This is my third year teaching. The past two years I’ve taught first grade, and haven’t explained my insulin pump to my students. When asked what it was I just said something like ‘don’t worry about it’ and moved on. I wasn’t sure how to explain it to small children.
This year I’m teaching kindergarteners, and I decided to take the plunge into telling them. I showed it to them today (4th day of school) and explained things very simply… ‘I have diabetes. That means something inside of me isn’t working right. This little machine gives me medicine so I can feel good when I eat, like you do.’ Literally, that was all I told them.
I got a few questions about where the tube goes into me (inserted in my hip now), does it hurt, can I take it off, etc.
But honestly…they were way more interested in seeing if I could make it make noise, wanted to know if they could press buttons (they can’t, of course), and one kid said he wants to get one for his dad for Christmas (his dad’s not diabetic)!
Too funny
Those of you who pump…how do/have children react(ed) to your pump?
My nephews were young when I had my pump (I wore one for 2 years). They were genuinely curious and thought it was pretty cool when I told them it delivered my insulin so I didn’t have to take shots anymore.
When I first got it, I was going to Tae Kwon Do classes like 5-6 days/ week. I took one day off to make sure I knew how to use it and wouldn’t blow up. It fit very nicely tucked in my belt but several kids were like “is that a CELL PHONE!?” thinking that it was and the whole class would be collectively held responsible for my faux pas and end up doing 300 pushups, etc. Some of them knew what it was too but most of them quickly became oblivious to it.
I think I may have sold one student’s dad one. Towards the end of my career, I was working and teaching classes, two in a row, a couple of nights/ week. I was really throwing myself into it and he saw me checking my BG and said “you’re diabetic? I don’t know how you do this…” and I explained that I tested my BG a lot and explained what the pump did. He was looking into it but I moved away.
The very reason we didn’t compete at our academy!! Occasionally there’d be a lack of enthusiasm that would lead to “that wasn’t fast enough…30 pushups!” or whatever. The first time I got into that, I thought I would explode but, after all, pushups are good for you!
I love this story Pat! It’s so much easier when kids are young. I’ve had my pump since before my son was born (he’s 4 1/2 now), so he doesn’t really think anything of it. If he sees me without a shirt on, he doesn’t question the thing stuck to my belly… it’s just always been there for him (though it does “move” from side to side every few days!).
