Occupational Health

[IrishJoe]

Right as you may or may not know I got accepted for *the* job. I had to fill in an occupational health questionaire and I sent it off earlier this week..

Today I got a ring from the OH company (seperate to the actual employer) and the guy was asking me if my diabetes was under control (told him about my A1C an what my endo said)

He seemed to think it was odd that I had type 1 diagnosed at 21 years of age and thought that it was more likely to be type two.
I educated him about the condition of t2 being more insulin resistant. he said that type 1 tends to come on quickly so i had to educate him on DKA and how once you have type 1 that it can actually take a while to be DKA.

Then he said how many injections ( I think the fact that I was new, but in his mind a type 2, that injections seemed odd) I informed him that I take 4 injections with a pen before breakfast, lunch and dinner/tea and then one other one before bed. This seemed to settle him.

I was asked about hypos and if I ever get hypos... I said that it is part of being on insulin but I have never had a serious one requiring glugagon or glucogel.

He needs to get a letter from the GP or something.. I just thought I'd share and ask

if this is normal ?
why do people have difficulty accepting that I am type 1 ?
and how do they define 'under control' ?

I dont want to worry I'm sure its normal, but somewhere in my mind I fear that I will be turned down on the basis of diabetes (which is illegal, but hey so is a lot of stuff) and also their misunderstanding of it.
I was a bit surprised that a person who knew about hypos and what a HbA1C was thought at 22 years old I was type 2 on 4 injections a day :eek:

[genie86333]

Don't know about the legalities of stuff like that since I'm from the US, but my suggestion is refer him here. Seems like he already knows a bit about diabetes (although some of it is misinformation), but coming here & reading the threads will help him understand more.

[AngelKitty]

Right as you may or may not know I got accepted for *the* job. I had to fill in an occupational health questionaire and I sent it off earlier this week..

Today I got a ring from the OH company (seperate to the actual employer) and the guy was asking me if my diabetes was under control (told him about my A1C an what my endo said)

He seemed to think it was odd that I had type 1 diagnosed at 21 years of age and thought that it was more likely to be type two.
I educated him about the condition of t2 being more insulin resistant. he said that type 1 tends to come on quickly so i had to educate him on DKA and how once you have type 1 that it can actually take a while to be DKA.

Then he said how many injections ( I think the fact that I was new, but in his mind a type 2, that injections seemed odd) I informed him that I take 4 injections with a pen before breakfast, lunch and dinner/tea and then one other one before bed. This seemed to settle him.

I was asked about hypos and if I ever get hypos... I said that it is part of being on insulin but I have never had a serious one requiring glugagon or glucogel.

He needs to get a letter from the GP or something.. I just thought I'd share and ask

if this is normal ?
why do people have difficulty accepting that I am type 1 ?
and how do they define 'under control' ?

I dont want to worry I'm sure its normal, but somewhere in my mind I fear that I will be turned down on the basis of diabetes (which is illegal, but hey so is a lot of stuff) and also their misunderstanding of it.
I was a bit surprised that a person who knew about hypos and what a HbA1C was thought at 22 years old I was type 2 on 4 injections a day :eek:

Hi Joe, and firstly congratualtions on getting the job :)
Having your diagnosis questioned by an OH&S officer is ????
I think they are requesting the letter from your Dr to verify your diagnosis / condition and this may be necessary for their insurance as well.
I would further assume that "under control" would be indicative and directly related to your Hba1c's and other blood test yielding figures done periodically with your Dr/Endo, which are an overview of your mangement. Good Hba1c = good control = lower risk for them?

I empathise with your remark " why do people have difficulty accepting that I'm a type 1". My own family kept questioning my diagnosis in the beginning as well. (Apart from the fact that medical staff told them I was only hours away from coma when admitted and would not have survived more than 3 weeks without medical intervention.) All they kept saying was you're in your 30's, people in their 30's don't get type 1 d's.
Unfortunately for our family my 6 year old nephew was diagnosed with type 1 two weeks before I was!?! So it sort of stuck that type 1 is a juvenile disease, so I must be type 2 (I wish I wasn't type anything - but that's another story).

