I am getting very tired of people close to me giving me their inaccurate broad brush assertions about MY diabetes and diabetes in general.
What brings this up…the Back to School Crud is going around big time where I live. Most of the high school teachers were out a minimum of two days last week. My kids have it, I have it, all of their friends have it…it is everywhere. It’s this monster cold that kind of resembles COVID in symptoms and duration (but we keep testing negative).
There are four of us mom-friends who have a perpetual group chat going. One of the moms has a daughter with a chronic health condition…so there’s always been extra understanding between the two of us having these conditions in our families that require a bit more planning and constant monitoring.
My mom-friends have heard me talk for years about how inadequate T1D care is for adults and for women, specifically. And they’re heard me talk a lot about the common misunderstandings around diabetes and how frustrating it is to have people automatically assume they know everything about you and your disease because they had one great uncle who had his legs amputated years ago. (And why would you even tell me that? That is not a normal “we have something in common and I’m building a bridge to you” conversation to have with a near-stranger!)
Anyway…this morning, we mom-friends were comparing notes on how far along everyone is in this Monster Cold thing. Some kids are puking from the amount of drainage. Some kids can’t make it out of the cough stage. Etc.
I mentioned, “I’m surprised how bad my stamina is right now and I’m on Day 6 of this thing.”
Cue the mom-friend with the daughter with the chronic medical condition saying, “That is because of your immune system.”
Oh. My. Word.
I was so mad.
I wrote back, “It’s everyone’s immune system!” with a smiley emoji behind it to soften it.
I explained a bit more about why my stamina at this stage of this virus has nothing to do with my Type 1 Diabetes. My blood sugar was 70 all night long…but my heart rate was 7 bpm higher all night and my temperature was 2 degrees higher all night. That’s because of the virus! It makes people sick! It puts strain on your body! I’m not sick because I have Type 1 Diabetes. I’m sick because I have a virus! I’ve been more functional through this whole virus than almost everyone else I know who has gotten it!
I also told her, “My body doesn’t know I have Type 1 Diabetes.”
Which is true. My body has no clue that that energy process is requiring manual intervention to work. I have zero complications. I’m healthier than almost everyone I know.
And this is what kills me…my mom contemporaries with high school students are the most unhealthy demographic I’ve seen. And they believe they have no choice but to live that way. They don’t get enough sleep, they live on caffeine (and vaping for some of them), they feed themselves and their kids really crappy fast food at least 5 days a week, and they’re completely overscheduled and stressed out at all times.
I don’t live like that. I take care of myself. I’m healthier than all of them, but it’s evidently MY IMMUNE SYSTEM that makes me get sick like once a year. Never mind the fact that one of them STILL has not recovered her stamina ever since getting COVID and the flu at the same time last year. And that is terrible for her. But no one is telling her it is because her body is defective.
I’m just so over people’s thoughtless medical statements that they take to be gospel. Y’all are super wrong AND super unhealthy! And yes, you have a choice about that! Stop signing your kids up for five activities each to keep up with the Jones’ and maybe go for a walk every once in a while!! Your unhealthiness IS a choice and my disease is none of your business if you’re gonna keep getting it wrong! Stay on your side of the fence!
Thank you for humoring my overdue rant. Everyone’s a victim when it comes to their own circumstances, but then they’re suddenly a doctor when it comes to my circumstances. Major eyeroll.
