Screaming to the World, I Am Not My Disease

A Case of the Transition Experienced by Two

Adolescents Diagnosed with Diabetes

Texas A&M University at Qatar

By Aysha Al-Qraisi
Supervised by Dr. LeeAnn Rudd
November 24, 2016

An Aggie does not lie, cheat or steal or tolerate those who do.

Table of Content:
Introduction--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3-

Diagnoses of Diabetes in Children Below 18 Years Old-----------------------------3-4

What Is Diabetes?----------------------------------------------------------------------------4
Research Question---------------------------------------------------------------------------4
Hypothesis------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4

Methodology-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4
Results and Discussions---------------------------------------------------------------------------5-11
Survey Results-----------------------------------------------------------------------------5-8
Case Study 1----------------------------------------------------------------------------------9
Case Study 2------------------------------------------------------------------------------9-10
Analysis of My Mothers Interview------------------------------------------------------10
Cumulative Results----------------------------------------------------------------------10-11
Recommendations---------------------------------------------------------------------------------11-12
Works Cited--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------13
Appendix--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------14-19
Appendix A-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------14
Appendix B-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------15
Appendix C-------------------------------------------------------------------------------15-16
Appendix D-------------------------------------------------------------------------------16-17
Appendix E-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------17
Appendix F-------------------------------------------------------------------------------18-19

Introduction:
2

I remember a day where my siblings and I were all called to fast from 8:00 p.m. to
8:00 a.m. The next morning, our blood sugar was tested by my sisters device. The needle
hurt some of us to crying. I saw my parents testing my sisters blood sugar, I understood
that my sister was ill when I heard my mother pointing on my siblings and I, No
chocolate will be in this house anymore. At that time, I was 10 years old where my best
food was chocolates and sweets. I understood that I will not be able to eat what I always
loved to eat because my sister was diagnosed with diabetes. In the age I was, I could not
imagine being prevented from chocolate. In fact, my mother did not want to allow me
and prevent my sister, so she would not feel lonely and different. She also was afraid that
my sisters situation will repeat, so she had a very restricted rules regarding chocolates
and sweets.
The rules set made me feel angry and hated my sisters. Sometimes, I was bullying
her, and sometimes when I was allowed to eat chocolate for one time, I was accusing her
with her disease. I was not trained and taught how to look at her with the difference
between us, which was her disease. Even my parents were not trained how to cope
themselves and cope us with my sister and her disease. It was not only my sisters life
that changed. It was my parents, siblings, and my life.
My relationship with my sister became very weak with time. My parents and I,
made her feel that she was different. And, she expressed her emotions and words all the
time with the fact that she was different. With time, she felt weak, different, alone, and
unwanted. She was not strong even when we fight, she would stop fighting, which was
not usual for her, because she did not feel that she was in the same phase as me. Since I
witnessed how difficult the transition was and how my family and I stressed them
mentally, I want to pay off the bad things I did for my sister when I was adolescent by
researching for a solution that will show her my care, that will help families know how to
deal with them, and that will help other adolescents diagnosed with diabetes

Diagnoses of Diabetes in Children Below 18 Years Old

Most children below 18 are not mature enough to be diagnosed with diabetes and
still accept it from the beginning. Therefore, they need time to cope and understand their
situation. Since diabetes is a series condition that might last lifelong, it requires a lot of
changes in the patients lifestyle to be able to cope with the disease. The changes are
requiring a totally different person. It requires a person who do not eat a lot of fats,
chocolate, and a person who is physically fit. It requires either injecting insulin or eating
tablet everyday, and a continuously checking the blood sugar. All these are working as a
protection of serious illnesses. All these changes might be acceptable if you are a mature
person; however, usually children are not mature to accept being different than others.
They would become stressed of thinking. And, they usually think of who wants their
good and is protecting them hates them. For example, if a mother told her daughter to
not go outside without a proper convincing explanation of the reason, the young girl will
think that her mother hates her. That is why sometimes the connection or relationship
between children and their parents is week. Therefore, I think we need to raise the

awareness of the correct way of dealing with young diabetes patients and what we need
to do to help them, not to stress them more.

