I know it’s human nature, because I’ve had this discussion a few times with friends. Basically no matter what your health condition, people can’t help but blab out inconsiderate responses when you reveal to them you have a condition. Take my good friend with endometriosis for example: one of her workmates assured her it might be cervical cancer, and another took it upon herself to inform my friend she should forget about ever having children.

People just seem to have a knee jerk reaction sometimes – they’re so keen to try to say something to fill the silence, they don’t wait for their brain to catch up with their mouth.

I had a pearler yesterday. A very good friend of mine saw my pump (and not for the first time either) and took it upon herself to tell me that to the untrained eye it might appear to be a colostomy bag. I couldn’t quite believe that someone would say this to me, so I asked her to repeat herself, thinking she must have got her words mixed up. But no, there it came again, like a slap in the face. I am normally pretty thick-skinned but this declaration had me spinning…. I awkwardly said my goodbyes with a trembling lip and walked off trying not to burst into a pool of tears.