Revisiting: How is your diabetes?

By | 13 June, 2018

It seems Diabetes Week 2018 has hit upon the soapbox I’ve been jumping up and down on for years: #languagematters when you #talkaboutdiabetes. And while ShootUp has plenty of serious posts on the topic, we believe in being helpful too. So, when Alison was asked for the hundredth time that unanswerable question of “How’s your diabetes?”, she pondered how best to answer it:

  • Truthfully – “It’s a damn irritation to be honest but it’s fine”
  • What they want to hear? – “I have it all under control, my HbA1c is perfect and my diabetes will in no way impact on your work”
  • Baffle them with science – “The CGM has identified a problem with dawn phenomenon and I think I need to tweak my basals to counter-act some underlying  insulin resistance. Engage warp drive.”
  • Flippantly – “Why don’t you ask it? Hey, diabetes, how are you?”
  • Emotionally -“I thought you’d never ask, I can’t cope any longer, I’ve had this 35 years and it’s driving me mad <burst into tears for extra impact>”
  • Try to confuse them – “Oh, I’ve given my diabetes some time off, I thought it was feeling a little stressed so I said I’d cope on my own for a couple of weeks while it took a break”
  • Scare them – “Diabetes? Oh I don’t bother about that, the interweb said it could be cured with coffee so I’m drinking 20 cups a day.”

So, how is your diabetes?

Category: Living with diabetes Mildly amusing

About Alison

Diagnosed with Type One in 1983 at the age of four, Alison's been at this for a while now. She uses Humalog in a combined insulin pump and continuous glucose monitoring system and any blood glucose meter as long as it takes five seconds or less.

2 thoughts on “Revisiting: How is your diabetes?

  1. Tim

    I have to say I’m a big fan of the “blind ’em with science” strategy – “I use my flash glucose monitor to help adjust my dual wave bolus, while modifying my basals”.

    This goes one of two ways – glazed-over confusion, after which they’ll never ask about your diabetes again. Or geeky enthusiasm (admittedly this happens in a minority of cases) which descends in hastily drawn diagrams, a crash course in endocrinology and a genuine interest in everyone’s favourite chronic condition.

    Reply
    1. Alison Post author

      Win win. If you know what you’re talking about I’m very happy to chat with you. And if you don’t, I’d really rather you glazed over and didn’t get involved.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *