Guest guest Posted October 12, 2005 Report Share Posted October 12, 2005 Hello again everyone..... This is an off topic question but I need someones advice here. I have a friend who likes to tell everyone she is type 1 diabetic. I have tried to tell her that is for insuilin dependant people who if they do not inject insulin into their body, they will die. She says right, if I don't eat sugar I will die. I tried in vain yesterday to explain that she is at best a type 2 diabetic....controlling her low blood sugar by INJESTING sugar, not injecting it. She cannot seem to get the difference here. I am worried for her because should she end up in the hospital for some reason and she tells the doctors or nurses she is type 1 diabetic, I am scared for what might happen to her with a wrong diagnosis. I grew up with a type 1 diabetic all my life. I know the differences between the 2. Her husband has just been diagnosed type 2 through bloodwork. She considers herself type 1 because if she doesn't allow herself ANY sugar (which she does to stay thin and she lives on less than 5 grams of fat a day.....and NO she is not sick. She is healthy as a horse) she gets shaky and headaches. I was there when the FNP (we share the same one) told her to start introducing real sugar back into her diet. That she wasn't taking in enough. That she wasn't diabetic at all. The blood test were all good to go. If I sound like I am rambling, I am sorry. She is SUCH A GOOD friend of mine that I want her to have accurate inforamtion about her health. Its not enough that when she does eat ANYTHING with more than a few grams of fat, she has to get to the bathroom fast. I told her she sounded like she might be experiencing mal-absorbtion in same way. You would think after all these years of watching my pancreatic problems she would know I do know what I am talking about. But I can not seem to get through to her. Should I just let this go or does someone else have an idea how I can get through to her about her " diabetic " status? It frightens me to think she may one day get into a horrible accident, say she is type 1 diabetic and get a shot of insulin she does not need. Sandy in Ca Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 12, 2005 Report Share Posted October 12, 2005 Hi Sandy, I am wondering if your friend is using this more serious diagnosis as an excuse to continue with her no-sugar diet. Do you think that she is a little overly concerned with her weight and food issues? I know that you say she is very healthy, but for an intelligent person to insist on a diagnosis with no logical reason makes me think that there are other reasons involved. It may just be easier for her to say that she has Type 1 diabetes so people will not hassle her about her food choices. As far as the wrong diagnosis harming her in times of hospitalization.......it could but for the most part the doctors and nurses will get to the right diagnosis by asking her what medication she takes to control it. By eliciting honest answers here, they should be able to figure out that she is not an insulin dependent diabetic I would think. Hopefully too they would be able to access her medical records in any kind of elective surgery, etc. And in an emergency, they can always do more rigid / frequent blood tests to monitor her condition and if she remains stable, they may figure out that she is mis-informed. I would also suspect that most health care workers are used to people using wrong phrases or diagnoses to describe their condition (as we know, that can be frustrating in cases when the patient is right!) and are able to get to the bottom of the condition. As far as how you can inform her? I would suspect that she is not ready to be educated, from what you wrote. Laurie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 12, 2005 Report Share Posted October 12, 2005 Thanks Fliss and Laurie, Perhaps you are right that she doesn't want to be informed or admit that she really isn't a diabetic. She is newly married and her husband doesn't know how to control his own type 2 health issues yet. He only does as she tells him. She allows him ZERO sugar if it isn't natural. And even at natural sugars she allows him only 8-10 grams of that a day. I thought that he was allowed some sugar even being type 2, but perhaps I am wrong there. I know this shouldn't really be a topic on our board, but diabetes is a topic on here and with so many people truely sick with it, it's hard to look at someone claiming they have a potentially life threatening disease when they don't. Yes, I think that she is very OVERLY concerned with her weight. And I never thought of it that she would say this to justify not eating. She once said to me that she won't watch football because all the players are obese and they are ugly to look at. Then made the statement that they are regulating weight for football players because they are so ugly with fat rolls and dying. That one made me laugh as I am an avid football fan and never heard such a story. Her statements with regards to being fat makes me wonder what she must think of me being 25 pounds over weight. She is a good friend and we share the same FNP and attend these visits together. So I know her complete medical history and she knows mine. I am now thinking she must have a eating disorder that I just never picked up on. I guess color me blonde! When we get together we eat white rice and grilled chicken. I quite HONESTLY never eat more than half my meal. I just hurt to much with the old pancreas to do so. But she sits at the ready for me to push my bowl aside so she can jump in and eat all the rest of mine. Rice and chicken having no fat, thats an allright thing to do in her eyes. As soon as I told her I found out the veggies had butter on them and contained some fat, she stopped eating those (I never ate them to begin with). And thinking of it now, she only orders rice and takes half the chicken from my bowl because the chicken is about 3 grams of fat per serving. Funny how you don't notice stuff until you really think of it. I will back away from trying to inform her about diabetes and hope that should something bad happen (fingers crossed nothing ever does) that the medical staff would check her blood count thououghly before administering insulin on just her word. I wasn't trying to be pushy, just wanted her to be educated on diabetes. She has heard me talk about it for many years you would think she would be somewhat educated on it by now. Thanks again....I do appreciate the advice. Sandy in Ca -------------- Original message -------------- Hi Sandy, I am wondering if your friend is using this more serious diagnosis as an excuse to continue with her no-sugar diet. Do you think that she is a little overly concerned with her weight and food issues? I know that you say she is very healthy, but for an intelligent person to insist on a diagnosis with no logical reason makes me think that there are other reasons involved. It may just be easier for her to say that she has Type 1 diabetes so people will not hassle her about her food choices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 12, 2005 Report Share Posted October 12, 2005 Sandy, I don't want to alarm you, but it sounds as though your friend might have an eating disorder. She could be using the diabetes diagnosis as a way to get people to not make her eat. Also, running to the bathroom after eating is characterisitic of bulimia. On a personal note, sometimes when I was on dates and didn't really want to eat or like the food I would say that I left my pancreas enzymes at home. It could be something similar. Crystal Galloway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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