Is Managing D Intimate and Personal?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Marps on June 11, 2009 at 12:43pm

eeesh. Thanks for posting this. I didn't even know that there was a response to my previous post. To think that an "attack" was launched from a completely personal expression is unfathomable.
I didn't even say anything about other diseases. It was completely a reflection of myself.

Weird.

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Permalink Reply by Lauren on June 11, 2009 at 12:52pm

Oh. Haha. Hi. I didn't edit my response did I? Whoops! Just so my comment makes sense to people who are coming here without reading all that stuff first: in the other thread the poster we were responding to listed off a bunch of other diseases and asked if they were not as intimate as T1. I was responding directly to that one.

I think that the management of a chronic illness is a personal experience for everyone, as everyone reacts to situations differently. It's not like there is a default reaction guide for type one diabetes. :)

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Permalink Reply by Carol on June 13, 2009 at 12:34am

That makes perfect sense, well said.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Hagen on June 11, 2009 at 1:36pm

I believe intimate is a good word for how I feel. I am protective if someone asks about my diabetes. Much like an early stage of a romance. Anytime you are attached to something as we are it is intimate, from placement of shots or infusion sets, to the longing for the return of good numbers. It is more than personal for me. Intimacy can make you hurt or feel great easier than almost anything else. I feel as if I get to live with my killer, as it will most likely be. How is that not intimate? Some days I hate it, others, I ignore it, and still others it is a close friend I have known for oh so long.

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Permalink Reply by Marps on June 11, 2009 at 1:45pm

Very poetic.

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Permalink Reply by Emily Joy on June 11, 2009 at 9:38pm

honestly, i don't like to test in public. and... i don't even like people to see me holding my omnipod PDM. i don't know why. but.... i don't. even my family. i test and everything in front of them. but, i hate it when anyone in my family says mentions anything like "where's your pod, today?" or anything like that. even when my dad says "diabetes", it bugs me. why? i have no clue. i think... that in my mind, i'm perfectly normal, still. so, when i hear other people acknowledging it... it scares me.

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Permalink Reply by kerry on June 11, 2009 at 10:32pm

Michelle,
I appreciate your interest as an endocrinologist in our thoughts and feelings as diabetics... I'm wondering if you will be quoting any of us specifically in your journal article(s), or if at this point you are gathering a general understanding of how we as people relate to the disease?

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Permalink Reply by Adriana on June 11, 2009 at 11:25pm

Well in my perspective i would make it intimate because of how i was. I was very close to other people, didnt have too many friends and i didnt talk about my diabetes because of how people would react to it. Now i dont care if some old ladies are watching me and criticize me.

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Permalink Reply by nel on June 12, 2009 at 12:19am

When I read the comment in the previous discussion I questioned my intelligence and thinking process and I still do .I am a simple thinker and thank goodness totally aware of what I need to do to manage MY diabetes 24/7 for the last 26 plus years.I was brought up in a time, where we did not discuss one's ailment ..The word cancer was very softly spoken , same with diabetes or lung disease. Then I moved to North America in the early sixties and always have been open about my feelings, desires, and managing my chronic illnesses etc. What turned it around ?? I don't really know.
I think , that I would not have offered my help as an advocate for people with diabetes with the Canadian Diabetes Association , if this were not the case.

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Permalink Reply by Ryan on June 12, 2009 at 2:00am

I don't know if it is intimate, but it is private!!! I have never tested in public or given a shot in public. 99.9% of the people in my life do not know I am a diabteic. My girlfriend of 11 months still doesn't know!!! I was gonna tell her, but I keep chickening out. But I would say for the most part I keep my disease private. I mean people with heart disease or something don't go around telling people they have a disease!!!

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Permalink Reply by Ryan on June 12, 2009 at 9:28am

Wow, how do you manage to hide it Ryan? I told my girlfriend before we started dating because I got diagnosed right before we decided we might want to be more than friends. She learned all of the new things I'd have to be doing in my life with me and still decided that I was worth the drama (my words not hers) :)

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Permalink Reply by Marps on June 12, 2009 at 9:55am

Yeah, I'm with you, Ryan. I told my fiance when we first started dating. We started dating in High school. I had been diagnosed one year before I met him, but after we shared our first kiss, I told him what was going on before he decided that he wanted to discover me as a whole.

I figured it's like saying: "I'm really great, but I come with a lot of baggage." Because waking up in a "coma" is considered "baggage" in my eyes. Watching what I eat while he can do whatever he wants to do makes my life seem like it carries excess weight. The pending complications that can come up makes me seem "heavier" than he is. After a few months together, I told him that even though I want children desperately, I wasn't sure if I could have any. I told him that sometimes I can't control what's going on with my body- I'll have mood swings that I can't explain, or act in a way that is uncharacteristic of me- depending on my BG level.

T1D is tough and it's hard to control and hard to live with. I thought it was only fair at the beginning of our relationship that I told him my little disclosure.

Everyone handles it differently.

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