What Is Diabetes?
Diabetes is a chronic, lifelong condition that affects your bodys ability to use the energy
found in food. There are three major types of diabetes: Type 1 diabetes, Type 2 diabetes,
and gestational diabetes. (Types) Theses types are different according to the causes of it,
and the likely age of onset. Type 1 diabetes requires taking an insulin injection most
likely once or twice per day depending on the progress of the case. It is not likely to
afflict children or young people; however, it might happen for children genetically.
Another is Type 2 diabetes, it is mainly developed more in adolescents and teenagers. It is
probably requiring a tablet to maintain average blood sugar. Every case might differ
according to its progress in each type. (Types)

Research Question
Why Is The Transition Young Diabetic Patients Have When Diagnosed With Diabetes
Difficult?

Hypothesis
Before doing this research, I predicted the results from witnessing my siblings lives. Not
everybody has the awareness of the correct way of communicating with young diabetic
patients either mentally or physically because neither my family nor me knew how to
help my siblings, not harm them. I believe that doctors as well as family members put
young diabetic patients under more mental pressure by our way of communicating to help
them, which causes their transition to be more difficult. Therefore, this study is aiming to
prove or object my prediction for further recommendations.

Methodology
The methodology included surveying TAMUQ students to ascertain how well people can
mentally deal with young diabetic patients. Furthermore, I interviewed my two sisters to
discuss how did it feel to transit to different lifestyle, who affected them positively and
negatively, and how. The patients I interviewed are now way bigger than the age they
diagnosed diabetes at, so they are mature compared to the first day. Therefore, they are
having a better perspective from their own point at a young age and at an older age. I also
interviewed my mother who was part of my sisters transition to know how she dealt with
them, and how effective it was.

Results and Discussions

Survey Results
I surveyed 171 people in TAMUQ University, which is 33.79 percent of the students. The
results showed how important is it to raise the awareness about helping young diabetic
patients mentally. For the first question, I asked if the survey responder has a diabetes or
not to be able to relate being ill with diabetes makes a difference in understanding and
helping young diabetes they know or not.

Figure 1: First Question.

Seven out of 171 people has diabetes, which when compared with the Universitys body
size is 12.1 percent might have diabetes. This shows that the number of diabetic patients
in Qatar is huge number when compared to 10 percent in a small size university.

Figure2: Second Question.

Out of the seven patients above no one believe that their parents were able to cope with
them as a diabetic patient. I believe that this is a very interesting result, since parent
should be the only ones to be able to cope with their children. Plus, children always like
to honor their parents and say that they did everything. In these results since no one
admitted that their parents were highly able to cope with them, it shows very honest
answers. There is two out of seven chose 1, and three chose the range 3. This clarifies the
need of raising the awareness of the way of communicating and dealing with diabetic
patients in families and parents.

Figure 3: Third Question

More than 50% percent of the seven diabetic patients have other young diabetic patients
in their family. This might indicate how well a diabetic patient knows how to deal with
other young diabetic patients.

Figure 4: Fourth Question

However, with these results, I was surprised to get the opposite of my prediction. I
thought that a patient would know how to deal with other patient more than anyone else
because of being in the same situation. However, the results changed my perspective to
realizing that communicating with young diabetic patient is still difficult to do. Three out
of four believed that they know almost nothing about the proper way of dealing with
young diabetic patients, which shows how worthily recommendations on this conflict are.

Figure 5: Third Question

For this question, I received 169 responses with 35 students indicating knowing a young
diabetic patient. A huge number of young diabetic patients are around us to consider and
think of. Sine in 169 people there are 35 percent of them knowing young diabetic
patients, then it might be 6.5 percent of young diabetic patients in Qatar. According to
Gulf Times newspaper, the number of children aged up to 18 with diabetes is increasing
enormously as having 21 out of 1000 with the disease (Andrews). That number is
important to consider since it carry 2.1% of children in gulf countries ill with diabetes.
Diabetes is becoming the sickness of this century in Gulf countries as its number is
increasing in these days with the effects and causes of it. As a result, everyone
surrounding these patients should be aware of the proper way of mentally dealing with
them.

