Diabetes Disclosure – DSMA Blog Carnival for March

This is the first DSMA Blog Carnival that I have done. My blogging has been slacking recently, so what better way to spark it than with a DSMA related post.

Disclosure of diabetes to me is simple. It tends to come up every time that I speak to somebody, really no matter what. So, let’s first start with the employer. I am my own employer, so yes, I definitely know. It tends to come up in a lot of business conversations as well. I do online marketing for a living, so I am constantly referring to the DOC when I talk about social media and blogging. So, the diabetes comes up just that easily.

Previously, when I was not my own employer, my co-workers knew. I told my closest co-workers that I have diabetes right away in case there was some sort of emergency, I wanted them to have some what of a clue what to do. Other co-workers found out just by conversation or by them asking what the funny thing on my hip was. There were a lot of Diabetes Police at my former co-workers office, so I took as many chances as I could to get some education in.

When I was in college, about 3-4 years ago, not many people knew I was diabetic. In fact, almost zero people knew. The only people that usually knew were the professors. I would make sure that I told the professor on the first night of class and then follow it up with an e-mail, that I had diabetes. If the professor heard a beeping noise, or I suddenly had to get up in a middle of a test because my blood sugar was 50 and dropping, they would know. By the way, if you are in college and have diabetes, I highly recommend not letting your blood sugar go low during a test, teachers are very funny about that kind of stuff.

I was not very talkative while I was in college. My first college that I attended, I talked to everybody. I was on the football team, it was a small school, and I saw the same people everyday. However, I finished school at Florida Atlantic University. I was diagnosed only a year and a half earlier, and I moved to Florida all by myself, not a single friend or family in the area. I was a little shy. I made sure to tell my roommate and my other suite mates, but that was about it. I started working very early in my college career, so I was all about going to class, going to work, studying, wake up and do the same thing all over. College was business to me, and I didn’t take much time to talk to people, so diabetes never came up. Sorry that this went off on a tangent about my social life in college. Moving on.

I don’t think I have a friend that doesn’t know that I’m diabetic. If they are my friend, they know. Just that simple.

I have never been one to hide my diabetes or withhold it on purpose. If it comes up, I tell people. I can remember going on a job interview to be a bartender and the topic never came up, so I didn’t mention it. My first day on the job, I let everybody know because I felt it was important for them to know in case of an emergency, or in case they saw me chugging the OJ! Another interview that I went on, I told them straight out. It was for a digital marketing company, so I figured that my experience with blogging and social media was a positive for me, so I brought diabetes up. Got the job and diabetes was never an issue.

Well, that is my take on diabetes and disclosure of it. I don’t recommend that you tell people or that you shouldn’t tell people. It is a personal decision and I respect it either way. This is your disease. We share characteristics of a disease, but diabetes is different for every single one of us. However you want to deal with it, is totally up to you.

Happy DSMA Blog Carnival.