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Sunnygirl, I feel your pain! My mother "read" that you get diabetes from being fat. She missed the part where I was a rapidly shrinking size 1 at diagnosis, I guess. Throw in the fact that I got type 1 in my 30's...even my newest nurse practitioner tested me to make sure I wasn't producing my own insulin. "You're definitely type 1." Yeah, that's what I told you when I came through the door...

Years ago, I had a cousin with endometriosis when it was less well-known than it is now. My parents asked my aunt how their daughter was doing and Auntie pulled out a photocopy from a book with information about endometriosis. At the time I thought it was weird but I get it now!

And, my mother in particular loved to tell me, "At least you don't have cancer! What if you had cancer???" Well...I've had friends with cancer who had tumors removed and they're fine and dandy while I still have diabetes. Not to make light of cancer, but diabetes isn't fun either.
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I share your frustration. I sometimes pray for patience. It is a virtue, so, I try not to take things to heart. AND, if these people who are continuing to be uninformed, are your family members and close friends, I'd get some links that provide solid info on your dad's situation and either text them to them or hand them the links in person. Just politely say, here's a great link that may help. It helped me. I thought you might find it interesting.

For many years I have gotten LOTS of inaccurate, ill informed, and even mean remarks about diabetes. I am Type I and most people don't even know there are types. So, there are many misconceptions. Even health care professionals don't know much about types or diabetes in general. IT's BIZARRE.

Maybe, you can educate some people along the way and if not, try not to let them bring you down. Hang in there.
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There is nothing you can do. Smile and leave, don't frustrate yourself.
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I no longer try to educate, especially when they start out with how great Michael J Fox is doing. That’s all they want to know about PD. I use a short response like thanking them for their concern and that we have it covered, or yes, I’ll look into that. Then I either change the subject or disengage from the conversation.
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Only one time I had to snap back at a co-worker. I was grumbling about having to drive my parents all over hill and dale. The co-worker then reminded me that my parents drove me when I was a child. Ok, she was right "BUT my parents weren't in their late 60's when I was a child... big difference" :P
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Gosh--when my DH was dxed with Primary Liver Cancer (due to 40 years of living with Hepatitis C)..the things people would say to us were astounding. We were trying to be open and honest about the HCV, and we TRIED to educate people about it--but met with a wall of ignorance and prejudice that, to this day, I don't understand. Lost a LOT of "friends" who were so terrified they'd catch it. We had 5 kids together and I didn't contract it, and none of the kids did. Trust me, this is one hard disease to get!!

Hubby got a liver transplant, the HCV returned, as it always does, and he did 84 weeks of a brutal chemo regimen. That bought him a few years and now with Harvoni treatment, HCV is kind of a worry of the past. Even my DH's worst case genotype was knocked out by this miracle drug.

The things people tried to sell/tell/help us with ran the gamut from kind, but pointless to just plain stupid. One guy tried to sell us "magnets" to place on my husband's belly, to pull the toxins from his liver....wow, that one had us in stitches, trying to figure out. Essential oils, juices, shamanism cures, shakra alignments.....we finally just gave up.

People would ask about his health and I always reply "he is fine, thanks for asking", Anyone who knows us well enough KNOWS he is now HCV free and we're just very grateful for the people who stood by us and didn't flee for the hills.

I'm not saying people are stupid--just not well educated about many health related issues. I got so tired of having to "defend" our choice to stay "Western Medicine" in all this.

Grow a thick skin, I guess. I've been dealing with this for over 25 years (since his initial dx..).and I don't really talk about it to people. What's the point?
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I've been through that, still going through that. I've tried various suggestions, such as reading up on a certain medical aspect so the person doesn't drone on about some issue or another, but in the long run, if they haven't walked in a caregiver's shoes, they oftentimes just can't conceive of what we're experiencing.

And sometimes those who have now feel they're experts and need to advise me how to handle things.

Usually I just say I'm late for a meeting or something and escape.
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My mom lost her eyesight to macular degeneration, a condition her mother also suffered from to a lesser degree. Despite living in a small town where people knew her family history and who had been told time and time again why she couldn't see we were repeatedly asked why she didn't "get it fixed" and if mom was "too scared to have the operation". Sigh. And then there were the people who would come up to her when she was out in public without introducing themselves, it almost seemed like it was a game to see if she could guess correctly who they were. She carried a white cane for pete's sakes, use your head people!

Which isn't really answering your question, but I sympathize, sometimes even family can be so dense you want to knock their heads together.
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