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If you use an insulin pump or CGM, has anyone ever mistaken your device(s) for any of the following? Select all that apply!
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Years ago, an acquaintance reprimanded me for texting as we were sitting down to dinner. I looked sharply at her and told her I was giving myself insulin. That stopped her dead in her tracks. (She gets it now!)
Even worse, I get accused of checking my watch in the middle of a conversation, which I am doing but how do you explain you’re checking your blood glucose not the time? Actually, same goes for the smartphone. It’s a medical device! I’m checking a medical device! For me, anyway….
I’m not sure I’ve ever been through airport security without being told to remove my “cell phone.”
Although I selected Pager, I WAS also wearing a pager. This was to do with my position as a Social Worker … years ago now. 😉
Someone started talking loudly and slowly to me thinking the pump was some sort of hearing aid. 🤣
I was asked if my CGM was for pain relief
No, but many HAVE asked me what the device I had was and I was happy to tell them.
I worked in a management position for many years. During that time, I was asked twice by two separate employees if I was wearing a recording device. I might add that both of those employees were persons whom I felt were disgruntled staff members.
Pager. This came up just a couple of days ago. I was at a bar and needed to bolus for a glass of beer. A 20-something young woman next to me exclaimed delightedly “Is that a pager??? I’ve never seen one!” Being an older guy I guess it wasn’t a totally weird assumption that I might have some old-tech gadget like that. Not to mention it’s an old “pager-style” Medtronic Paradigm (I tried their AID pump and hated it), so there’s that. Kind of an awkward moment–mostly I rarely have anyone notice it at all.
I had someone ask me if I was wearing a bomb(I’m still assuming they were joking).
Neulasta pod for cancer, poor you! No it’s just diabetes…
I was asked if my CGM sensor was a tracking device used by my husband! I think the gentleman may have been joking but I didn’t find it very funny.
It is rare if anyone sees my devices as the cgm and pump are not usually on display.
Good point. My stuff is normally not on display, but that’s because I live in a cold climate. There’s not much chance for people to see my pump or CGM.
I use an overpatch with designs and people think it is a tattoo.
I have only had a couple of people question what it is. People don’t usually say anything.
Only when I fly. In addition I win bonus screening.
Havent flown in 4 years now that I’m retired.
I was visiting my daughter-in-law in the hospital once and after I got home my son called to find out if I was on chemotherapy. They had noticed my Omnipod and thought it was for chemo. I have been asked several times what the Omnipod is since it is so large.
Pump did get confused with a camera by a strict security lady in a NO PICTURES room of Windsor Castle. Naughty, naughty. But she backed off. And maintain her severe, stern draconian stuffiness. Hrmmmph! ᕦ(˵ ͡~⍘ ͡°˵)ᕥ◝(●˙꒳˙●)◜
Well, I get body searched every time I go through security at any airport. They also check with some paperstrip to make sure this 4’11” little lady isn’t carrying a bomb on her!! 🙂
lol!!
Pumping 24 years and someone commented “that sure is a long antenna on your phone!”
Gameboy
When I first started wearing my pump in the late 90’s, I was teaching in a middle school, and was asked by several students if it was a pager. It was a “thing” back in the day! 🙂
Just last week someone said to me “Hey, you’ve got something stuck on the back of your arm.”
Katie, love your image! I once had an orange VW camper my kids called the pumpkin van.
Off topic but was once arrested while injecting insulin in a fast food bathroom. Unfortunately the label had come off my vial… nosey police officer and ignorance of T1D back then Fortunately someone at the jail had a diabetic sibling who stated ” this guy ain’t a junkie he’s sick”
Oh my gosh!!!! People. Lol
I’m sure it wasn’t funny at the time, but great story now. Makes me think maybe I should stop using the phrase “shoot up”. Mom’s gone now, but it used to make her crazy when I said that. Now I say it because it makes me think of Mom and laugh.
I had someone mistake my receiver, before there were apps for cell phones, as a cell phone.
To my surprise, I’ve been asked if it is a heart monitor or pacemaker, as well as being asked if the CGM sensor is an insulin diffuser.
Once someone who frequented a place I used to regularly hang out told me they thought it was a walkman (portable radio cassette player) 😁
check out Ed Gamble, the British “diabetic comedian,” as he describes questions about his glucose meter. Very funny.
Oh my goodness! I just checked Ed Gamble on YouTube… He’s awesome! 😀
“Diabetic comedy is not a thing. Diabetic comedy is not a genre that exists…” 😀
Thank you!!! I needed a laugh. 😀
About 20 years ago my pump was misidentified as a pager. And, at that time, no-one ever commented that they had a pump too. Now I am frequently asked if I have the same model as the one they are wearing.
