Some of these drops really, really scare me. Even without a correction bolus, I can go from high to low in a matter of minutes. I'll be perfectly fine, laughing with my friends, one minute, and the next I'll be slumped against the wall being given juice by my friend.
When this happens, they tend to get worried and take me to the medical room. This doesn’t help. They try to get me to take insulin for lows and generally are not at all knowledgeable. On Friday, they were fed up of the number of times I’d been dragged down there, and I was fed up with these lows, and even more fed up with the interrogation I was getting every time. “Are you eating? Are you under stress? You look tired, are you sleeping okay?” “YES, I’m eating. NO, I wasn’t stressed before you started asking me all these questions. I LOOK TIRED BECAUSE MY BLOOD SUGAR IS LOW!” Eventually the school just sent me home.
Now I’m panicking because I really don’t ever want to go back there again. I don’t want these people to be in charge when something goes wrong - to rely on them to help me in an emergency. Before I got sent home, I was locked, alone, in the medical room for an hour. Nobody checked on me. I could have fainted or anything, and nobody would have known. I want to stay in lessons and treat in there, but sometimes it’s too bad for that, and sometimes the teachers just don’t want to be responsible for me in those situations.
And when I come across someone and they ask where I’ve been, and I say “the medical room” it’s “ohhhhhhhhhhh”, they all pretend to understand. All they have for me now is sympathy, all they see me as is “the thing that could collapse at any moment”. I can’t stand this for much longer.
trying to get over the “pity party” is a difficult challenge. have you talked to your endo to see if you might benefit from using a CGMS to track your highs and lows and see the downward trends?
I haven’t spoken about this yet, at the moment I’m battling for a pump, because the system in the UK is not amazing.
I think the pump will make things easier because I can lower my basal at the time when I usually go low. At the moment the problem is that I would like the pump before I turn 16 (November) because at that point I’ll switch consultants and that will complicate things.
How frustrating for you! Have you met Hannah on this site? Her story sounds a lot like yours. Sometimes it’s just nice to chat with someone who knows what you experience. Friends mean well, but it’s not the same.
Hey Emma! I experinced the same thing at my school, not all those lows but the admistration. They would offer me insulin I looked low. Everynew year my Dad would go in and explain Diabetes and how to work a Glucagon shot. I’m happy things never went to the extremes w/ my Diabetes there, I would been afraid on how they would have haandled. The good thing was my friends had a pretty good unserstanding of what to do when your high of low.
With the pump you can have diff. basals throughout the day, or even use temp. basals at times you need to make quick adjusments. I tried a CGM it helps whenever your going throuhg “diabetes slumps”, but I decided I really didn’t need to be using to sites. One a day I hope science can make a pump site that acts as CGM, also.
After these, ehm, “episodes” or “attacks” as they like to call them in my school office - ARGHH - my nurse came into the school and talked to ALL members of staff about everything relating to my (and my friend’s) diabetes care.
Since then though I’ve never gone to the medical room when I’m low (or really high) but instead go to the counselor’s office. She is a nurse so actually slightly understands the whole diabetes thing and also I can be pretty emotional if I’m low so she tries to get me feeling better as well. (=
