[Glam]

Hello everybody!

I'm not having a very jolly day so I thought I'd do my best to turn it around and make some new friends!
I have been a diabetic since 1999, it's been tough since the beginning but over the years I have gotten used to it so far.
What brought me here is that my boyfriend of 4 years got me a slab of butter cookies...maltesers, cadbury caramel chocolate and haribo sweets for Christmas. He lives with me and knows I am a diabetic (he isn't uninformed about diabetes in the least), this has really offended me and upset me. I am not sure if I am overreacting or not...I just don't know what to think of it or what his intentions were.

I am from Spain, where is everybody else from?

 

[John.in.France]

Hello everybody!

I'm not having a very jolly day so I thought I'd do my best to turn it around and make some new friends!
I have been a diabetic since 1999, it's been tough since the beginning but over the years I have gotten used to it so far.
What brought me here is that my boyfriend of 4 years got me a slab of butter cookies...maltesers, cadbury caramel chocolate and haribo sweets for Christmas. He lives with me and knows I am a diabetic (he isn't uninformed about diabetes in the least), this has really offended me and upset me. I am not sure if I am overreacting or not...I just don't know what to think of it or what his intentions were.

I am from Spain, where is everybody else from?

Hello and welcome to the forum.
There are folk from all over the world here. A lot from the US, the UK, India, France, Scandinavia - you name it - you'll find someone.
What we have in common? We all speak English and we all suffer from Diabetes.
Mutual support is the name of the game. If you want advice, a shoulder to cry on or even just an opportunity to have a good old rant about something - this is the place.
As regards your Christmas gift, I have to say that it does seem a little less than thoughtful to give a present that full of sugar to someone diabetic but perhaps he could find nothing else?
Please tell us more about how you are coping with the disease - you might be able to teach us a thing or two whilst getting some useful ideas that you can use.
Merry Christmas, John

 

[Daytona]

Welcome, Glam! I agree, I have no idea what the man was thinking giving you sweets. It's one thing when it's from a clueless relative but if he knows that you avoid this stuff... It's a head scratcher. Have you asked him why?

Whenever people give me stuff I can't eat, I usually either thank them then dump it on someone else or if it's someone who will do it over and over again, I say something like "Thanks but I prefer to not eat sweets". That way it's harder to argue, because it's my preference, and I'm not giving them a "in" to try to persuade me.

How are things going with your diabetes otherwise?

Merry Christmas!

 

[Glam]

Thank you for the kind messages John and Daytona!

My diabetes still isn't perfect, but it is a lot better than it was a year ago. Last year I got diagnosed with endometriosis and that caused me lots of problems with my diabetes. Now the only thing that is keeping me from being in my goal range is work, lots of drama there and it always affects my glucose levels...rather annoying as I don't eat huge meals or that much at all, I eat very small portions. I don't go mad on carbs at all...

Have any of you had your glucose levels rise from stress/anger? It seems to always happen to me once it shot up to 280 I remember after a very bad incident at work...I hadn't even eaten yet!

 

[skb]

Welcome to the forum Glam,

I agree, the gift was a bit odd. SF chocolate would have been the better choice. Hope you will visit the forum often and share your knowledge/story with us.
A little info about your numbers / insulin regimen would help set the ball rolling.

Merry Christmas.

 

[optimist]

HI!
I live in Norway and got diagnosed with type 1 last year.
I think your present was odd, but I have to admit; although I love my houseband and four grown sons to death and they love me, they sometimes forget I`m diabetic. I know for sure they dont want to hurt me at all, but I live my life as normal as I can, and I think thats why they sometimes forget what I can and cant eat.

I am seldom really angry, but if it happens my BG rises skyhigh immediately. Stress sometimes make my BG drop like a rock and sometimes it gets skyhigh.
It seems very often that my diabetes like to tease me; when I think I`ve figured how to live with it, it changes

 

[moon]

Welcome to the forum Glam! Your Christmas gift is a head-scratcher, and the best message you can give back is not to eat a bite, hold your head up high, buoyed by your grit and determination. Maybe non-diabetics think our bodies take a vacation on major holidays?

Mostly I want to say - your English is perfect! Were you raised bilingual w/ English being the equivalent of your first language? That's the way you write. Impressive!

