Insulin Etiquette

[EllenS]

Pubic bone to armpits?  Body type aside, that is uneccessary.  Even in her pajamas, my mom never pulled her shirt up past her belly button.

[Moray]

I'm just wondering if the mother had been fit (flat stomach), would it have bothered you so much?  It sounds like the fact she exposed her fat belly was particularly offensive to you.

Her behavior was wrong but I don't think her obesity should be the issue.

I didn't read it that way. I thought she was describing the reasoning behind the diabetes. As in, she is obese and therefore is diabetic. She didn't reference her weight anywhere else in the post.

OP, she definitely should not have had to expose more than a couple inches to inject herself. Definitely attention-seeking.

Side note: There are a whole bunch of different factors that determine whether someone develops diabetes.

[TurtleDove]

Pubic bone to armpits?  Body type aside, that is uneccessary.  Even in her pajamas, my mom never pulled her shirt up past her belly button.

Hence my (and others') shock.  I was trying to come up with some reason why she did it that way and it seems there was no reason other than to draw attention to herself.  It wasn't even on just one side and it was quite a production to get her shirt up and pants down, which is the only reason I mentioned her size at all.  I was across the room, not engaged in conversation with the mother of the MTB, and not facing her, but the commotion and I guess looks on people's faces cause me to turn around and see it. 

[WillyNilly]

I agree the public near-disrobing is the big issue here.  I honestly wouldn't care one bit of someone discreetly injected themselves in front of me, and I would never expect someone to go to a bathroom to do it (just seems un-sterile to me, even though logically probably a living room is no cleaner), but there's no reason to expose several inches, up & down, which due to the way fabric moves means side to side as well.  If you are ever around this woman again and see her start with this process, I think it would be fine to gently approach her and ask she step into another room if she needs to remove so much clothing.

[whatsanenigma]

I have been an insulin dependant diabetic for almost 27 years now, and I actually think that the issue of injecting in public is a lot like the issue of breastfeeding in public.  Do it but try to be discreet.  Try your best not to let the nipple or needle show but don't freak out about it.

Personally, if everybody in the immidiate area knows I am diabetic, I will just do it right there at the table, sometimes making the joke "I'm just going to take the drugs now".  If I am in mixed company or around people I don't know well, I won't go so far as to find a bathroom, but I will go to a corner and do it there.  The exception being, if it is one of those rare occasions when I am wearing sleeves that are too tight to push up, and I will actually have to partially take the shirt off. 

And also, I would like to point out that sometimes, being discreet can cause more attention to be brought to yourself than no such attempt.  If you make a big deal out of it, asking really loudly where the host would prefer you to go to inject the insulin, making a big fuss about it, everybody will stare at you and think "poor you", when, especially if you have lots of practice, you can, even with a syringe and bottle, just do it so quickly that no one even really notices until you are done. Believe it or not, I have been in several situations where I was eating a meal with people who knew I was diabetic, and we would all get up to leave the table, and one would say "don't you want to take your insulin?" and I said "I already did", and they were amazed they hadn't noticed.

And I wonder if this lady just didn't have enough practice yet.  Is she recently diabetic? You need a lot more space to work with to make sure you do it right, until you get the hang of it.  Though that does not excuse her behavior, of course.  If she really was so unpracticed that she needed to expose herself, she should have gone into a bathroom or out to her car or something.

As for injecting through clothes, I know some people do it, but I don't, but the only reason is that I don't want to get blood on my clothes.     Otherwise, I totally would do that.

[mmswm]

My 11 year old can inject himself with an old fashioned needle so fast and unobtrusively that even I have a hard time seeing that he's done it.   He's been injecting himself (with varying amounts of help) since he was 3.5, so he's gotten very good at it.  If a child can be discrete, there's no reason an adult can't do so.

[TurtleDove]

Is she recently diabetic?

