That SUCKS. The closest I came to that was as a new grad in my first job, the rest of the team when ‘team building’ up a mountain. The boss wouldn’t take me because he was worried about having a T1 with them. Awesome :p

I feel discriminated against when on MDIs if I’m in a meeting at work that goes WELL over time, esp towards lunchtime, and I can feel myself hypoing. It’s a bit of a damned if you do, damned if you don’t. I can either crack open the sugar in the meeting (frowned upon but it’s that or wet hair) or leave (also frowned upon). You get stared at either way.

Just adding a comment from Shaz which appeared on another post:

I was just wondering if anyone else out there with type 1 diabetes has ever been discrimminated against. I am 38 and have had diabetes for 25 years. A couple of years ago I obtained my diploma of teaching early childhood and have been teaching for twelve years. Every job i have held down there has always been an issue just because i have diabetes. I may get a cold and yet people say oh it’s your diabetes. No matter what i say to people they always blame my diabetes.

I have had enough and am in a situation at the moment where i have had to take a fair bit of time off due to my baby having chicken pox. I have been told that i have had too much time off due to my diabetes. It wasn’t even my diabetes. It really pisses me off.

Has anyone else ever come across this kind of behaviour? People do not understand diabetes and I would like to run a documentary on diabetes to build others awareness of the facts. I would love to hear from you and your experiences that you have had to face.

And Ruthie’s response:

Hi Shaz
Yes, I’ve had discrimination in my 21 years of being T1. My mum used to have to come and do bloodtests on me at primary school and the teacher would make me go into the sick bay to do it away from the other kids. (Keeping in mind, this was the early 90’s so people were pretty educated, at least I thought they should’ve been!) There was one time that we were in the sick bay and I had to have an injection and the principle saw me and came and closed the doors on me and mum and said it was to avoid scaring the other kids. Even though they were all in class. Hard to take, as a 9 year old. And I had some mothers of friends not allowing me to stay over because they didn’t like the responsibility that came with it. Kind of understandable I suppose but not so great for my self esteem. I had it alot more as a kid, but upon reaching adulthood, I can’t say I’ve ever had any discrimination. I’ve found that people are alot more understanding with me because of my diabetes. I had glandular fever in my early 20s and it hit me hard because of my diabetes and I had a colleague say to me that I shouldn’t blame things on my diabetes because he knew a T1 who never got sick. So I got the opposite effect to you! Your situation sounds unusual and as you are feeling discriminated against, is there any way you can educate your colleagues a little more about the disease? I know you shouldn’t have to but I still come across people who think I’m T2 instantly when I say ‘I’m diabetic’ and I have to educate people about the differences! I really do think that you need to confront the person who told you you are having too much time off due to your diabetes (when it’s your baby who is sick) and set the record straight otherwise it will keep happening. Your story certainly upsets me and I’m sorry to hear what you’re coming up against. I hope it all works out.

We experienced discrimination just last year. Our 2 boys used to catch a public bus to and from school. Of course, teens being teens, there were those on the bus that caused a few problems, so on this particular day, the bus inspector rode on the bus to witness it for himself. While on the bus, Tyler felt hypo, did a test, was just on the cusp so opened a muesli bar to keep him going. The inspector told him that there was no eating allowed. Tyler told him that he was a Type 1 and needed to snack. The Inspector then said that if he had Diabetes he shouldn’t be travelling on the public bus!

Needless to say, his dad and I got onto the bus company and filed an official complaint and made a big fuss. The policy for this particular bus company now is that if someone says they have D, they MUST be allowed to eat!
Mission Accomplished – this time!

Wow – I can’t believe all the stories coming out! I think I had a few issues when I was younger but more from lack of understanding than discrimination as such. Just the other day my mum was telling me how a teacher used to make the whole class go for a run at lunchtime because one child had been naughty causing me lots of issues of course. But i genuinely can’t think of any instances of discrimination in my working life. Mind you though, I work for Idea Services (a branch of IHC) supporting people with disabilities so maybe a more accepting organisation than most (although I still have to do a lot of “education” about T1!)

