Congratulations, Natasha on a fantastic entry to Reality Check's first ever writing competition.

Theme: Dumb Things People Say.

I felt kind of shaky. I might be low but I’ll get some juice after I land this I thought. Before I could attempt the jump again my instructor came over to me and said, “Wow, you’re bleeding. You really should go have some one look at your chin right now”. Sure enough I put my hand on my chin and pulled it away it was covered with blood. I got off the ice to find what seemed to be 100 people waiting for me. None of course knew I was a diabetic. I was rushed to a bench where I was seated and my head tilted back so the rink guards to clean up my wound. At this time I was definitely suffering for a low blood sugar and everything seemed kind of hazy to me. I remember my best friend, Stacy, coming over and taking off my skates for me. She was the only one other than my father at the rink that knew I was diabetic. One of the mothers came over to me and asked if I wanted anything to drink. I responded “sugar”.

Her response,” Is Sprite alright?”

“Yes please”.

As Stacy took off my skates I felt so helpless and was fighting the feeling to “fall asleep”. I wanted to help and not pass out, so I decided to take off my gloves. The problem was I couldn’t find my gloves. “Stacy, where are my gloves? I can’t find them I thought they were right here.”

“Tasha they are on your hands”

“Where I can’t find them? Thank you Stacy. Thank you Stacy.”

Apparently we had the same conversation for a good 10 minutes. I kept on repeating “I can’t find my gloves” and “Thank you Stacy”. Apparently I past out just after I drank the Sprite. I woke up in my father’s car on the way to the hospital to get 4 stitches in my chin. But all through out high school Stacy and I used to have a good laugh about how I couldn’t find my gloves and thanked her about a million times that day.

A few years after I was diagnosed I decided to go to a figure skating camp. This camp was an overnight training type camp. It was 2 weeks long. Back then I was still on injections, so I brought all my supplies with me. The girl I roomed with I knew from our regular rink, the other girls were all strangers to me. Samantha, my roommate for 2 weeks, knew I was diabetic and needles didn’t scare her. However the other girls had no idea. A few of them wandered into our room early in the week. They saw my insulin syringes on the desk and got scared. I politely explained to them that I was a heroin addict and needed my fix. I am surprised they didn’t run out of there faster. I later told them the truth it wasn’t heroin I was addicted to, it was insulin.

As I went away to college I was put on an insulin pump. I continued to skate while in college. I used to explain my pump to my fellow skaters as my pancreas. It was easier to just tell them my pancreas doesn’t work so I have a machine to do its work, then to go into the whole beta cell lecture. While away at our national competition we were going for a team dinner after practice. On our way to dinner I blurted out in the car,” Oh no! My pancreas is attached to my baby sock inside one of my 2 pairs of tights, under my dress, that’s under my pants. I’m going to have to undress in front of the whole restaurant to give myself insulin”. I’ve never heard a bunch of girls laugh so hard in my life. But it was true, I had so many layers of clothing on it basically took me about 7 minutes to get to my pump.

Well enough about the dumb stuff I’ve said, let’s hear about the dumb stuff I have had to listen to.

I tend to wear my pump on the belt loops of my pants. Many people tend to think it’s a pager. I’ve had complete strangers come up to me and say,” Wow, you should really trade that pager in for a newer model. That one is huge”. Or “I didn’t think people still use pagers”. After explaining to them that my pre-historic pager isn’t actually a pager they apologize and run away.

I do have to say the dumbest thing anyone has ever said to me was actually while I was working as a pharmacy tech. I’m not sure how we got started on the conversation but one way or another it came out that I was diabetic. The person whom I was talking with said,” Oh that’s okay they have a cure for that now anyway”. Hello, last time I checked insulin was NOT a cure, but a treatment.

I’m sure as I grow older with this disease I’ll come across more stupid things people say. And I’m almost positive I’ll say some more stupid things. But all is well.