Jokes

I recently stumbled upon some boards on Pinterest that were exclusively for Type I Diabetes.  They weren’t all health related either, which was refreshing.  In fact, did you know there are actually type I memes?  I must say, they are hilarious to me, but my mother was not amused.  She did not find the humor in laughing about diabetes (for obvious reasons).  This got me thinking- obviously these memes and pins are only funny to me because I can relate.  I mean, hey, it is funny that I leave a trail of test strips where ever I go- haha. It was refreshing, because for once I felt like I was not alone, and that it was okay to laugh at diabetes jokes. 

Several years ago, I had this guy in my math class that would hold up his hands and make an “x” with his index fingers and say “don’t give me the diabeetus!” (using Wilford Brimley’s famous pronunciation), while leaning away from me.  He did this fairly often.  He obviously thought it was funny, picking on me in that way, but to be honest, it hurt my feelings.  It made me feel like even more of a freak than I already did.  As humiliating as this was though, I really tried to ignore it.  Sure, it was rude, and definitely hurtful, but I can usually handle these sort of degrading comments to a certain extent.  That is, before my emotions get the best of me.  Take this example, for instance:

During my junior year of high school I was on the color guard team in the marching band.   Like most high school bands out there, all us felt like a family (a very unique family).  With band competitions on the weekends, football games every Friday night, and long practices during both the days and nights, we all grew pretty close to one another.   One day sticks out more than others: it was the day I arrived to the band room only to find out that one of the trumpet players had been diagnosed with Type I Diabetes.  Hearing news like this is similar to hearing of a death.  It hit me hard.  He was so old compared to when I was diagnosed, that I could not believe it.  It upset me greatly, and I guess you could say I “mourned” all morning.  It wasn’t until I was standing in the lunch line that my emotions took a fast turn.  The conversation among the guys behind me caught my attention, and so I began to listen to what they were saying:

“You know he got that by drinking after [fellow diabetic friend].”

“It’s ‘cause he ate too much sugar!”

“He got what was coming to him!”

"Yeah, serves him right!"

You can imagine my reaction.  As this was years ago, I do not remember my exact words, but I made it very clear that individuals with diabetes are not contagious!  Furthermore, I informed these insensitive morons behind me that I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy, and that no one deserves this.  They of course tried to backtrack, and reason with me about what they had said, and I just turned around, trying not to strangle them, or worse, cry.  They had insulted me, and hurt my feelings.  They were joking about a guy that will have to live with this disease for the rest of his life.  Completely unacceptable.

Diabetes is nothing to joke about.  Diabetes kills approximately 4.6 million people a year; break this down, and that is about 1 person every 8 seconds.  The complications alone are deadly, but say you catch pneumonia:  well, if you have diabetes you could die from that.  Blindness, kidney failure, pregnancy complications, poor circulation, nerve damage, early death; the list goes on and on. Currently I have microalbuminuria, which means that my kidneys are already starting to lose their effectiveness.  This is an early sign of kidney disease/failure.   You can see why I do not laugh at diabetes cracks, and I absolutely won’t tolerate insensitivity towards the disease. 

However, there is light at the end of this blog!  As I mentioned earlier, there are diabetes memes, Pinterest boards, and lots of acceptable humor that suits our unique situation.  I know that fellow Type I’s will appreciate a laugh.  These are the jokes that are only understood by us- a special community of people that share in the same experiences each and every day.  Besides, do you ever feel like Hansel and Gretel, because you leave a trail of test strips behind wherever you go?  Do you ever feel like a genius mathematician when you actually figure properly for pizza?  We can relate, and these are the things we can joke about.  Not about being freaks of nature.  I’ve started a new board on Pinterest that is purely for Type I Diabetes humor!  I encourage you to check it out!  =]  http://pinterest.com/jessupa2852/type-1-diabetes/