Figure 6: Fourth Question.

Over all 35 people having young diabetic patients, there is only four who believe that
they are highly qualified to deal with them. The most commonly chosen criterion is the
least qualified as it has the highest percentage of 37.14, others are distributed on 2 and 3,
and only three are in the 4th criterion.
Overall the survey shows that the knowledge of the technique, manner, and mode that
should be used with young diabetic patients is not known. Not everyone in the society
that carries more than 20 percent of young diabetic knows the proper and correct way to
deal with them that will later help and benefit them mentally and psychologically. It
proves my prediction of not having enough awareness, and shows how worse the
recommendations are needed for a society that has young diabetic patients.

 Case Study 1: Hessa Al-Qraisi

Screaming to world, I am not my disease is the outcome I got from Hessas
interview. Since she did not discuss any of the physical help she got from others, it is
obvious that she was able to overcome the physical need by herself. What I understood
from her interview is that most people around her were communicating with her with
respect to her disease. She simply said, Whenever we were all gathering and there was
someone whom we just met, my aunt and my family would introduce me by being a
diabetic patient. By hearing the words and seeing her, I felt she was not shy from being
ill, but others made her shy.
Actually, I believe when others make you change your feelings; it becomes
absolutely difficult for a person to go back to the previous feelings. Some people to not
have the strength and confident to stay with and in their position, so they get easily
affected by others. The effects they get from others actions or words might most of the
time be wrong, and it is likely to stay longer with person because it is something they just
caught or relearned. Therefore, doctors, families, and parents words and actions can
change a persons belief, perspective, and feelings.
As what happened with my sister Hessa, she was strongly accepting the disease
and the medication she got. However, the non-educated people around her made her hate
her illness and stop the medication by experiencing non-thoughtful actions and words.
Her parents made everybody advice her which made her feel different than others. Also,
everyone was allowed to talk about her disease in front of her and other adolescents. That
made her rethink of her ideas and perspective about her illness to change it to a not
acceptable disease. Her thoughts changed to leave her thinking that her disease is making
her lonely and different.
Furthermore, all of the family causes do not matter if there was a doctor to help
her overcome it. But, my sister Hessa did not find that help from the doctor she was
visiting regularly. In fact, the doctors somehow also affected her negatively because as
she said that she hated going to the doctors. What she showed me that she needed was
only that everybody including doctors to show her understanding, respect, and to help her
regarding her disease.

Case Study 2: Nouras Story

Everybody became an advisor after I was diagnosed with diabetes, Noura
proposed. This sentence made my parents, aunts, uncles, and myself when we point at
Noura telling her that she should take her medication and to not mess any day. When we
give the command and say, Why are you missing your medicine? Go and take it! Do you
want to die? We actually do not feel the negative power of the words we are saying. In
fact, we think that we are advising and helping her realize the danger of her illness.
However, the truth is flipping everything. We are accusing her by throwing these words,
which might make her feel different and unwanted. This leads to psychological status that
will make her hate and dont accept her disease.

He said, You, Noura, have diabetes and this might kill you if you dont maintain
the average rate of your blood sugar., Noura addressed what her doctor told her in the
first day she was diagnosed with diabetes. I believe that she did not expected what the
doctor told her from the first day, and that she is now seeing it as a wrong thing to be told
for a young diabetic patient in the first day of the diagnosis. She did not accept what the
doctor told her, hated the doctor, and hated the medication. I believe that doctors
sometimes do not know the power of the words and the actions, so they tend to use words
that affect the patient negatively.
Noura also expressed her feelings when she was prevented from chocolates and
sweets unlike other children at her age. She did not like the fact that others where
preventing her by telling her to eat what and to not eat what. It made her nervous and
might make all children in her age nervous.

