Comments from this week

Some things people have said over this past week have driven me absolutely up the wall.

We all get our share of stupid comments related to diabetes. We all get the questions that we give people the benefit of the doubt for not knowing any better. While volunteering this week at the school book fair, I had lunch with the girls on two separate days. On Friday, I ate with Jada. It happened to be a day where a dad was eating with his daughter and they were kind of across the table from us. His daughter mentioned something about Jada needing to go to the office and his dad asked her why. Her answer was that Jada had to go to the nurse because she has diabetes. Insert stupid commentary from the dad about how his so-and-so had diabetes really bad and blah blah blah. I wanted to jump across the table and smack him. I mean what do you do when you are at a table of third graders and all you want to say to another parent is “Dude, shut the hell up. Would you think about what is coming out of your mouth? Would you want someone saying the worst that could happen to your kid?”

Maybe calling the comments stupid is unfair. The comments are not thought out. They are just thoughts sent out into the world without being filtered or questioned whether or not they should be said.

Erin had a substitute on Thursday. Her idea of reminding the kids to study for their Spelling test was to tell them that in fourth grade they take ILeap testing and if they fail it they have to back to Pre-K. Seriously? I am thankful that Erin will believe me easily when I tell her that something isn’t true but other kids not so much.

Then one of the school nurses (of all people) told Jada that high blood sugar causes the veins in your eyes to pop out. Really? You are going to tell an eight year old a random, possible complication because her bg was in the 250s? Jada asked me about it. I had to explain to her the truth of what could happen after many, many years of unmanaged diabetes. She wasn’t quite sure about my answer so the next day, she asked another of the nurses the same question. She’s good now. And I did call the Nursing Supervisor about it. No Nurse should be telling her anything like that. It’s my job as her parent to fill her in. She’s only eight.

Why isn’t is as simple as we tell our kids what we think they need to know about diabetes when they need to know it? Why do people say things like the above without even thinking about it.

Maybe I should make a card that says “Please stop talking now. Think about what you are saying to a CHILD who has to live with this disease forever or until a cure is found. Would you want me telling your child about the possibilities of horrible car accidents that could happen to them? Didn’t think so. So why tell my child horror stories?” Or something like that to just hand over when someone speaks without thinking. Of course, at lunch that day, I wouldn’t have had them with me.

Think before you speak people!