(the author is writing about her daughter, a seven year-old who was just diagnosed with Diabetes in May)
When you have a child with a disease or any other issue you open your world to a lot of people making numerous comments that make no sense or are completely inaccurate (I have to believe that they think they are doing it out of kindness – or I would be punching a lot more people these days!)
The hardest part is explaining to someone that feels they know more about your disease than you, even though you are living with it day and day out. At first I just accepted the comments with an “okay” and moved along as soon as you I could, but not anymore!
Diabetes is very misunderstood.
First and foremost there are 2 types of diabetes:
Type 1 – Insulin Dependent from the onset and for the rest of your life with little to no understanding of the cause or why it happened to you or your family member, and
Type 2 – Healthy diet and exercise and for most people a pill can manage this type. They know or are aware of the major causes for this type: family history, diet and lifestyle all play a part. You should know if you are at risk for Type 2 – please find out – you can work on avoiding it more if you know! (Check out this website to check your risk factors: http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/prevention/diabetes-risk-test/?utm_source=WWW&utm_medium=DropDownDB&utm_content=RiskTest&utm_campaign=CON
More people have Type 2 and are at risk for Type 2 – everyone that thinks they understand diabetes knows it from people with Type 2 – most people do not understand that Type 1 is in no way avoidable and you really can’t know if you are at risk for Type 1.
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