Analysis of The Mothers Interview:

In my mothers interview, the story of the two children link together. Without my
mother knowing her adolescents perspective about the disease, she agreed in the same
point of not being able to cope with her adolescents in the way to help them, make them
feel satisfied, and encourage them to follow the medication. Mothers are most of the time
able to understand what their adolescents need, want, and prefer. However, for this type
of situation it become difficult since at a young age children psychology keep changing
with respect to the age. My mother had even more difficulties coping with her second
child to diagnose diabetes. This shows the extent of how difficult coping with young
diabetic patient is even from a mother.
By warning them and giving them examples, you just tell them the if statement
of not following the medication, my mother believe. She believes that that was the
correct way to help a young diabetic patient even after having two different cases of
young diabetic patients. To clarify, both young patients were agreeing that those
statements made them feel nervous, hate the disease, and hate the medication. From their
perspective, it was something that they could not accept, but from their mothers
perspective it was something that should happen to help them. Here where the
misunderstanding takes place.

Cumulative Results
By looking at the interviews and analyzing them, the results appear to be likely the same.
Since overall my mother admitted that she did not use the proper way and that she needed
more knowledge to help them cope better with their disease, the study of how to help
young diabetic patients to have easier transition takes place. Unforgettable moments are
when a young patient and their family first get diagnosed with diabetes. What proves that
is that my sister and my mother both admitted the same exact story about the first days in
10

hospital and getting the help from nurses. They both remember every tiny detail of the
days that their lives got changed in. For example, the actions happened by the nurses and
the words said by the doctor. Even Noura wrote her story about seeing her mothers tears.
My two sisters both agree on getting the most pressure from their parents and doctors the
ones who actually worked to help them.
If a person works to help someone, he or she is likely to either fail or succeed. The failing
might happen if there is no background information and previous experience. Therefore,
as my siblings and mother all agreed on the condition of poor communication or poor
way of reaching a young diabetic patient, we can conclude that non-compliance is likely
to happen in the first days when just diagnosed with diabetes. It also proves that there is a
lack of knowledge in the proper way of dealing with each young diabetic patient. As my
sister Hessa mentioned that the poor and incorrect way made her become stubborn, hate
the disease, and become nervous, I would like to help other patients from going through
this unsuccessful journey.
It is important to understand, study, and learn how to deal, communicate, and advise
young diabetic patients since we are having a huge number around us that we dont to
lose. Communicating with young diabetic patients is a difficult responsibility to hold.
Therefore, a well-researched method should be applied to help them accept and cope with
the disease.

Recommendations
Since diabetes is a life long disease and often strikes young patients, it becomes
very difficult for children below 18 to cope with the changes and the medication. It is
very clear from the surveys results that there is a lack of information about how to help
young diabetic patient even with those who have diabetes. Therefore, by looking at what
my mother did and experienced, what my siblings went though and witnessed, what they
preferred, and what they resisted, we can suggest a recommended settings to help young
patients have an easier transition of lifestyle that does not put them under further
psychological duress.
At first, since there are a number of doctors who are specialized for young
diabetic patients, I think they are all should be trained to understand each patient before
dealing with him or her. Doctors for young diabetic patients should be aware of the
proper way, words, and actions they should do to make the child accept, and be satisfied
with what they got. So, because adolescents differ in personalities, understanding a
particular patients personality is essential, which might be gained by asking their family
about how they act, what they accept, and what they deny. By knowing specific things
about each patient, the doctor will be able to figure the correct way to appeal to the
adolescents logos and pathos since these are strategies used for a persuasion(Higgins and
Robyn).

