The price of licorice...

I was eating licorice and then someone said, "Hey, you're not supposed to be eating that." Someone else said, "Oh, no, are you diabetic." My brain said, "FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK." But my mouth said, "Yes, but I can have this." "Oh, you're a bad diabetic." "No," I pointed to my pump, "I just take more medication." (Probably not the best explaination at that point, but I was already flustered.) "Well, prevention is better than..." And I don't know what else they said, because then I felt really sad and embarrassed and just starting shutting people out. I felt like I should have been better prepared for this moment. It's not like I haven't had to deal with misperceptions of the 'betes before. But it was so innocent- a piece of licorice. I've eaten the candy put out before. So, it was completely unexpected.

I didn't know what else to do, so I put it out to friends on IM and Twitter: I just got called a bad diabetic :(

@JamieH responded: do you want us to send the D-mafia after them ?! ;-) ugh

@ElizabethArnold: By who???? (And did you kick them? Because if not, I will kick them for you. @JaimieH would too, I bet...)

AND

Hmmm...They should know better.Reminds me of 2nd grade when kids told me I shouldn't be eating Lifesavers. (I was LOW at the time.)

AND

All DOC tweeps shd take pics of ourselves eating candy for you to show 'em. Here's me, with liquorice! :P http://twitpic.com/273k5v

While, @scottkjohnson wrote: yeah, then start chasing them around with needles. :-) Or maybe @ninjabetic & I need to pay them a visit? We're pretty scary...

Moral of the story?

1. "Bad diabetic" is a pejorative term. It hurts. Don't use it... ever. If you want to ask questions (honestly, it gets old and kind of annoying for me, but...) it's better than judging.

2. Don't piss off the DOC.

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Thanks for the support everyone, otherwise I would have hid in my office for the rest of the day and thought about all the things I should have said or done... even though it's not really my side of the encounter that should have to review anything said or done.

The kind of sad part is that I don't think I want to be going anywhere near the candy jar anymore, or at least for the next little while. I don't want to deal with that spectacle again. I feel kind of whimpish for admitting that, but it's true.