No, she is probably in her late 60s and has been diabetic her whole life, or at least as long as I have been alive (we are related somehow - I refer to her daughters as my cousins, but they aren't exactly that - I think mother of the MTB and my father are second cousins).  Diabetes runs in my father's family, though I am not certain the types.  My father has diabetes but he is quite fit (even at 68 he exercises nearly every day and is pretty spry and trim) and he does not need insulin - he controls his with diet and lifestyle.  I don't know the specifics of the mother of MTB's diabetes and had not really ever thought about her injecting, mostly because I haven't spent much time with her in recent years and it never came up.  Various family members I know have diabetes and various family members do inject insulin, though I haven't ever noticed it, but I don't often see them so that isn't strange. At any rate, given what everyone has said I am relatively certain her behavior was attention seeking. 

As another example of her behavior, she would frequently burst into tears and loudly talk about how painful it is for her that the first baby died.  During the baby shower for the second baby.  In front of the mother of that baby, and various other people who have suffered significant recent losses.  It was just really inappropriate for the event and the people gathered.

[EllenS]

As another example of her behavior, she would frequently burst into tears and loudly talk about how painful it is for her that the first baby died.  During the baby shower for the second baby.  In front of the mother of that baby, and various other people who have suffered significant recent losses.  It was just really inappropriate for the event and the people gathered.

Ah, the insulin is a bit of a red herring.  Drama queens will always find fodder for their queenery.

How insensitive.

[snowdragon]

I used to work with developmentally disabled adults. many of them were diabetic. One young lady had to test several times a day and inject fairly soon after meals. She needed to do it a table because of other issues....but I never saw skin other than areas that are normally exposed.  She would then pack up all test strips, lancets and needles and cart them home with her "because these days anything that has blood on it makes folks nervous."
 If  she can figure out how to do this with politeness and compassion for those around her, so can everyone else.

[newbiePA]

20 year type 1 diabetic here.  Insulin has nothing to do with this drama llama.  Prior to my pump, I was the fastest injector this side of the Mississippi.  I didn't care to do it in the bathroom, but I was very discreet.  She was not.  And agree, weight does not cause diabetes, but that's beyond this board.

[CrochetFanatic]

I didn't witness this, but a friend told me about getting dirty looks for injecting insulin in public.  I've had no experience with this matter, and having no opinion I just sort of went "uh-huh", not all that phased.  I suggested using the bathroom for it instead of doing it out in the open, and was told "Ew, germs".  That could have been why. 

From what I've seen, it is possible to inject insulin discreetly under the table, and exposing that much of one's body doesn't seem like it should be necessary.  Well, unless for some reason she couldn't reach, but I can't quite figure out...never mind.  Anyway, I agree with everyone who says she was rude to be so indiscreet.

[White Lotus]

I have seen people inject through clothing.  Not a problem for me, or, apparently, for them. If a person had to disarrange a lot of clothing (undo belt, unbutton waistband, pull out shirt, etc.) I would find that too much "undressing" for a public space.

[suzieQ]

Insulin can be injected into any area of the body that has some fat (but not supposed to be within 2" of the belly button). She didn't need to expose that much of herself. We used to inject DS in the back of the arm when we were in public. Never did it in the bathroom (eewww germs) AND he was a boy, I'm a woman, I had to inject him. Kinda didn't work for us.

Never noticed any dirty looks, but then again, I was busy testing his blood glucose, drawing up the insulin, making sure the air was out of the syringe and injecting him. We did it at the table, but we never ate with other people either.

[Winterlight]

I have no problem with a second baby shower here- I'm not sure I'd be able to look at the clothes and things collected for the first baby without sobbing.

I think injecting should be done discreetly and in private, because having someone else pass out because of the needle is not a pleasant thing.

[Thipu1]

In my family, we have had a number of insulin-dependent relatives.  Even in the home, I have never seen anything like what the OP described.

  When an injection was called-for, it was always done in a bathroom or a bedroom.  Certainly, it would not be done in a room where a party was taking place. 

There's a big difference between modestly breast-feeding a baby and exposing a large portion of your body for an insulin injection.  It doesn't matter if the lady in question was 'fat' or 'fit'.  An insulin injection does not require that amount of flesh to be exposed.