11

However, with common sense, there are some steps to follow that might not differ
from person to another such us involving the young diabetic patients in an organization
that contain a number of recent young diabetic patients and previous diabetic patients to
exchange ideas and experience, to help recent ones understand better, and to help them
believe on themselves and their disease.
Showing young diabetic patients a model of a person who was diagnosed with
diabetes at a young age and now is not suffering because he or she coped with the
disease, will help them become excited and want to do more. That will work as an
encouragement for them and will create a competitive atmosphere between young
diabetic patients, which is needed because there will be a point where a young diabetic
patient will be bored from the disease.
Non-experts should not advise young diabetic patients on their disease. By nonexperts, I mean people who are not used to deal with the adolescent and dont know the
adolescents personality to know the proper way for this adolescent. Only parent and
doctors should be allowed to advise them because they are the only people who
understand them and know how to deal with them.
Young diabetic patients should not be introduced as their disease. For example,
my sister Hessa, who suffered being introduced to foreign people by her disease. Only
parents should know about their adolescent disease. For others to know, the adolescent
should be asked and discussed about it. Some adolescents might feel proud about it, and
others might not, so every personality should have its own environment to allow them to
become comfortable.
Doctors should not only request and give commands, they should first hear from
the patient regarding how difficult it is, what they need, and if they are accepting the
diagnosis. For example, as it happened with my sister Hessa, she felt that the doctors
dont care because they were only asking for the five times per day blood sugar readings
without even hearing from her if it was painful or not. That made her hate the hospital,
the doctors, and empathy their advice. Therefore, to prevent this, doctors need to first
show the patient that they feel what they feel, and understand how difficult it is to make
the patient trust them and follow their advices.
As mentioned previously, Type 2 diabetes is most prevalent in adolescents. It
could be relieved from the adolescent with the diet, exercising, and following the
medication correctly. Therefore, to help our diabetic children like my sister Noura to
relief diabetes, we will need to help them maintain healthy lifestyle and make them
follow the medication. We can only do this by following the solutions above to help them
become better rather than leaving them with the lifelong disease.

12

Works Cited

Andrews, Michelle. Diabetes: the psychological toll on young adults. Daily Newspaper
published by GPPC, 28 July. 2016,
http://www.gulftimes.com/story/505192/Diabetes-the-psychological-toll-onyoung-adults. Accessed 23 Nov 2016.
Higgins, Colin and Walker, Robyn. Ethos, logos, pathos: Strategies of persuasion in
social/environmental reports. ScienceDirect, 2016,
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0155998212000178.

Types of Diabetes Mellitus. WebMD, 2005-2016,

http://www.webmd.com/diabetes/guide/types-of-diabetes-mellitus#1.

13

Appendix
Appendix A:

14

 Appendix B:

15

I have two sisters who were diagnosed with diabetes at age 13 and 14. Therefore, I
interviewed one of them and the other one wrote her story paying attention to the
interview questions to convey their perspectives about the transition that happened in
their lives and the stress they had from parents, family, and doctors. The questions were
as follow:
1. At what age did you diagnose diabetes?
2. Which diabetic type do you have? Are you the first in the family to have
diabetes?
-What did it feel to be the first in your family to have diabetes?
3. How long did you spend realizing the whole situation?
4. Who or what put on you most pressure?
5. How difficult was the transition in your life?

Appendix C:
Interview with Hessa Hamad Al-Qraisi, 23 Years Old
Aysha: At what age did you diagnose diabetes?
Hessa: 14.
Aysha: Which diabetic type do you have? Are you the first in the family to have
diabetes?
Hessa: Type 1, which is caused genetically. And, Yes. I was the only one to diagnose
diabetes at a young age in my family and among my friends.
Aysha: What did it feel to be the first in your family to have diabetes?
Hessa: In the beginning, the doctors talked to me, warned me, and taught me about
diabetes. In the first day I was diagnosed with diabetes, the nurses taught me everything I
should do to cope with diabetes such as taking the insulin injection, testing my blood
sugar, and eating my tablets. The doctors told me how diabetes can badly affect my body
and can damage all my health. So, I accepted everything as a young patient and followed
all the steps.
Aysha: Do you think that that was the proper first conservation with a young diabetic
patient who just diagnosed it?
Hessa: I believe it made me realize and think of my position to understand it better.
However, I cant deny that it scared me.
Aysha: How long did you spend realizing the whole situation?
Hessa: Almost four years. Because the doctors boomed everything on my face in the
beginning, I became shy, accepted, and did everything. However, I kept becoming boring
gradually. I couldnt afford the pain I was getting from injecting the insulin inside my
body. The possible parts of inject the insulin became all tired, and it became painful to
inject on them event though I was flipping between the possible recommended places. I
stopped everything gradually by injecting a day and ignoring a week or two.
Aysha: Who or what put on you most pressure?
Hessa: My doctors put on me a lot of pressure by asking me without thinking to blood
test my sugar five times per day. They did not even ask me if I wanted to do so or not or