Glad you found us -

 

[etherea]

Welcome, Glam! You're in a good place to make some friends. I'm clueless as to why someone would give a diabetic sugar for Christmas? I got some candy for Christmas too, but from someone who just wasn't thinking.

 

[canadiandude]

Welcome Glam! As with everyone else, the gift you received defies logic. Even if I were completely unsure of what to get a diabetic, there are tons of alternatives that are better choices (in fact everything is a better choice!). Maybe he's thinking....I'll buy her all these sweets knowing that she can't eat them which, in turn, means that she has to give them to me. I give her a xmas gift that I get to eat. Evil, but it works.

 

[Daytona]

Last year I got diagnosed with endometriosis and that caused me lots of problems with my diabetes. Now the only thing that is keeping me from being in my goal range is work, lots of drama there and it always affects my glucose levels...rather annoying as I don't eat huge meals or that much at all, I eat very small portions. I don't go mad on carbs at all...

Have any of you had your glucose levels rise from stress/anger? It seems to always happen to me once it shot up to 280 I remember after a very bad incident at work...I hadn't even eaten yet!

I have endo as well and it can really mess up by BG too. I don't get high blood sugar from work stress but pain will do it to me. On a bad day it will send it up to 180 + regardless of what I eat.

Work does send my blood pressure up though. I started taking a supplement called GABA which has helped immensely with my anxiety and keeps my BP almost normal.

 

[Glam]

I am bilingual yes, my mother is from the UK.

I'm glad to know I am not the only one who has ups and down with sugarlevels due to stress...though mine always tend to go high if I get upset!

Yes, I have now started to think he got those things for himself to eat! As it's food he likes! Baffled!
I'll have to confront him once he gets home...it makes absolutely no sense. He goes with me to see my endo, he knows the insulin I take and how much, what hours I check my sugar etc...
I'll probably give all the sweets to the little girl next door, I'm sure she will be pleased!

Oh yes, whenever it gets very bad and I am going through some pain it always makes my sugarlevel shoot up terribly, I have spoken to my doctor about it and we have more or less worked out how much insulin to take on those very bad days. If anything last year it was the endo making my diabetes very hard to control, I barely ate from how ill I was and just being in constant pain drove me absolutely mad! I'm glad that I am a lot better now.

 

[Shanny]

Welcome, Glam - thank you for joining us.

Can't help much with your gift problem, but I have a good friend who has no sense of smell - never has had. And yet her own sister is forever giving her gifts like scented candles, aroma-therapy stuff & the like - knowing full well she can't smell them. Understandable from people who don't know, but from our loved ones? It really beats all. I guess some people just give gifts that they themselves would like to receive & never think beyond that.

So happy to have you with us - I hope you can visit often!

 

[Richard157]

Hello Glam, welcome! It seems that you eat properly and you take good care of yourself. That probably means that you will have a long, healthy life. I was diagnosed in 1945, and now I am very healthy after 66 years of type 1.

If I were you, I would wrap the candy and it and give it back to him, as a gift. I think he would get the message.

Richard

 

[Nachman]

Wow, I was Dxed on 12/16 but my wife would know better than to give me sweets (I hope) You should discuss it with him when you get over being mad and ask what he was thinking.

 

[naynay]

HI Glam, and welcome to the forum! Glad to have a new friend to converse with.
I would probably take that gift your significant other gave you and slap him upside the head with it! If he fully know you are diabetic, cannot indulge in something like that, then it was an extremely insensitive gift to give you; regardless of his likes/dislikes. If he wanted the goody, then just buy it for yourself and eat it. Don't give a gift that you know cannot be used by the intended recipient. If he did it hoping you would say no to it and then he could eat it, then what a cheap son-of-a-gun.

I also wanted to add that my bg's raise big time with stress/anger as well. I hate those days when that happens because it really makes me feel like pooh. Try meditation; that will typically help me calm myself and keep my bg's more under control.