Pager. The guy thought I was being rude by checking my alarm on the pump while he was talking to me. This was 6 or 7 years ago.
The pump was once mistaken for a pager long ago. The CGM sensor on the back of my arm was mistaken for some sort of performance enhancing device by a competitive cyclist one day a few years back (not based on my performance or anything, just genuine curiosity.) I don’t think my pump has been mistaken for anything for 15 years or so now. Either they are more common or people are more polite. Security people at events and airports ask as required by their jobs but don’t guess wrong or seem surprised.
Yes, also had a couple think it was a pager back in the 90s. In early 2000s, when my daughter and her family were living overseas and I hadn’t seen them in a while, she thought I was fiddling with my phone every time I sat down to eat with them — after all, her husband usually was. Didn’t mention it until after she realized it was the pump, polite daughter that she is. Had someone in a medical situation once refer to the tubing as my catheter. And, recently when my infusion set showed on my arm, a young neighbor assumed it had something to do with fitness, but was curious just what.
I’ve had people at the gym ask if my Omnipod pump was for chemo. Children will ask if it’s a bandage. My 2 year old granddaughter used to try to comfort me because of my “owie”
Before procedures, I’ve twice had RN’s ask, as they go to remove the CGM from my arm, if it’s a nicotine patch or fitness tracker. Before the pandemic limited travel the TSA agents made numerous guesses about my pump.
People have asked what both my Libre and Omnipod are. Neither is visible in the normal course – only when I’m swimming or walking around the dock shirtless.
Yes, I was asked if it was a nicotine patch, a Thrive patch(some kind of diet thing I think), and if it was a port.
I included “other” in my choices because one person at work asked me what my infusion set was (it was in my upper arm at the time) and another co-worker shushed her. I think the latter thought it was contraceptive patch!
LOL……..
Someone asked if my omnipod was a patch to “give me energy”
Tattoo
My uncle, a fertility specialist, said they used something similar to deliver hormones. He knew what it was though.
They all ask if that’s an old pager (My Tandem pump) with a laugh.
My son back in the late 90s at middle school was called out by a teacher for having a pager. I myself have never had anyone ask me if it was any of the listed above options, however I have had people ask me what it is.
I answered pager, but that has not happened in a long time (since people just don’t carry pagers much any more). In that past, it was a common question.
Prior to getting TSA Pre-Check, some airport TSA staff searched me thinking I was wearing a bomb. They insisted I totally remove it, which I could only undo at the tubing site. Now they just ask me to swipe the pump with my fingers & they swab my fingers through a device. Much easier!!
Many years ago while standing in line, a person looked at the sensor on my arm and made a snide comment to their friend. It appears they thought I was wearing some type of device that communicated with my cell phone, and they did not approve of this.
When I attended a spiritual retreat my pump/sensor combo beeped during a silent meditation sitting and afterwards a man complained out loud very angrily “Rude people shouldn’t participate in the meditation sessions if they can’t leave their cell phones and beepers in their cars.” After he calmed down, I gently went over to him and apologized for my pump & sensor alarm and briefly offered an explanation & educated him about T1 diabetes and the artificial beta cell technology that keeps a PWD with T1D alive. He was stunned and admitted he had no idea of what I was talking about, admitted he knew nothing about type 1 diabetes and apologized to me for being so judgmental, rude and angry about being disturbed in the meditation.
No one sees mine- it is in my abdomen
Airport security in France thought it was a DVD player 😂
People have only questioned what’s on my arm…sometimes I say it’s a gps device so my husband can keep track of me and I watch chins drop! Ha! Then I tell them the truth 😆
In high school, I once had a substitute teacher get onto me for having a camera in class!
In hindsight, she must’ve felt awful when I told her it was an insulin pump!
Yes, the local Canadian regional hospital had a Certified Diabetes Educator confirm and identify my Dex G6 CGM and my Omnipod insulin pump. As I was an ambulatory patient the CGM was removed from my body at the Emergency Room and the Omnipod was removed after I was transferred to the ICU. All of my devices were seized by the hospital and never returned. I complained about this since my initial admission at Emergency but nothing ever happened. The Endo assigned to the ICU was there when my Omnipod was taken, but she also quit the health service immediately after her shift, After formal complaints to the hospital board and security I got a letter of apology that also stated they could not find any information about my diabetic devices or where they could be. This occurred in June 2020, right after Covid invaded our healthcare system