16

if it was paining. I felt that they dont really care, so I decided to not follow them at all.
Later, I hated even going to my appointments because I didnt like to always receive
advices.
Aysha: How about your mother and father?
Hessa: My mother was the first person who created stress for me. She cared the most and
she created the most stress by that. She was always making me nervous by the way she
talks to me or by the actions she does to make me follow the advices.
Aysha: If it is not personal, can you recall an example?
Hessa: Yes. She simply made me hate my illness. I was accepting it, and I got bored at
sometimes, but I could have turned again to my routine. She made me hate the reality of
being ill and having a long life disease by telling simply everyone in our family. And,
whenever we were all gathering and there was someone whom we just met, my aunt and
my family would introduce me by being a diabetic patient who does not cope with the
disease. So, they simply kept asking everyone to talk to and advice me while I already
knew all the advices that might be in this world. I hated hearing advices and being
introduced by my illness. Sometimes, I didnt gather with my family to stay away from
their only conversation with me.
Aysha: How difficult was the transition in your life?
Hessa: It was extremely difficult. In a sudden, I was asked to not eat chocolate, drink
Pepsi or Redbull. I could not stop suddenly not eating what I had been eating everyday in
my life. So, simply, the exercising part was easy, but the nutrition and food part was the
most difficult at age 14.
Aysha: This is an additional question I would like to get your answer about, what way of
communicating or dealing with young patients do you recommend or believe is proper?
Hessa: For this, I believe each person is different, so the way will be different too.
However, I believe each patient should have the choice of whether they want to tell
everybody or not. Plus, the advices should not come all at a time either from the doctors
or family. Encouragements should be given by reminding the patient that it is something
not controlled by anyone, and how being different is actually helping him or her
becoming a better person who can afford a lot of obstacles in his or her life.
Aysha: Thank you for helping me in my research.

Appendix D:
Written Story of Noura Hamad Al-Qraisi, 16 Years Old
In one of the holidays at age 13, I was like other adolescents playing in the yard of the
resort that was rented by my family. I fall down and my leg broke. At that instant, I didnt
know that my life had changed in a seconds. However, when I went to the hospital to XRay my leg, they checked my biometrics. A seconds after the results appeared on the
screen, the nurses started to shout out loudly, She is going to die. Her blood sugar is
580. I did not know that my blood sugar is something I should consider, think of, and
worry about. I was familiar with blood sugar because I had my older sister Hessa having
serious disease of it, but I did not know that I might be like her. I stared at the nurses for
along time as if I wanted to tell them, Okay? Then what will happen?

17

In a very short time, a doctor came and clarified everything for my mother and
me. He said, You, Noura, have diabetes and this might kill you if you dont maintain the
average rate of your blood sugar. My mind got filled with a lot of thoughts when I saw
the tears of my mothers cheeks. I looked at her with a hope that she is going to relief my
thought and say, It is okay Noura. Everything will be fine. But, no, the truth slapped me
to hear her saying, Now, you need to take care of your food or you will be seriously ill.
I turned my face to the other side as if I recognized that she was not the right person to
look at.
Everybody became an advisor after I was diagnosed with diabetes. I started to
visit the doctor once per week to get advises on how I should cope with diabetics.
Hospital was the most stressed place for me. Whenever I went to the hospital with my
mother, the doctors were telling my mother to prevent me from eating, register me in
gym, and control my eating of chocolate. Sometimes they were giving me commands
without even asking me whether I can do them or not. I didnt reject taking insulin
injection or eating tablet because I saw in their eyes the high expectations of me;
however, I did not do any of them continuously. I did it once and the other made me
realize the pain to stop taking it.
A day where my family and went to have dinner outside, I couldnt handle their
bullies. I ordered grilled food while others ordered fries, butter chicken, and burger.
Instead of all of what I afforded, at the dessert time I was prevented from ordering a
dessert like my other siblings. My mother allowed my siblings, but prevented me. In fact,
she could have prevented my siblings too to make me at least not to feel different.
However, they all did not afford it to help me accept my case gradually; instead, they
wanted me to accept everything as fast as an eye blink.

