I mean do you, supposing you were to go to somebody’s house for dinner or something, for a meal, would you tell them that you had diabetes or, would like, would you’?

Not make a point, but you know maybe just, if it’s obvious if someone really, if it offered something that you think, ‘Oh no, it’d be better not to have that, or just have a little bit and see, or you know, theres nothing contagious about it I would say so it wouldn’t hurt to say, and equally you don’t have to say, if you don’t want to. But other than what you’re gonna consume you just say, ‘Well I actually have diabetes so, I’ll just have a little bit rather than a big portion, or not have that, you know maybe have a piece of fruit or something. Not because you have diabetes but you don’t want your sugar level to you know go the other way so that you go hypo or whatever.

I mean at work they’ll say ‘Oh, anybody want a biscuit, oh no you’d better not have that. And I said, ‘Well yeah I can have, you know, one or two., but theres like people don’t know, a lot of it is if you’re ignorant isn’t it, to what it means. But you shouldn’t have to change what you do other than, do it in moderation.

And in your experience have you come across any kind of myths to do with diabetes?

I suppose but, I haven’t really had it that long but, but a lot of people say, again what I was saying you know, ‘You’ve got sugar’, and what they don’t, themselves know what it means. And sometimes they just say theres two types but they don’t know what the differences are. Why do you need to inject yourself when, you know, there are tablets. But yeah I would say that a lot of people don’t really know, but you don’t need to know if you don’t, you don’t need to know if you don’t know, you don’t have to know in’t it, unless you’ve got someone a bit with the symptoms.

I mean do you, supposing you were to go to somebody’s house for dinner or something, for a meal, would you tell them that you were diabetic or, would like, would you’?

Not make a point, but you know maybe just, if it’s obvious if someone really, if it offered something that you think, ‘Oh no, it’d be better not to have that, or just have a little bit and see, or you know, theres nothing contagious about it I would say so it wouldn’t hurt to say, and equally you don’t have to say, if you don’t want to. But other than what you’re gonna consume you just say, ‘Well I’m actually diabetic so, I’ll just have a little bit rather than a big portion, or not have that, you know maybe have a piece of fruit or something. Not because you’re diabetic but you don’t want your sugar level to you know go the other way so that you go hypo or whatever.

And as for the doctors, you know you make an appointment and you see a locum nine times out of ten so again I don’t feel I know the doctors well enough or they don’t know me well enough because when I go I find that they’re looking more at the screen for information you know rather than actually interacting with me as a patient.

Yeah, I mean you feel like you get more attention in the study that you would…?

Well certainly because theres, it’s like you’ve got a one to one person and you can say, ‘Well I’ve got this symptom and you know’, chew it over, they’re checking your weight, they’re checking you know your diet and you don’t have that sort of thing with your doctor I mean, say you go in, and it’s a screen and off you go. So, rightly or wrongly but they just don’t have the time for that sort of, I think that’s why they set up with a diabetic nurse, but as I say because I’m seeing a diabetic nurse, and I’m seeing a dietician, and I’m seeing a doctor I think, I’m getting a better deal than someone who just goes along to their GP or the practice.