Wednesday, 3 March 2010

The Diabetes Police: much blogged about, finally at Click of the Light

2 days ago, I had an encounter with the diabetes police. Well, it was a cross between a diabetes police officer, an ignorant person, a know-it-all and a stubborn person. (I’m just referring to one -actual- person).

I work in the same house as her (I live and work in a community of people with and without learning disabilities, which is set up as a set of houses), which means I see her 5 or 6 days a week, and we eat around 10 meals a week together. Every meal time, I test my blood sugar at the dinner table (point being: she has definitely seen me test my blood). A couple of days ago, I was doing my 2 hour post meal test.

“WHAT IS THAT?!” she yelped.
“I’m diabetic, it’s my blood testing kit,” I replied.
“Oh, my mother has the diabetes. How often do you do that test? Every couple of weeks?” (bear in mind we have been working together for just over 2 months). In steps another of my colleagues –
“Er, no, we see her do that every meal time?”
“Well, my mother only tested every 2 weeks.” (inner eye roll from me.)
“Was your mum a type 2?”
“Yes, she had it for 5 years and then it went away.”

The woman in question is from a different country, so I have no idea what type of diabetes education and treatment they have. But I get the feeling this is more her know-it-all thing, rather than a case of just genuinely not knowing.

“So you just don’t eat sugar?” she continued.

The worst thing was, she came over and tried to look at my test result. Back off, lady. That result is mine, and mine alone.

1 comments:

Mike Hoskins said...

Oh, the Diabetes Police. So often they appear. Luckily, the don't have citation-writing power. Just annoying. Best of luck in dealing with your annoying lady.