Sunday, February 27, 2011

You never know when someone will get it...

I was sitting at the makeup counter at our local Macy's chatting up the small talk or not so small talk with the makeup lady as she gave me a mini facial.  My husband had given me a little money to go buy some new makeup.  I have super sensitive skin along with rosacea and have found that Origins cosmetics are the only ones that do not irritate my skin.  It is not cheap stuff so I have a lot of no makeup days to stretch it out.  I told her that I just felt like I needed a fresh look becuase I couldn't remember when I had worn makeup in the last year.  Makeup and hair ladies must be a little like bar tenders, you just open up and spew your life story while you sit with them.  I told her it had been a stressful year.  Then I could feel it welling up, do I tell her about D?? I have learned that in public it's not a good idea to bring up the D word.  People don't get it and I don't want to insult their intelligence by berating them with facts on the differences between T1 and T2. Plus I get so irritated at their lack of understanding (it really is not their fault as the media portrays only T2 and lumps D together in one basket). So I take a different rout of letting her know what I have been dealing with.  "One of my children was diagnosed with a chronic illness,"  I inform her.  She is still listening so I give her a bit more,  "it's an autoimmune condition that is very difficult to manage."  I can see the empathy on her face as she says, "my manager has been through something similar with her daughter, she gets little sleep and has to take calls from the school and from what I can tell it is just difficult, always battling insurance and such.  What is it called that your daughter has?"  I take a deep breath and quickly, making sure to emphasize the T1, blurt out, "type one diabetes" Her eyes light up, "that is exactly what my manager's daughter has"  and I didn't need to say anymore as she continued to pampered me, she went on about how her manger has such a hard time getting people to understand becuase everybody thinks diabetes is just diabetes and that she fed her daughter too much junk food. It was actually kind of interesting becuase she then felt safe telling me her woes and I got to be the listener and hear some of her life story.  It was a nice change and I did not feel dumped on, it was kind of like an old friend because she was one of the few people out there that has taken time to understand the world of T1D. 

In celebration of wearing make-up again.  (I'm not vain until a camera is near) I had a mommy and me photo shoot done with David.  (I had to use the last punches for free pictures on my portrait club membership before the end of Feb) I have some mommy and me photos of Josh and I when he was about David's age so I thought that would be fun and Bekah was with us so we got her in on the action.  (these are photos of photos so I apologize for the quality) What you don't see here is after the photo session while we were viewing the pictures Bekah felt low and checked her BG (47) and ended up laying on the floor (dirty floor) because she couldn't sit up any longer.  I got down on the floor with her and just held her until her BG level came back up (I did not care what anybody was thinking or had to say). Darn D tried to ruin the fun!  




9 comments:

  1. YOU.ARE.BEAUTIFUL!

    Love that the make-up lady got it and was empathizing with you and her manager. That means the world to us, doesn't it?

    Bummer on the low, as always you handled it with love and compassion and grace...dirty floor and all.

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  2. What a great way to relax :) Sorry D had demand attention.

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  3. I'm totally crying! People that get it are like little gifts from God to tell us to keep going! Beautiful!!

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  4. Beautilful....the makep up lady's understanding, you, & the pictures you got taken!

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  5. it is amazing where the empathy comes from that means so much to us to just feel heard and understood. And those pictures are adorable. What a treat!

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  6. Love the pictures!

    And I love that someone "got it." So many people don't and it makes diabetes that much harder when people don't understand.

    Love you!

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  7. I'm crying now too lol. Good for you for going and pampering your beautiful self and the pics are gorgeous. xox

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  8. Beautiful pictures :) YAY for you for being honest about why you haven't been wearing make up and YAY for her for being observant and supportive of her manager!!!!!!! YAY YAY YAY!!!!

    I went through something like that while getting a haircut...turned out the girl cutting my hair had T1! I couldn't believe it. Then she said, "So I guess you'll understand why I have to take a quick break and go check my blood sugar because I think I'm low." I sat there with my hair half cut, wet, and on the verge of tears waiting for her to slurp down a juice.

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  9. I am a blog stalker coming out...I love this post. I have T1D and whenever it comes up, usually when they see my pump, I get the questions. When you find someone who "gets it" it is great.

    Your little girl is a doll!!

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