Hi, these stories are all so infuriating. So many selfish, narrow minded people that don’t even try to understand.

When I was working I felt really self conscious in meetings. Didn’t want to bring out the jelly beans and have everyone stare at me. I think I waited hoping the meeting would finish every time.

I also often feel self conscious in social situations and don’t want to get out my testing kit and jelly beans when everyone else is chatting nicely. Often eat more snacks (chips) and then test when I get home – by then I’m usually high!

I have a friend that always asks my husband if I need to test my blood if I’m not in the sort of mood she thinks I should be in! Nice she cares but it is annoying.

I’m type one. I’m also hearing impaired. I’ve been discriminated by my diabetes and my hearing. I signed up to do the ‘be your own boss’ course and was discriminated against. This was 2009, One letter the course sent me was that my booking is confirmed to do the course. Then I got another letter from the same people saying that they couldnt’ accept me on the course because of my ‘disability’ and ”were unable to accomodate me” . i kicked up a big stink this time and went to the lawyer for advice and got apologies from the two businesses involved one a government department.

i’m never self concious anymore. was at the easter show on monday for example. felt low and popped open the test kit and did a test in the middle of a few thousand people.

To all of you who have been discriminated, please learn from the experience and hopefully it won’t happen again but if it does, be quick to put the people or company in their place and know your rights. I found the people at the human rights commission really helpful.

I haven’t really had discrimination, I’ve had to fight a few times to make sure there wasn’t any though. The only time I’ve missed out on doing some thing was going on an ocean research ship, would be out of helicopter range of the coast, and no advanced medic types and working round the clock – 12 hrs on, 12 hrs off – it would have been a pretty risky situation if anything went wrong, but I’m pretty sure I could have handled it.

My current work is awesome, I’ve sat in meetings and tested, corrected or eaten my jelly beans and it’s been ignored, or a glass of water is sent my way if I haven’t got any in front of me!

Wow some of the stories are really awful. I think I have been mostly really lucky in my 18 years as a diabetic, I am a teacher and have been encouraged by my principal to share my diabetes with the children who have subsequently all gone home and taught their families about diabetes and pumps!!

Unfortunately though I hit some really awful discrimination last year from a pump rep/company – I was told I wouldn’t get service and assistance to buy the pump I had researched and wanted, because I wasn’t under the local DHB for my diabetes care. How terrible is that? I thought this was disgusting coming from a diabetes care company, being discriminated against because I chose a registered and qualified diabetes specialist that best meets my needs. I couldn’t believe it and was really disheartened, it took me a while but I started over with the shopping around and am now a really happy and satisfied Animas 20/20 pump user:)

I have been a T1 for 38 years and found the period at school difficult at times as there were no meters to test yourself and being hyper or hypo was both a problem at .Being hyper came with drinking and then ofcourse the peeing followed.Many a time had I been send to the principal for using the toilet to often or was plainly refused to use it.A couple of years ago I mistakenly took my short acting insulin at night with the long acting amount this being 600% to much.When I realised my mistake and I could not eat my way out of this hypo my husband rang the ambulance at midnight.When they arrived they asked me if I took an overdose and did I know the name of the insulin I had taken.Being near unconscious all I did was argue with them and the response was,”If I kept this attitude up they would leave me and not help,this was reiterated to me several times,do they not know about the mood changes with a diabetic having a hypo?,you sometimes wonder.

I have been T1 for 22 years and have only had 1 problem during a job interview when my pump gave an alarm for low cartiridge. The interviewer automatically presumedthe beeping to be a txt message and said it was not acceptable to have phone Beeoing during the interview, I let him know it was my insulin pump and he was OK but no sure he believed me. iI didn’t get the job, but kinda glad. When I was working full time I always told my employers that I was T1 and sometimes I would need food during meetings or to go and test or go to Drs for check ups and blood tests. They were always good, so I think letting them know from the begining so their were no surprises was wise.

crickey my writing is bad, maybe hypo, will go and check xx

Woah, there are some unbelieveable stories here. I think Tania is right – we should all make sure we take these instances to the appropriate governing bodies to ensure the mistakes aren’t repeated.