Pet Peeves

After watching Oprah's show on Thursday about the growing epidemic of Diabetes, it got me thinking about some of the things her and Dr. Oz mentioned and how much they irritated me.  While much of the information mentioned was true, it wasn't in the correct format and the use of a Type 1 to show the side effects to Type 2 diabetic seems slanderous (not sure if that's even the correct term, but it sounds good). 

Anyway, it got me thinking about many of the "terms" one uses when talking about this disease, how they are incorrect and my thoughts behind their meaning.  So, here we go...

1) "Got sick" - When you "get sick", you can "get well".  You can recover from the flu or heal from a broken bone, but you don't recover or heal from a disease.  Sorry, it just doesn't work that way.  When people find out that Mike is diabetic, they ask when he got sick.  Well, he doesn't have the flu so he's not sick - he was diagnosed at 5.  Same thing for some Type 2's I know, they didn't get sick 2 years ago; they were diagnosed 2 years ago.

2) "Bad food" - There is no such thing as a bad food.  All foods are good, IN MODERIATION.  It's called a serving size.  The only "bad foods" are the ones that we are allergic to.  For me, any form is seafood is a bad food for me.

3) "Wouldn't understand, you're not diabetic" - That's true, I'm not diabetic.  It it's such an awful disease, you should be thankful that another person doesn't have to go through what you've gone through.  But at the same time, you don't know what it's like to be me - to have my thoughts or feelings or even go through my own personal health issues.

4) "Your waist should be half of your height to avoid diabetes" - Thank you Dr. Oz.  If this is true for me, I would underweight and my doctor would have issues with this.

5) "You'll pass it on to your children" - Yes, this can be true.  But we can also pass on the fact that I have hazel eyes and Mike has brown.  My mom has green eyes so there's a chance they can get that too, heaven forbid.

6) "Can you eat that?" - See bad food pet peeve.  If you're not allergic to it and actually have the capability to eat it, then it's not a problem.  Just dose correctly for it - oh, and don't complain afterward that you shouldn't have eaten it. 

7) "Is he OK?" - The assumption of being high or low when acting silly.  Mike enjoys quoting movies and making up stories about the dog being a black cochroach or the cat being an iguana.  The cochroach or iguana stories rarely leave the house, but the movie quotes do.  We have a friend and sometimes when Mike will text him with quotes, the friends response to me is normally "Is Mike off his meds?"

8) "Pre-diabetic or border-line diabetic" - To me, this is like saying that we are pre-children.  It's a stupid phrase.

9) "High at 121" - This is mainly for Type 2's who test their sugar and take the test results to the extreme when they are not in the "normal range".  Result is 121, while the normal range is 80 to 110.  The world is going to end!!

10) "Maybe if you had taken care of yourself, you wouldn't have developed diabetes" - This is for Type 1 and the people who seem to believe that those who were diagnosed at 13 months, if they had more exercise in their daily lives, Diabetes wouldn't have happened.

These are just some of my Diabetic pet peeves.  There are more, but a list of 10 is a good start.  What are some of your pet peeves (they don't all have to relate to Diabetes)?  Maybe we can all learn something about eachother and how communication can effect us.