I have an interview for a bank teller position this week and I really need a job . However I haven’t worked in about 8 years , the last time I worked was before my daughter was born ( 8 years ago ) . So for the last couple years I have had my freedom of testing my blood sugar whenever I’ve felt weird and eating whenever I need to in order to treat low . I am on a insulin pump but my blood sugars seem to still be unpredictable at times . For evample I usually wake up between 120-270 ( I know that’s bad ) I think it’s my fault cause whenever I eat something before bet I purposely underdose myself cause I hate lows in the mid of night ( those are my worst kinda lows) however when I do wake up higher than I should be I always get it down to under 140 within two hours upon waking , but sometimes that high sugar drops lower than 140 and I get a 50 or 60 instead , but I’m usually home and than I just eat breakfeast and than everything is fine . Now here’s my problem that I know I will I have when at work , let’s say it’s a workday and I wake up high and I know I cannot take the chance that I will go low at work , what my instinct to do would be to take about a quarter of the dose of insulin I would take normally to treat that high blood sugar and the positive is I won’t go low but the negative is I will feel like crap all morning at work from that high blood sugar that is going down very slowly or not going down at all ( at its not like I could test my bl every hour or two hours at work like I would when on my own time , usually that’s how I deal with a high after I’ve takin a lot of insulin to get it down and it usually works out really well , cause by testing every hour after taking a lot of insulin to treat a high blood sugar it lets you catch that low before it happens , let’s say your machine says 130 but you feel really weird well with me that means I’m dropping)Also I don’t know if I should tell the lady that I have the interview with this week that I’m type 1 diabetic , I know it’s illegal to discriminate but people still do what they want , especially the boss who’s in control of hiring one .
Hi Jennifer. I wouldn’t dismiss any of your concerns but there are two things that I’d respond to.
I wouldn’t see this assumption as an automatic given. t test 6-8 times during the day at my desk at work and it’s never been a problem. If you’re concerned that there might be some work rule against it, I don’t think that would be legal. If it’s just something you feel shy about doing in public that’s obviously different, but I find I’ve always been able to manage it discretely in restaurants and the like (and anyway my personal attitude if someone has a problem with it is “Deal with it” 
).
I don’t think there’s any requirement to volunteer this in an interview, particularly for a clerical job–you’re not going to be operating heavy equipment, right? OTOH, once you have the position it seems like a good idea to let your coworkers and supervisor know. I’ve always done so anyway, just because if I have a severe or debilitating low I’d rather they have some idea of what’s going on than freak out out of ignorance. Though in practice it hasn’t ever come up–I’ve always been able to treat my lows before they get to that point.
Hope that’s some encouragement. It seems a shame to feel like T1 is constricting your life to the extent that you are afraid you won’t be able to manage a job opportunity.
jennifer since you’re on the pump you might need to adjust your basals
also which pump do you have ?
why don’t you talk to your endo about basals & boluses to be readjusted according to your needs
good luck on your new job
Jennifer47,
My suggestion is to go to the job interview and do your best, then if you’re offered the job you can decide whether to take it or not. As it is right now you’re ending the opportunity before its even real and possibly missing out on something that would be good for you.
If you’re worried about being T1 and that affecting your job performance I’d be up front about it from the start. If you’re not comfortable with that then make it clear after they’ve offered you a position so that your supervisor doesn’t feel like you hid it from him/her.
I recently went through this process (unfortunately I didn’t get the job I’d interviewed for and I’m currently employed) but I struggled with whether to go through the process or not. The new job would have meant a move to a different city and a higher work load for a while but was a good opportunity to shake up my life and prompt me to make some needed changes.