V. or an external pancreas. I have one. It's not a cell phone or a beeper.  I have to change it every 3-4 days, and it's not permanent.