I Am Not a Diabetic

Words matter. I cringe when I hear my colleagues identify patients by their diagnosis. Although it might seem ridiculous to call a patient with a low blood count an anemic, someone with elevated LDL cholesterol a hypercholesterolemic, or a person with angina a myocardial ischemic, we somehow seem comfortable describing a person with diabetes as a diabetic.Are we implying that our patients are their diagnosis, that diabetes is their most significant identifier? Are we, in fact, diminishing them?I remember a story that my father, a family physician, told …