I met my husband when I was 24. We were both working at the same large corporation and by some crazy chance, were assigned to work on a project together…me from Human Resources, him from IT. I didn’t have a choice about what would follow. His sparkling blue eyes, great smile and awesome sense of humor reeled me in right away. We worked together for 6 months before his contract ended, and 6 months after that, we were married. Sometimes, you just know.
The point of this story is that one day before we started dating, a co-worker said to me “Did you know he has diabetes?” My response, “No he doesn’t, I saw him eating m&m’s. Diabetics can’t eat candy!”
Yes, I said that.
Fast forward to now. We’ve been married 10 years. We have three beautiful kids, one of which also has Type 1 diabetes.
Of course, now I know the comment I made so long ago is ridiculous. Now I know that diabetics can eat anything a non-diabetic can eat. Now I know that in some circumstances, a diabetic MUST eat candy to survive.
Over our years of marriage, I’ve heard a lot of ridiculous comments about diabetes. Every time I hear one, it gets under my skin. Particularly when one is directed at my 9 year old child. But then I remind myself, that I thought wrong too. So I take a deep breath and I calmly explain the truth, in hopes that we can move past the myths one person at a time.
