Yep. Just me and Mark Mcgwire over here…
I’ve had diabetes for 17 years, so I should be used to pretty much everything that comes out of people’s mouths in regards to my condition. But I’m not. Every so often, I have an interaction that boggles my mind in terms of social aptitude and general idiocracy. And my gym, bless it, has never had a shortage of material when it comes to ridiculous diabetes comments, including this recent gem:
I’m 30 minutes into a boxing class, drenched in sweat and feeling a little tired – which is exactly what a low blood sugar can feel like. I clicked in to my Dex on the water break and saw 138 and an angled-downward-trending arrow. Normally that would be enough to put me at ease, but because I had only put the sensor in that morning, I didn’t yet trust its calibration, so I decided to back it up with a finger stick. I put blood on the strip and watched the countdown – 139 – calibrated like clockwork. I marveled at the accuracy of my CGM for a moment, and thought about taking in a little carb since I was trending down. As I zipped up my meter case, I heard the voice of another gym-goer behind me.
“Takin’ some PEDs?” He asked grinning.
I gave a nervous laugh. “Ha, uhm, what?” I responded.
“Takin’ some PEDs over there?” he repeated.
Whatever he said didn’t include “insulin,” “blood sugar,” or “carbohydrate,” which were the only things I would possibly be “taking” in the moment, so I shook my head no, even though I had no clue what he was talking about.
“Uhh, no, I’m diabetic, I was just testing my blood sugar,” I explained, smiling.
His face changed, his grin dropping into a frown. “Oh I’m sorry, my bad…” he muttered.
“No it’s ok, I understand why you asked, happens all the time,” I responded cheerfully, sensing his embarrassment. “What did you ask me if I took though? PDs? I don’t know what that is…”
His smile returned “PEDs. Performance enhancing drugs. You know, hahaha.”
My wheels turned. I was wondering which part of sticking my finger had reminded him of injecting steroids. That was some legit word association he had just powered through. Fascinating.
“Yeah no, none of that here. Although I can understand why people sometimes might think I am…” I joked, playing along with his injection reference, though there wasn’t a needle in sight.
“So can you just feel when you need it?” he asked.
My mind sorted through his words. Need it? Does he mean insulin? A glucose check? Carbohydrate. All of the above? I defaulted to insulin, since that seemed to be what he associated with diabetes.
“Uh yeah, more or less, its just that when you’re working out and all sweaty and tired, well those are symptoms of a low blood sugar too, so I like to check in the middle of my workouts…” Why am I still talking I ask myself, a simple “yep, sure do” could have ended this conversation. But I can feel the Diabetes Information Booth welling up in my throat. The guy had just compared checking my glucose to injecting illegal supplements – part of me felt like he needed a Diabetes 101 speech right then and there.
“Its all about managing levels and factors like exercise and food and insulin. You have to check your blood sugar frequently so you can make accurate management decisions. Which I can do more easily now because I wear a glucose monitor that shows my blood sugar on this little wireless handheld, taking readings from the sensor under my skin, right here,” I say, pointing to the little bump under my workout pants on the outside of my thigh.
Homeboy’s face is completely blank. Time to shut down the Diabetes Info Booth Lex…Just zip it.
“Anyways, what was that combo?” I ask him.
His face relaxes again. “Uuhm, lets see – double jab, cross, slip, cross, hook, cross.”
“Cool – thanks” I reply, “Let’s hit it.” I turn my body towards the heavy bag in front of me and back to what I came to do at the gym. Double jab, cross, slip, cross, hook, cross. This time with a little more effort.
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Comments
Since that fellow is obviously a ‘juicer’ himself to ‘recognize’ what he thought you were doing, we can now confirm there are at least THREE organs that obviously atrophy when men use steroids - the third being the brain!
Hahahahaha! Yes, that one is totally confirmed - he was definitely experiencing some brain atrophy in that moment - good grief! Thanks for your comment, it made me laugh!
DiabetesCommunity
Can’t say I ever thought about adding an AED to my daughter’s kit. LOL Instead of the diabetes information booth we are going to start carrying a handout. Keep up the posts they are always enjoyable.