{"id":44006,"date":"2016-06-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-29T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/restaurant-told-diabetics-to-inject-insulin-in-the-bathroom\/"},"modified":"2016-09-15T04:35:42","modified_gmt":"2016-09-15T08:35:42","slug":"restaurant-told-diabetics-to-inject-insulin-in-the-bathroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44006","title":{"rendered":"Restaurant Told Diabetics to Inject Insulin in the Bathroom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Recently, a story blew up<\/a> about a handwritten sign in a restaurant in Watertown, New York. That sign, placed by the owner of the little mom-and-pop eatery, said, \u201cAttention: If you are a diabetic and have to give yourself an injection, please do so in the restroom. Thank you!\u201d After some very negative press, the owner pulled it down. He\u2019d put it up, he told the local news<\/a>, because \u201csome customers complained about someone using insulin at one of the tables.\u201d<\/p>\n

I have a child with type 1 diabetes. That means on many occasions I\u2019ve helped my kid use insulin at a table in a restaurant. Taking him to a bathroom to give him an injection would send a message to him and the rest of the world that he should be ashamed of having type 1 diabetes, that he\u2019s doing something dirty or illicit. So, like many other people in the diabetes community and beyond, I found the sign offensive and discriminatory. The restaurant owner came to realize the same thing. He told a reporter that \u201cputting up the sign was a mistake.\u201d He said, \u201cI\u2019m really sorry if it offended anyone. I had no clue about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lots of people don\u2019t. Unless they\u2019ve been touched by diabetes in some way\u2014a family member or friend or acquaintance\u2014type 1 diabetes is a disease that\u2019s comfortably off the radar. They don\u2019t know the triumph of a night with steady blood sugars. Or the panic that comes with accidentally sleeping through an alarm. Or the compulsion to high-five a stranger wearing a Dexcom CGM on the arm or sporting a Nightscout T-shirt or exposing a bit of pump tubing.<\/p>\n

Before my son’s diagnosis, I didn’t know anything about type 1 diabetes<\/h2>\n

Until my son\u2019s diagnosis I didn\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n

I recall bits of a conversation at a long-ago cocktail party with a woman (now a dear friend) who said she sometimes had to give her baby a \u201csugar baba\u201d when her child \u201cwent low.\u201d Back then I had no idea what she was talking about. I might even have excused myself to refresh my drink.<\/p>\n

My previous cluelessness<\/a> has\u2014um, sometimes\u2014reminded me to patiently educate those who don\u2019t get it. It\u2019s too easy to get hurt and angry.<\/p>\n

A couple of years ago when I first met with an administrator at my son\u2019s public school to discuss his 504 plan, the topic fell on where the nurse would check his blood sugar throughout the day. The options included the nurse\u2019s office, the bathroom or a designated spot just outside the door of the classroom. All of these places pulled my son from his education. All of these places signaled something was wrong with him, that he was different. Couldn\u2019t his finger sticks happen in the classroom where he was sitting, I asked? But there was concern that the other students might be exposed to \u201cpathogens from his blood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pathogens?<\/p>\n

The next meeting I presented literature that supported the fact that with proper procedure, a finger-stick didn\u2019t affect surrounding people. In some cases an uncovered cough or sneeze might be more dangerous. And I did some math: four trips to the nurse\u2019s office per day equal about 80 minutes out of the classroom. Multiply that by 180 days of school a year. Then multiply that by 13 years of school\u2014kindergarten through grade 12\u2014and you get 187,200 hours, the equivalent of about 98 days spent walking to and from the nurse\u2019s office. Imagine all the learning missed during those back and forths.<\/p>\n

Now, several years in, we have a system that works well. And that administrator is a compassionate member of my son\u2019s school care team.<\/p>\n

As with diabetes and, well, just about everything else, it\u2019s easy to fear what we don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

That sign in the Watertown restaurant brought me back to the earliest days with my son in our new life with diabetes. We\u2019d stopped at a burger place on the way home from a medical appointment. As we sat in a booth, an already dog-eared copy of The CalorieKing Calorie Fat & Carbohydrate Counter<\/em><\/a> bulging in my purse, a crisp new camouflage-printed canvas diabetes kit on the table in front of me, I noticed an elderly couple sitting side-by-side in the next booth. Just before their food arrived I saw the woman inject the man in the arm with an insulin pen. It was subtle and systematic, done with the same ease in which you\u2019d sign your name.<\/p>\n

What would I have thought before I knew about diabetes? Would I have wished they\u2019d gone to a bathroom? Would the act of this woman medicating this man so offended me that I\u2019d have lost my appetite and complained to the owner?<\/p>\n

I guess I\u2019ll never know. What I do remember is feeling infinitely comforted that we weren\u2019t alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have a child with type 1 diabetes. That means on many occasions I\u2019ve helped my kid use insulin at a table in a restaurant. Taking him to a bathroom to give him an injection would send a message to him and the rest of the world that he should be ashamed of having type 1 diabetes, that he\u2019s doing something dirty or illicit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":44007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1429],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nRestaurant Told Diabetics to Inject Insulin in the Bathroom<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44006\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Annie Stoltie\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44006\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44006\",\"name\":\"Restaurant Told Diabetics to Inject Insulin in the Bathroom\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44006#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44006#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/MikesPigPen.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-29T04:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-09-15T08:35:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/28bf516504a4bdffde7646d31e32550b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44006#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44006\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44006#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/MikesPigPen.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/MikesPigPen.jpg\",\"width\":825,\"height\":510,\"caption\":\"The SIgn at Mike's Pig Pen\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44006#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Restaurant Told Diabetics to Inject Insulin in the Bathroom\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/\",\"name\":\"ASweetLife\",\"description\":\"The Diabetes Magazine\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/28bf516504a4bdffde7646d31e32550b\",\"name\":\"Annie Stoltie\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fe3c625a5c22e53b9c8cfe2fb1bd409e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fe3c625a5c22e53b9c8cfe2fb1bd409e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Annie Stoltie\"},\"description\":\"Annie Stoltie is editor of Adirondack Life magazine. 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