Comments on: Learning from Oprah’s Megaphone

By: Michael Hoskins

Michael Hoskins — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 05:37:23 +0000

Even now almost six months later, that show still enrages me and I found myself steaming about it again tonight. Being a T1 for 26 years (since the age of 5), I completely agree with you that this show as unhelpful and fueled many of the myths that have long-endangered our advocacy efforts. My mom faced those same questions when I was young, which didn’t make her job any easier and made her even more angry as she’s a Type 1 herself since the age of 5. We were all hurt by Oprah and Oz. Kerri over at SixUntilMe did do a great job on that one and many of us blogged about it at the time, and all we can do is continue to push for more educational efforts and shows highlighting Type 1, and the differences. Thanks for posting this, and sorry that it’s several months overdue.

By: Celeste

Celeste — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 01:14:23 +0000

Ditto! We did not see the Oprah show in question but feel nearly overwhelmed by the mis-understandings people have about the different kinds of diabetes. Our daughter was diagnosed 1 month before her 2nd birthday and peoples reactions are annoying! They think we gave her this disease by genetics and too much soda (when most kids juice drinks are just as high in carb…)

anyway, thanks for all the posting and a venue to vent to people who understand what a pain and added burden confusing inforation about type 1 and 2 is in our lives!

By: Stacy @ Moderate Means

Stacy @ Moderate Means — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 04:15:32 +0000

I really wish they had different names. People so often tell me they ‘know all about diabetes’ and then follow it up with ‘my uncle/neighbor/ex-sister-in-law/grandpa’s first wife had it and (s)he died.’ So, not only are you going to disregard the seriousness of T1 (not that T2 isn’t serious, but the dangers are crazy different) but you are going to point out to my kid that she could die from it?!?!

We’re 3 1/2 years from diagnosis. I’ve learned to not be surprised and I’ve given up on large scale publicity. It’s all about educating where you can and correcting misperceptions. It’s a never-ending struggle but I just keep plugging away at it by talking about diabetes anytime I think it could help.

Stacy

By: Learning from Oprah#39;s Megaphone | Stefany Shaheen — Diabetes Information

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:06:39 +0000

[...] pixelgirl wrote an interesting post today. Here’s a quick excerptI only wish that the megaphone was conveying information exclusively focused on managing and preventing bType/b 2 bDiabetes/b and not confusing matters by blurring the line between bType 1/b and bType/b 2 bDiabetes/b. For the Minority bDiabetes/b … [...]

By: Kristen Robie

Kristen Robie — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:10:00 +0000

I did not see the show, but I find myself preoccupied, as well, with how to teach people that Kailyn having Type 1 is not my fault.

In my opinion, there should be completely different names for Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes. People still say stuff to me for example, “she is not overweight how did she get it?” or, “so she can’t eat any sugar or carbs?”.(as recently as last Friday at her valentines day party).

Oprah’s show sounds just like everything else on tv. Alarming people about the epidemic of Diabetes, but not letting people know that there are two types, with the first one not being preventable.