 

[Glam]

Wow what a lovely welcome! So many replies!
Sorry it took me so long to get back to you guys, lots of work this week.
I spoke to my boyfriend about the gift and he said "you can have a bit of it" ummm no! He shouldn't encourage me to eat unhealthy things considering my diabetes!
66 years of diabetes! My gosh! That's absolutely incredible, as the years go by I hope to be as healthy as you are Richard.
Here in Spain it seems as if most people (and doctors, sadly) aren't very informed about diabetes...my main doctor thinks I should only check my sugar 3 times a day! My endo was stunned, she agreed with me before and after every meal and whenever I may feel "strange".
Doctors on social security here are absolutely terrible, I remember having to suffer 3 full blown years (no exageration here) of infected ingrown toenails and doctors refused to operate on me because "of my diabetes" and to just take antibiotics...they just kept sending me home. So one day I got a pair of scissors and tweezers and did the surgery (I guess that's how you can say it) on myself and cut and ripped the ingrown parts out. Never happened again! I have life long "calluses" on my big toes from how long they were ingrown to prove it!
I was thinking of going private instead of being on public health...so tired of so called doctors who claim to know about diabetes but are so ignorant about it! I shall hopefully find the perfect doctor soon I suffer from a lot of anxiety thanks to my job, my doc had me try diazepam which did nothing but raise my sugarlevels...so I had to stop on those and he refuses to have me try anything else. Has anybody had sugarlevel spikes with antidepressants of any sort?

 

[naynay]

I believe there are natural supplements you can take that will help give a calming effect, but I have no idea if they raise your blood sugars. I have been on Zoloft (currently 50 mg...just decreased from 100 mg in October and so far so good) and it works well enough for me. I suffer more from anxiety than depression, but my bestfriend also takes Zoloft and is opposite me (suffers depression more than anxiety). I also know Lexapro works well. I would maybe look into these as well? I'm sure others here have an opinion on this subject as well. That is just my two cents worth.

 

[canadiandude]

@ Glam - I can understand how you feel about the whole medical situation in Spain. In some regards, they are much better than most of their European counterparts but in other regards, well...you story says it all. My wife is Spanish and we have a house in Cuidad Quesada (outside Torrevieja) and an apartment in Motril (near Granada) along with our apartment here in Stockholm. We are often in Spain at the Quesada house and have luckily never needed to visit the doctor there. I can't even imagine cutting away your ingrown toenails yourself... that must have been extremely painful!

For what it's worth, even though my mother-in-law is doing LCHF with me and my wife, she didn't understand WHY I am doing it. For her, it's a way to lose weight fast, while for me, it's a matter of wanting to live longer than I would if I had continued my unhealthy lifestyle. She still will say "But what if you only eat a little...." My reply is to do a blood test then and there... eat a little and then do another blood test in an hour and show her the difference. Now she understands.

@Renee - Just a word of warning about the Zoloft, my wife was also on Zoloft for Panic Anxiety Disorder and she gained 40kg (around 80lbs) in a year from it. The doc kept trying to blame her eating habits but she ate very small portions and never ate junk food. SHe now takes no meds whatsoever, is doing LCHF together with me, and is happy that she has now lost 28Kg (approx. 56lbs.) as a result. In our opinion, Zoloft = pure evil.

 

[naynay]

Canadiandude, I've actually been on Zoloft since 2004. I probably gained a little bit of weight from it in the beginning, but not enough to say it caused alot of weight gain. If I quit taking it, I'd probably lose 10 lbs, but don't know that for sure. I'm not ready to just quit taking it just yet; I began it when I started having severe anxiety attacks that led to panic attacks, a trip or two to the ER, agoraphobia, and just basically I shut-down and was jammed into the corner of the couch totally non-functional. The Zoloft took a little while to build up in my system, but it's worked really well for me since then. Unfortunately I have a blood clotting disorder that prevents me from taking any type of hormone replacement therapy as I head into menopause, so Zoloft is actually the choice of drug to help reduce hot flashes as well. Some people do have bad reactions or side effects from it. Luckily I don't. It has kept me sane for the past seven years (well as sane as I can be) and I have no plans on quitting anytime soon. But, thanks for your advice, and concern. Hugs!

 

[jwags]

Hi and Welcome Glam to DF. My daughter is currently working in Spain this year and maybe next. She loves is there. She lives in the Northwest Galicea Province. As far as your boyfriend goes, I think it is difficult for non D's even those who know about diabetes. My husband is also diabetic and bought me a gooey bakery cake last summer for my birthday. He knows better but thought he was doing a nice thing for me. We have been married for almost 35 years. He still doesn't realise what carbs to my blood sugar even though I have explained it to him a million times. He is very causual about his diabetes and he eats what he wants most days, but he does exercise a ton which helps compensate.