Hope it all works out for you (maybe give that Blarney Stone - a big kiss - for extra luck) ;) :D

Cheers,

[owlyn]

These questions are not allowed in the U.S. for most jobs.

[lorilei]

Hey Joe! congrats on the new job! hopefully this is just a procedure you have to go through...why it must be harder in some respects to be upfront about things from the get-go...I do wish you great success though :)

[IrishJoe]

I told them in my interview in november about it. They asked why and I said that they are going to find out, might as well tell them now, plus it might impact on how the job is done.

I would further assume that "under control" would be indicative and directly related to your Hba1c's and other blood test yielding figures done periodically with your Dr/Endo, which are an overview of your mangement. Good Hba1c = good control = lower risk for them?


Probably is to do with risk. But the loaded question 'do you get hypoglycemic attacks' I kinda want to say yes, hypoglycemia comes at me from the shadows with ninja stars and a samurai sword. Or 'I'm type 1 on insulin, >poo< happens' but I didn't. The doctor asked me and I explained my concern at the loaded question. But he said what they mean is severe hypoglycemia like going into coma or unconscious or off you face with it. And that's not happened to date. Ironically its a forensic company I'm going to be working for, and that level of non-specification wouldn't do at all!!

'Well we can tell you that the DNA is human...maybe..' :T

I think being DKA and having the 'classic' symptoms of T1 helps to make them see however. But the age thing they don't seem to get at all and think that its strange that you're on *FOUR* injections per day (shock horror!)

[Deetles13]

I got my first real job out of college working alone on the 3-11pm shift in a Hospital and when Occ. Health saw that I was diabetic they said they would have to talk with my boss about me working alone... I was so scared that they would try to screw me out of a great job but I never heard anything about it.. Also I made sure that I went to my boss right away and told her what had happend so that I covered my butt. It would have been discrimination so that is prolly why they didnt do anything else.

[IrishJoe]

Yeah they mentioned that I may sometimes be working on my own. Oh no I'm a wee baby who needs an adult with me at all times I guess! ;)

My doc wrote them a letter saying that I have excellent control and basically "he's grand" so hopefully I will still get the job!

[DeusXM]

They can't refuse you on the grounds you've got diabetes. I'm not even convinced they can refuse you even if you were badly controlled unless they could demonstrate how you would be seriously endangering yourself or the business.

I would have probably been a bit firmer on the OH guy and pointed out to him that he was clearly not an expert on your specific circumstances but I'm probably a bit more confrontational than you, which isn't necessarily a good thing.

Keep a close eye on them and if you are turned down for the job, you should ask them to fully explain their decision and depending on whether or not you are satisfied with their explanation, you might want to get legal involved.

I told them in my interview in november about it. They asked why and I said that they are going to find out, might as well tell them now, plus it might impact on how the job is done.

I'm not telling you how to do things, but.....

....a better response would have been "I am telling you this so that you are aware of my full circumstances. This means you know you are talking to a potential employee who is honest and will take care of his health. It is extremely unlikely that the business will need to make any special accommodation for my condition, which is well-controlled and should not affect my ability to work to my full potential. As part of my effort to keep my diabetes well controlled, I will need to inject insulin on-site and may need to eat occasionally. Both of these things can be done with a minimum of fuss on my part and should have no effect whatsover on the business or my co-workers."

This shows you're honest, take care of yourself, considerate to coworkers and aware of the need to work for the benefit of the business. Suddenly diabetes becomes a unique selling point for you!

[IrishJoe]

....a better response would have been "I am telling you this so that you are aware of my full circumstances. This means you know you are talking to a potential employee who is honest and will take care of his health. It is extremely unlikely that the business will need to make any special accommodation for my condition, which is well-controlled and should not affect my ability to work to my full potential. As part of my effort to keep my diabetes well controlled, I will need to inject insulin on-site and may need to eat occasionally. Both of these things can be done with a minimum of fuss on my part and should have no effect whatsover on the business or my co-workers."]

Well I told them so as to be straight with them. Anyway I hope it's ok now. The thing is if mr OH thinks he has something they already know about it. BTW this guy is diabetic' they'll be like "oh we know , he told us" Honesty FTW :)

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