I don’t do either anymore. I retired about a month before my Diabetes diagnosis. Currently I teach part-time on line which is pretty low stress and on my own time schedule. I’ve often thought what it would be like managing type 1 diabetes before I retired when I had one fulltime job and taught at night!
Yesterday I got a tiny idea. I have had an interview scheduled for some more part-time teaching and Monday afternoon I got late notification that I was to do a teaching demonstration as part of the interview.(which was today, Wednesday). I was doing a couple other things Monday and as I had nothing planned for Tuesday I figured that would be my day to plan the presentation. So yesterday morning I woke up and I was at 170. I corrected and my bg went up, so I did a pen shot for correction and breakfast and then changed my set. The new set didn’t feel right from the start but I ate breakfast and then an hour later was 221 and two hours later 242! I changed my set again and then corrected again. All this testing, correcting and set changing was taking time plus I felt pretty lethargic from being so high so I figured I’d worry about the presentation after I got my blood sugar under control. I was finally coming down but still 187 at lunchtime so I added a correction into my lunch bolus (eating only 17 carbs), being careful of course, to keep track of IOB. AT LAST two hours after lunch I was down to 95 and felt much better. I messed around a bit doing a couple things and then finally sat down to work. I started planning the topic for the presentation and organizing my ideas and was starting to get into it, as it’s work I enjoy. Then I noticed that I was re-reading the same paragraph and the ideas were no longer flowing into each other in a logical way. Uh, oh! I know what that means, and I also recognized the tingly tongue. I took my blood sugar, and yep, I’d overdone it and was down to 57. There was no use in trying to work so I decided to just have dinner a bit earlier than planned. After dinner I was able to get back to work and complete the presentation although by then I was too tired to enjoy it and it wasn’t my best work.
Then it hit me what the day would have been like if I had work committments all day long and had to be “on” not only for myself but for others! Yikes! Not to mention pushing buttons on my meter/remote during meetings or excusing myself, munching glucose tabs as I struggled with my train of thought teaching…ouch! I’m very grateful to be “mostly retired” and a bit hesitant to accept more classes if offered (though I really want the work). But most of all I thought of You…all the yous who deal with the same crazy D I do, AND work fulltime, go to school, and also have families to care for and be present to… So I just thought I’d tell you all how in awe of you I am. Happy Living with D Day …every day. Buy yourself a small gift or at least stop to think how well you are doing…even if you didn’t think you are!
Zoe
I work full time and have for over 30 years with T1. Yea, I have problems. But they are manageable. Only two times in my career have the paramedics come to my office in all that time. I also have a pump and a CGM which makes control a lot easier for me. The CGM will alert as I go down. I have even gone to meetings and dropped low. I pull out my test kit ( always have it with me), test, excuse myself to get something to eat and return to the meeting to eat it. Weirdly enough, lows rarely effect my cognitive abilities, unless they are really severe.
I also worked full time and went to graduate school at the same time I was getting my first pump!
I am one of those people who will tell anyone that I am a T1 (except during a job interview, which would be stupid to say the least). As a result, almost everyone that I work with and around knows. I even tell my hairdresser! Most of them do not recognize symptoms, but if I am strange that will find someone who is close to me who can usually help. That has only happened a cuple of times. I find my environment is a lot safer when people know. I also find that they will ask a lot of questions, so I feel like I educate a lot on T1.
I just wanted to say I feel that way too. I worked as a waitress with Type 1 for many years and it’s kinda hard to get the folks your working for to understand (well it weas at that time) you had to eat at certian times and when (me anyway) when you go high your the illest person in the world. When you go low? Well (as for me anyway) you can’t grasp the easiest of things (like taking an order b/c your fingers don’t do what you tell them to do like write it down.
I’m lucky that I work full time in an elementary school that has a nurse on staff who is experienced in dealing with Type 1 diabetes. Plus I work with another pumping Type 1, and (at least) 2 Type 2’s…so I have others around me who can help if I need it!
I am a student…and thank you for the kudos! It is not easy. I am wondering how you would deal with lows if you were teaching a full class of students. I am curious. Also, it is nice to see a t1 professor out there. When I tell professors about diabetes, they either 1. say they know someone who has it or 2. say they have type 2. Happy teaching!
Man, im the same here. For a while I was on a crazy project and I would go up and down all night from not eating right and out of time. I would go low in the middle of the night and get the adreline rush with the night shivers and cold sweats. I would be up again in the morning ready for work. Sometimes I would be in the middle of crazy projects delivering great work and would be in the restroom at work throwing up in the middle of the day because of the metformin and januvia made me so sick. I would brush my teeth and head back into our “war” rooms where we would work 14 hour days and continue to push through.
