I should never have waited till now to ask. I'm taking the bar exam tomorrow and I'm pretty sure that I will get kicked out if my pump makes a peep, and automatically fail. I just thought I'd be able to figure this out. I turned off the meter sounds and went in under alerts and reminders and set them to the lowest levels (10 units and 1 hour till expiration -- but those shouldn't come into play), and turned all of the others off. But I'm worried there will just be some random beeping, like what if I get that communication error thing, doesn't that beep? I'm wondering if I should just leave my pump in my bag in the lobby, but that has it's own problems. I'd like to have the option to test or bolus. I did manage to do a silent bolus.
What do you guys think? Too risky? I am pretty sure I'll be tossed out if it makes any noise at all.
I'm pretty sure if you take it out to test or bolus then they'll kick you out anyway. I'd leave it out of the room myself but ideally this is one of those times when you would have applied for accommodations when you applied to take it rather than wait until now. With that said, I didn't with the GRE and I left it in my car. It's up to you, do whatever makes you most comfortable. Good luck with your test!
Can't you just tell the test proctor what it is and that you have diabetes. It's a medical device that you can't shut off? I've tried to silence it before and couldn't ever do it. The one thing I don't like about omnipod. I guess I would just leave it out then and make sure you recover from the lost insulin afterwords. Good luck!!
Good luck with the exam! You should have a Drs letter that explains that you need snacks & a blood glucose meter with you at all times, as well as the pump. You’d then get special dispensation to have those items on your desk. A safety beep from a pump would be protected under UK & EU anti-discrimination laws. It shouldn’t beep if it’s less than 72 hours old, & more than 2 hours old, unless it’s an emergency.
Thanks! I brought my meter with me last time (yeah, I failed last time, it's california, sigh...) and it was fine. I did take it out and test and it was fine. I am not supposed to need an accommodation.
You definitely can take it in... as long as its silent. I am shocked that you can't take it into the NCLEX, though I don't know what that is! That's just wrong! I don't think I'll have to do shots. It'll be fine in my bag in the lobby. I would have liked to have it just in case I wanted to test. I probably wouldn't want to test, though.
You aren't supposed to need a letter. Their materials say that diabetic supplies and equipment are allowed, and almost nothing is allowed. Their materials don't say anything about the beeping of diabetes equipment, but in other parts of their instructions/rules they are very clear about no beeping. It's possible that I could get away with it, but I wouldn't want to push them.
I could have gotten an "accommodation" but they put you through an awful lot of hoop jumping to get one, which didn't really seem worth it. I will just let my sugar run a little bit high and have my skittles and not test and correct later. Its not ideal, but let me tell you, nothing about taking the bar is ideal.
The letter is more for the invigilator, who may not know what a pump is. If, God forbid, you had an occlusion, there will be beeps. That’s a serious situation & I’d say it’s covered. In those circumstances, I’m sure the pod itself beeps too. It’s very unlikely that you’d have an occlusion, but as you’d need the PDM to stop the beep, I’d keep the PDM.
You do need an accommodation. You're spending time worrying about how to manage your diabetes instead of all of the law you're going to be tested on for the next two days.
I wish you the best on the exam and hope you don't have to take the blasted thing again. But if it turns out you do need to take it again, I would recommend that you look into requesting formal accommodations. For law school exams, I was able to get a separate exam room so I could check and treat my glucose as frequently as I wished without worries that I would disturb other exam-takers.
I'm surprised the disabilities act doesn't make them accommodate a pump. I'm not sure I'd leave the pdm in another room. What if there's a pod error and you get the dreaded constant beep with no way to shut it off since the pdm isn't with you?
