While ancient diabetics like Alison and me (Alison is especially ancient) are at least moderately clued up about diabetes, teenage diabetics are often thought of as a neglected demographic with little decent information aimed at them.
Attempting to redress this balance, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals have recently recorded and made a whole load of podcasts for young diabetics available for download from their website.
They must be good as diabetic god Sir Steve Redgrave says they’re wonderful on the hospital’s press release. However, being a Redgrave atheist, I downloaded them for myself and had a listen.
I was half-expecting them to be somewhat patronising, but was pleased to hear that they’re not (however, saying that, I am in my thirties and what I think isn’t patronising might differ wildly from what a teenager might think is patronising, but I digress).
I started off with the wildly depressing podcast “Diabetes, Sex and So On”, which details the nightmarish and sorry tale of a diabetic who didn’t control their glucose levels during their pregnancy and so gives birth to a crippled baby who then promptly dies. Cheerful stuff.
However things looked up from there, with the “Nights Out” podcast being an entertaining and somewhat sordid story of a bunch of lads getting seriously boozed up on beer, vodka and Red Bull and going out clubbing. Inevitably the diabetic in the party has a hypo and starts getting aggressive and mouthy with a bouncer; everything gets fractious and they all get arrested, receive a mild beating from the local ;
I love the idea of the NHS recommending that for health reasons all diabetics should pull on a night out. I’m imagining a sign in all night clubs under which single diabetics could stand at the end of the night while people with working pancreases assess which one they’d like to adopt for the night. Like getting a dog from the dogs home, you’d only be able to take a diabetic home if you could prove you had adequate facilities ie lots of juice boxes and a healthy supply of fruit pastilles 😉
I think it is rather shameless to encourage young diabetics to angle for sugar daddies*/mommies on a night out . (picked up with : “Is that fruit pastilles, or are you just happy to see me? )
Safe sex and diabetes? Isn’t there enough already we have to worry about?!? 😀
@Ckoei I can’t believe I didn’t think of the sugar daddy pun first, I’m so disappointed in myself!
@Alison At least you are in the know about the sexual implications of the word “pull” – a revelation to me! (So a euphemism for “STD” can be “pullmonary disease”?)