Gloria tired of ‘bullying’
GLORIA Tuiveibose was first diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes three years ago, but the fear of being discriminated against prevented her from speaking about her issue.
What made the diagnosis even more challenging for the youngster was the fact that she had just lost her 42-year-old mother to the dreaded non communicable disease.
Today, the 16-year-old said the situation had gotten worse, and she was tired of the bullying, discrimination and being treated differently.
The Fiji Times met Gloria and her grandmother Unaisi Temple at the Diabetes Fiji headquarters in Suva during a World Diabetes Day event on Monday.
“The first time I was diagnosed I was 13 and admitted in hospital - and from there they started investigating on my glucose levels, my lifestyle and my diet. A year after that, I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes,” she said.
“With Type 1 diabetes, my pancreas doesn’t produce enough insulin to support my body.
“So I have to inject insulin into my body twice a day, every day.”
Gloria said it was hard trying to keep up with the adjustments she had to make to stay alive and she found the change in diet “very disgusting” at first.
“A lot of changes have happened, and it was really hard because I’m a kid who likes to eat.
“But as time passed, I started to adapt to that.”
Gloria said she found it difficult to tell other people about her condition because most treated diabetes “like it’s a form of disability”.
“When I was in primary school and my classmates found out, they started treating me differently.
“Whenever I wanted to play they would be like,
‘Oh no, you have to sit here because you might get hurt and then they might amputate your foot’.
“And now I’m in high school, I’m just scared of cyberbullying and how people might treat me.
“So that’s why I refrain from telling anyone in school, and also because I always have negative thoughts about it.”
Gloria’s grandmother Ms Temple said when she was informed her granddaughter was diabetic it was “truly heartbreaking” because Glo- ria’s 42-year-old mother had just succumbed to the NCD and she was left with rearing Gloria and her siblings.
“When I first found out that she was a type 1 diabetic, it’s heartbreaking because at the time we just lost her mother to diabetes,” she said with tears in her eyes.
“She was diagnosed when she was 13 years old and was going into Year Eight and it was a really emotional time at home because since their mother died, I was the one who had to be there to look after them.”
Ms Temple said things have been challenging for both her and her granddaughter because it wasn’t easy adapting to the changes she had to make in her life.
“Every day we fight, we have our ups and downs.
“When I cook her a meal, she doesn’t take it. When it’s time to take insulin, she doesn’t take it and she’ll say ‘Oh grandma, it’s sore. How about you do this every day, huh? You won’t like it’.
“And it’s not only the injection, every day she has to prick her finger for her glucose test and she doesn’t like it.”
Ms Temple said it was a big challenge having to cook something different for Gloria from what the rest of the family would eat.
Because of that, she told everyone at home that they would have whatever Gloria was eating.
Ms Temple claimed the only way diabetic children such as Gloria could thrive in their respective schools was if the authorities and advocacy organisations visited schools and educated students and teachers about chronic and other types of diseases.
“They should go around to schools because diabetes nowadays it’s not only for older people, not for grandfathers, grandmothers, fathers or mothers.
“I’m a 66-year-old. I don’t have any high blood pressure. I’m not diabetic, but young people are getting it now, even younger than Gloria. “They should educate the children in schools so that when kids with diabetes come to school they will not be bullied or discriminated against.”