You don’t look Diabetic…
What a freakin’ stupid statement!! What exactly does a diabetic look like ma’am?! Holy crapzoids- it took everything in me to not ask my client that the other day.
Let me back up….
I’m in the car industry. (Now, before you go and visualize some middle-age man with a horrible suit and comb over…times have changed. I assure you: I don’t have a comb over, nor a horrible polyester suit)
As I’ve said 239857x- I work for a great company. One that truly looks out for its’ clients and employees alike. And I do my absolute best to always keep my cool with each and every single client, each and every single time because of the awesome company that signs my checks.
It just so happens that for the month of Septemeber, every car sold off our lot at my dealership, means a donation made to JDRF for my team (Bean’s Betes)! I, of course, made flyers and had been posting on social media about it to try and get the buzzzzz going.
This all being said, I had a client at my desk the other day, and she happened to notice the flyer hanging by my desk stating what my company was doing for JDRF this month. I saw her reading it…then saw he husband look over and take a quick gander. Then, she asks why I had the flyer posted and what JDRF was- I explained to her what JDRF was and about the promotion my company was nice enough to offer to help raise awareness and money for this cause. She then proceeded to ask how come we did JDRF as opposed to other causes…so I told her about my ongoing battle with type 1 diabetes and how it affected my daily life…
She looks at me and says “But you don’t look diabetic…”
It took me probably about 3 seconds of gathering my composure before I answered. “Well ma’am, I hear that a lot! But I do, in fact, have it and have for over 16 years now. It’s definitely something I struggle with on a daily basis.”
Now.. tell me…which of these four pictures look “type 1 diabetic”:
Faces of T1D
The 86 year old man? Me at 26? The 9 yr old me? or the 64 year old lady? C’mon people! There is no “diabetic” look. It’s just not so.
I’ve heard that I didn’t “look diabetic”a lot over my 16 years and each and every time I make myself breathe, focus, and not shoot back with some jackass answer. Sometimes, I’ll even go as far as turning around and showing them my pump. As if to say “Seeee?!”
The problem is that people still genuinely think that there is a “look” of Diabetes…there isn’t. We may not be able to – in one clean sweep- knock the ignorance out of people, but i believe little by little we can help educate people: together.
#diabetics #diabetes #typeone #type1diabetes #diabetic #omnipod #type1 #insulinpods #beansbetes #livewithdiabetes #thefaceofT1D #diabeticliving #diabeticlife #insulin