Appendix E:
Since it will matter to know my parents feelings toward their children and diabetes, I also
interviewed my mother about how they thought they should deal with my siblings, and
the effective ways they tried. The questions were as follow:
1. How did you deal with the first child to diagnose diabetes?
2. What way of dealing with young diabetic patients do you feel is
effective?
3. Do you think you did what you were supposed to do?
4. If you have the chance to go back to the first time, what would you
change?

Appendix F:

18

Interview with my mother, Huda Ali Al-Mohannadi

Aysha: How did you deal with the first child to diagnose diabetes?
Huda: It was very difficult, and what made it even worse is that she was my older
daughter. I couldnt accept it. I cried in the hospital and told them that I will not accept
the therapy of taking insulin injections. I told them that I would put her in a diet and take
care of everything, but without insulin. However, the nurses took me alone and explained
everything for me and gave me examples of patients who did not accept the medication
and had consequences. That convinced me because I wanted to protect my daughter. They
took me with my daughter to teach me how to inject her in the house the insulin. I refused
and said to them, Are you asking me to inject my soul? I was not accepting it at all.
And, when I held the injection to try to inject after I learned all the steps, my hands shook
very fast that I couldnt even hold. I was afraid to hurt her. But, she admitted at that
moment to learn and inject herself.
Aysha: What way of dealing with young diabetic patients do you feel is effective?
Huda: The proper way to deal with a young diabetic patient is warn them by giving them
examples of other patients who did not follow the medication and became seriously ill.
Also, giving them examples of young patients who coped with the disease will help them
see another perspective of accepting it.
Aysha: So, do you think warning a child would work? Because this might scary them.
Huda: No. By warning them and giving them examples, you just tell them the if
statement of not following the medication. However, you are not telling them that they
are going to die or the exact damage that might happen to their health and body.
Aysha: Can you tell us how you dealt with your diabetic adolescents?
Huda: My way of communicating, requesting and dealing with them differ from a person
to another. My older daughter would accept and do everything by politicking. For
example, by telling her that she is the best and that we are expecting from her more. The
expectations that I explain to her made her feel guilty and push her to do everything.
However, the younger daughter, Noura, never accepts or listens to any word. She might
be quiet and hear what I am saying, but without a benefit. So, she only takes her medicine
forcibly. Being mad and angry with her always worked with her.
Aysha: How did you figure out the proper way for each one of them?
Huda: By experience. I tried different methods and looked at the results. It did not work
from the first time because I dont have educated way of dealing with them. So, trying
different ways was difficult and required patience and effort.
Aysha: Do you think you did what you were supposed to do?
Huda: No. I did nothing. (She rubbed her hands together to show me that she regreted not
doing anything) I think I was supposed to work more in convincing them and letting them
accept their situation. I could have taken them to the diabetes organization in Qatar
Foundation to let them meet with other young diabetic patients. I also could have taken
workshops in the best psychological way of communicating with and helping a diabetic
patient mentally. But, I did not do any of it.
Aysha: If you have the chance to go back to the first time, what would you change?
Huda: I would follow deprivation way with my younger daughter. I would not allow her
to take anything she wants such as chocolates and sweets. And, I will become more

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restrict with the commands regarding their medication because the Type Noura is
carrying is Type 2, which can become better with the change of the lifestyle.

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