Injecting in Public

Soooooooo, I went out with some new friends recently and some of them weren't aware that I was a diabetic, or had seen me inject myself with insulin. With that in mind, the awkward looks I got when I squeezed a chunk of flab, with a needle in hand, shouldn't have surprised me. In most cases the looks are looks of mild shock but in some cases they're looks of mild disgust or a squeezed or cringed face. But the looks dissipate as quickly as the action of injecting my insulin. I probably should have really crushed the ice by pulling my trousers down and injecting in my sweet bum cheeks, but I didn't feel that confident and I failed to groom appropriately for such a showcase. I feel like people think I do illegal drugs sometimes, but then I think, what kind of drug taker has a fluorescent orange injection pen. Unless its an adventurous business minded drug taker, who is advertising, discretely yet boisterously their brand of drug, which might be a good idea I suppose. Better yet, what drug taker, blatantly 'shoots' their drug so confidently and arrogantly at a dinner table. The mafia kingpin, that's who. Although I'm a fairly inconspicuous individual, I may also be mistaken for such a character. In public, I clearly have an excellent disguise, for, what policeman would suspect the small yet belly-rounded, dense lensed glasses wearer as a distributor of drugs, or maybe racketeer?... Batman?

Anyways, I obviously got the normal barrage and echoing questioning of my condition, which is fair enough, except I generally don't like such large and focused attention. At least, they're at ease now, and now I've passed that phase of initial interrogation. Now it'll be 'So do how many times do you have to inject?' Which I'll answer as 'It can change from day to day depending on how many times I eat, but minimum 5 times' I'll get a surprised look and a shock gasp, Which to be honest, makes me feel a tiny bit superior. I interpret this gasp as a gasp of not horror (well maybe just a bit) but surprise at the feat of human endurance. People do often say 'Wow! That's crazy!' But obviously to me it's part of my everyday (hourly life) now. Also the people that ask most definitely think the injection hurts a lot more than it does. Not that the needle doesn't hurt and sometimes more than it should on occasion, but like a lot of endurances you sort of just get used to it and almost feel numb towards it. Moments like that force me to think of other people who hide so well their daily struggles. Most people don't even mention these conflicts or battles, and most don't want to draw attention to it. Let's face it, there are far more trialing conditions than diabetes, not discrediting the condition.... It's thrived since the turn of the century, and kudos to it. But with the intention of sounding cliche there's always something worse, and life's about perspective (double cliche? double points). Its good to learn and I think that if I've learnt anything from the amount of questions I get about my diabetes is that I should take more time to delve (without prying too much) about other peoples lives. Maybe someone else has a proverbial injection that they have to take 5 times a day or even more, that's interesting or even gives them a feeling of self-worth. Its not like everyone needs this or even that there's any pity etc, but its a good feeling to have and what's the wrong in giving someone that. or even provides a chance for them to offload some points or problems they have day to day. People hide their vices really well. One of mine is my diabetes and by that I also mean that its difficult to control, but that's easy to see. My other vices, like so many other's are more difficult to discover.

Thanks for asking!