The Best Years

I haven't really written a post in a while with all this back to school craze and being on the go with all my friends, appointments, sports and homework but I figured Id make a little time to write about a certain topic I've had a few of my readers email me about recently and I figured the time frame for it right now is absolutely perfect. Diabetes at school.

As many of you know, I am currently in my senior year at Assumption College in Brantford. They say your senior year is supposed to be the best year of your life, but with all the stress of good marks and finishing off highschool, it took me a little while to realize what it is exactly thats so awesome about it. Being a type 1 diabetic with stress, as I've explained earlier, is not at all the easiest thing in the world. The stress does cause my sugars to rise from time to time, which of course affects my grades in the long run as well, but thats besides the point. Many people ask me "How do you do it at school?". Well the same way I do it everywhere else of course. I take my insulin the mornings before eating breakfast (Note: Breakfast is the most important thing when it comes to being a diabetic attending school) just as I would if I were at home, I jump on the school bus, or drive, whichever way I get to school that day, and I attend all my classes. But what about low blood sugar in class, right? This was my most frequent question, and the answer is quite simple. I eat. I carry my purse to all of my classes and inside it I have my insulin, my glucose monitor, a granola bar or two and my Dex-4 tablets. Although it may seem easy to just reach into my purse to pull out a snack and start munching, a lot of teachers still don't understand. Just this semester, my original english teacher (before i changed classes) wouldn't let me eat in my class because her exact words were "My room is not a breakfast room, you can eat at home before you come". For a diabetic to hear this from a teacher is like a nightmare because you know right off the bat that this teacher isn't going to be a very understanding one. Of course, my first day with all the running around finding my classes and getting myself situated, I had low blood sugar and needed to have a small snack. As i finished off my granola bar, my teacher then told me I wasn't allowed to eat, and I told her that I'm diabetic and I didn't have much of a choice. To my benefit, the teacher at least pulled me into the hallway to talk about it, but of course I got the "Oh my dad has diabetes, I know you dont need to eat all the time". Excuse my french, but this royally pissed me off. I'm sorry but I highly doubt my diabetes and his are the same, especially if he doesn't need to eat all the time. My guess was that he was a type 2 diabetic. I then explained to her my situation and I believe she somewhat understood. I really can't emphasize enough though, that you should probably tell your teachers that you are a type 1 so they know how to react when things like low blood sugars happen, just because a lot of them don't understand.

Insuln at school was the second topic I received in a lot of questions, too, Well, I'm not on the insulin pump, so i can't bolus for my food that I eat, so I need to take injections before my meal at lunch time based on my blood sugars (as I am sitll on the sliding scale). This can be difficult sometimes, but again, telling your teacher that you have type 1 can really benefit you because leaving that extra 5 minutes really does help. When it comes to lunch hour at Assumption, I know our bathrooms are absolutely crowded with girls fixing their hair and makeup, along with their group of 3 or 4 friends who are waiting for them, so I dont exactly like stabbing myself with a needle when there are so many people in one confined area. And no, I refuse to do my injections in a bathroom stall because of all the germs and other bacteria in there that aren't good for me. I know its a long shot for that to make me sick, no pun intended, but diabetics really can't risk getting an infection what so ever. When you take those 5 extra minutes before the lunch bell to do your insulin, you don't run the risk of having someone bump into you while there is a needle in your stomach. I sometimes even do my insulin in the caff right before my meal since I'm not one to really care too much if people think its gross or not, or even in the hallways if the bathrooms are too busy and my teacher won't let me leave early. Its not difficult to do insulin at school, you just have to find the time and place to do it.

Of course there will always be those people who never understand diabetes, especially type 1. For some reason, a lot of people at my school think I have it because I didnt eat healthy, which is obviously 100% incorrect, but when it comes to dealing with these people, its best to just ignore them and let them think what they want. Theyre clearly uneducated and know nothing about the disease, so theyre really not worth your time. My senior year in highschool is not going to be filled with drama and people bringing me down, because I dont need that. Im going to make it the best that I can, and Im going to try my hardest to prepare for college because that's what it's about. I wouldn't go as far as saying highschool was the best years of my life, but I sure can say that it taught me a lot about who people are and how people act. Its been a very adventerous learning experience, but as soon as this years over, Im ready for a new adventure, with all new people, a totally new lifestyle, and a totally new province. Im ready for the next chapter in my life, because I believe every year should be your best year!

Jenn :)