Diabetic people injecting at the meal table whilst people are still eating?

[KatieWatie]

I'm not sure if I'm being unreasonable about this or not. I haven't said anything or done anything, but I'm a bit about it. I don't want to get accused of being unsympathetic.

It is my BIL, who I can't stand and he likes to make a big show of his various ailments, so maybe I'm being really unfair because of how I generally feel about him anyway. It's not done in a quiet way, he gets his wife to come round the table to do it and insists on showing off the needle, talking about it etc.

What do other diabetic people do?

I'm due to (reluctantly) go on holiday with them in a few weeks and I'm dreading every meal time (dreading the whole thing tbh but that's another story). My mum suggests I just walk away but then I think I would get thought of as precious.

[TootTootLick]

I'm not sure really, seems a little odd. If it was me I think I would move from the table, go and do it whilst sitting on the sofa or something. It's not that he needs to do it out of site but why do it right under peoples noses. Saying that my FIL picks his teeth with a toothpick at the table and I can't stand it, or blowing noses!

[yoshiLunk]

I see it like this, - picking or even blowing your nose at the table = disgusting

picking of anything or scratching of any under-garment area of person at the table = disgusting

then

Piercing skin with a needle at the table = not disgusting but a little wince-worthy to some

Removing/replacing rogue contact lens at the table =not disgusting but a little wince-worthy to some

And

I would certainly, for the comfort of others, at the very least turn away whilst adjusting my contact lens at the table.

[bibbitybobbityhat]

Why can he not go and do it just outside the room, out of sight of other people? My dh has a phobia about needles, a very common phobia, he would actually be distressed to see something like this.

[TootTootLick]

When he starts making his big show off it start a conversation with the others at the table about something completely different and ignore him. A bit like you would an attention seeking child doing undesirable behaviour. (but then I'm mean!)

[maypole1]

Thats seems a bit rude to me could they have not slipped out on the other hand they may not had time and had to do it quickly

[LordOfTheFlies]

Tangerine I meant by brownie ponits 4U that your post I think was the first I read that said has diabetes rather than being diabetic; so you are right.I noted after I put diabetic in my post. Black mark for me.

Its just that NHS is so fliipin hot on us using all the PC terms it does my brain in.I am guilty of using the nonPC terms because some of them have changed in latter years and I can't keep up.
"Service user" or "client" rather than patient is a prime case.
Reckon that's as clear as mud

[midori1999]

He does sound like a twat tbh. Fine for him to inject discreetly at the table, but why make a song and dance about it, why get his wife to inject him as opposed to doing it himself and why the need to show anyone the needle? (which are tiny anyway)

I have GD and an on insulin. I am greatful it is not something long term and maybe if it were I'd be more comfortable. If we eat out I wait for my meal to arrive then nip to the bathroom and take my bood sugar reading then inject my insulin. It need to be done immediately prior to eating as it's fast acting, hence I wait for my meal to arrive. It is a bit of a pain, but not overly so.

I would have no problem with someone else doing their injection at the table though, (the fact I don't is about my own discomfort doing it in front of others) but I would trhink they were an idiot if they made a big deal of it.

[bluebobbin]

I don't think it's polite if there are people at the table other than immediate family or those you live with.

I don't think someone would take (say) birth control pills or antibiotics at the table outside of their own home usually. So I would think of insulin in the same way.

I think BIL is marginally unreasonable doing this and the thing that really swings it is his wife doing it and him making a song and dance about it.

[tiredgranny]

KALLISTA

NOT ALL DIABETICS INJECT B4 MEAL SOME HAVE TO ACTUALLY COUNT CALORIES THEN INJECT INSULIN

HAVE U EVER THOUGHT HE MIGHT BE SCARED OF ILLNESS ETC IF IT WAS JUVENILE DIABETES HE WOULD NOT MAKE A SHOW PERHAPS ITS HIS WAY OF COPING WITH IT

[TootTootLick]

Eurgh . . . pc crap! Why do people on here always need to point it out! It isn't the issue or the point of the OP!

[cazzybabs]

It wouldn't bother me

[fyrtlemertile]

He is an attention seeker who happens to have diabetes. Sounds like he'd be the same if he had asthma (making a big show about taking his inhaler) or any other sort of illness. My best friend is diabetic, like many other people have said here she just injects so discretely you don't notice. I didn't actually know she had diabetes until we lived together in the second year of uni (and third). She thought it necessary to tell her housemates then just so we were aware but until then, in her words, it never came into conversation!

[xstitch]

yabu to object to him injecting at the table.

However he is BU to make a song and dance about it.

[motherchuffer]

YANBU I would not like to be sat at the same table as anyone that did that.....but I am very easily put off food,breast feeding is another I do not like to see while I am eating.

[TidyDancer]

OP, YANBU. I have a needle phobia so this thread alone is setting my teeth on edge tbh, but I would absolutely have to leave the table. The alternative would be to have me vomit and pass out, which it's not a good option!

He is not unreasonable per se to be injecting at a table though, just to make the huge deal of it that he is.

[belgo]

TidyDancer - perhaps it's time for you to do something about your needle phobia? What if you, or one of your close family develop an illness and need regular injections?

[breathing]

Poor guy is probably dose adjusting and has possibly had a bad hypo experience by getting waylaid between injection and food. Its not called "inject and eat" or Novo RAPID for nowt

[handsomeharry]

Injections at a table? Wouldn't be thrilled. Eating, drinking and chatting - definitely. Anything involving needles - not okay. IMHO. I would be making my excuses and leaving.

[KatieWatie]

xstitch "yabu to object to him injecting at the table"
You are not the first person to have said this, but nowhere have I said I object to him injecting at the table. As previously stated I wouldn't even notice if he didn't make the song and dance, and it wouldn't bother me at all. It is the song and dance that is the 'cause' of my reaction, not the administering of the medicine, I guess my subject heading may have mislead people and I probably should have phrased it "People who have diabetes making a show of injecting themselves at the meal table and showing off their needles whilst people are still eating" but that's a bit longwinded. Anyway I apologise for the confusion over this.

Thanks to those who read, comprehended and responded appropriately to my original post, especially those with anecdotes about people who manage their illness/es in a discreet manner. As I inferred in my OP, I have no idea if it is necessary for diabetic medicine to be administered on demand by another party, whilst loudly commentating on the illness and doing a needle show-and-tell. This is what I had thought might be considered unreasonable behaviour.

[ShimmeryPixie]

Injections at the table is fine. Making a great song and dance out of it is not. It's just an injection. Next time he starts going on about it, just say "we've heard it before X, we already know".

[breathing]

I think its really bizarre he is getting someone else to do it tbh

[belgo]

'xstitch "yabu to object to him injecting at the table"
You are not the first person to have said this, but nowhere have I said I object to him injecting at the table.''

OP I suggest you read your thread title. It sounds like you are changing your tune after seeing people's responses.

[KatieWatie]

Belgo I suggest you read the whole post I just made where I admitted it was confusing. FFS.

[revolutionscoop]

I have a diabetic friend who injects reasonably indiscreetly & it's never bothered me in the slightest. It seems like a very stressful and inconvenient condition to live with, and I don't really see why it should have to be hidden away.

[ohnoudidnt]

So what if she does object to him injecting at the table,I would.I would also ask him to do it elsewhere.