Thanks! I’m currently teaching only online so I just make sure I edit any posts I write when I’m low…lol. I may start teaching live for another college, so the issue might come up. I think if it were close to time for a break, I’d just call a break. If not, I’d probably just pop a couple glucose tabs in my mouth and muddle through. Maybe once the class is further along in the semester and I’ve been at the college awhile, I’d feel comfortable and just say “I need a few minutes, why don’t you continue on with this discussion, or go ahead and start on the next chapter.” That would probably save me from sounding like Professor Idiot.
How very thoughtful of you…
I am a full time student…this semester I’m taking 22 credits, I’m the president of the campus’ business club, pr officer of our business honor society, and a member of our international honor society. I also coach 2 cheerleading teams, and have a husband and a 10 year old son at home. It’s a hell of a balancing act…and it’s nice to know that there are some people out there who realize it. My own husband doesn’t seem to “get it” most of the time.
So thank you for the kind words and the recognition. For me personally, you just made my whole day!
Thanks for the Kudos work full time third shift and raise 2 toddlers during the day. So I have really no schedule and no sleep. My endo has no idea how I keep my numbers good.
I teach at a college and I keep a bottle of juice on the desk in the front of the classroom. If I start to feel low while teaching, I treat my low without testing (something that I wouldn’t normally do). All my students see is that I took a few sips of juice. If I lost my hypo awareness, then I would just have to push my blood sugar a bit higher for the class hours, as there is no way to test when I have 1.5 hours with my students.
Most of the time, I do research from the comfort of my own home. It is A LOT easier to manage my blood sugar while working from home, but there are solutions for most everything!!
I’m always amazed at all my students’ busy lives, (and maybe too much of a softie about late assignments because of that!). And that is without dealing with this pesky Type 1! Tell your husband “Jeska appreciation day” will be coming up soon…major pampering required!
I’m a teacher (of first graders). When I have a low I chomp on glucose tablets or grab a juice box. The kids usually think I am eating a cough drop and if I drink a juice box they think I just want variety from my usual water
I also worked full time and went to graduate school at the same time I was getting my first pump!
WHOA! I’m seriously impressed!! Full-time work and grad school at the same time (Masters or Doctoral program?) is tough enough without diabetes, nevermind type 1 and just getting a pump! I tried working full time when I was in my Master’s program and found it very difficult – and that was before diabetes! You definitely deserve kudos!
I had what amounted to a second job when I was teaching Tae Kwon Do classes briefly a couple of years ago. My full time job is at a cubicle in an office so it’s not that much of an issue. Meter is handy, snacks are handy, there are often large of pretzels on numerous filing cabinets around the office, etc.
Same here Danny, I think it mostly comes down to it being a kind of “screw you!” to diabetes. Diabetes can try whatever it wants, but we are still going to do what we want to do, and still be the person we want to be.
I taught high school for 11 or 12 years after being diagnosed (don’t remember when I retired!). I was on Glucotrol at first, and it wasn’t working, and I’d need to pee so bad I had to cross my legs, and then run to the restroom during the 5-minute passing period, and then run back to my room and hope I made it before the bell rang! And I had a big jug of water – couldn’t say more than 3 words without taking a sip of water.
Later, when I went on insulin, I was using N and R, which meant snacking or else going low. My administration was very cooperative about giving me 3rd period prep, so I could snack.
I had no hesitation about telling my students I had diabetes, and when I had a low, they would sit patiently and talk among themselves while I treated, and waited for the symptoms to subside. They might not have been learning the “subject” (which was either English as a Second Language or Japanese or Special Ed.) but they were learning to be polite and accommodating, which is pretty important, too!
One year, I had a student with diabetes, but nobody told me about it. There was a rule that kids could not have drinks in the classroom, and here was this kid, taking swigs of Coke in my 4th period class, just before lunch. I never was the world’s best disciplinarian, and I let it go, only to find out SEVEN weeks after the beginning of school that he was diabetic, and almost certainly trying to avoid lows before lunch! He was lucky to have me instead of a strict by-the-book teacher! I talked with him about diabetes a little bit, and showed him my pump, and years later, he contacted me and borrowed some books in order to learn about better control. I feel very honored that I could have a positive influence on him!
Life is much easier and control is better being retired (except when I don’t behave). I am still in contact with some of my students. Not super-teacher, but I did my job!
