Love Diabetes: Back to School Diabetes and Bullies

So here's my beef for the month of September. Now that school's back in session, I've been contacted by many parents concerned for their child's s diabetes while at school. When I was in grade school I had to go to the nurse's office if I felt low. No questions asked. No testing. She gave me a cup of juice. I sat for 15 and then went back to class. Nowadays, the parents I've heard from say that their school district insist their kid go to the nurses office to check their glucose. Here's the problem. Hypoglycemia is not a number. It is a sequence of events that collaboratively shut-down cognitive functions as the glucose levels drop. Since I'm obsessed with everything diabetes -- I wondered how I could explain the seriousness of a low blood sugar to the world. I'll start with the physiology of the brain. Then I'll explain how there are relative glucose levels -- and how your mileage may vary. Check http://www.alliesvoice.com for the comments on the blog and to SUB SCRIBE to future blogs.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• love
• diabetes
• school
• policy
• hypoglycemia
• danger
• discrimination
• parenting
• advocacy
• safety
• nurse
• principal
• elementary
• bullies
• reptilian
• brain
• outer
• inner
• emotions

[AllieBeatty]

Kudos to the kids who buck the trend and check wherever and whenever! Case in point is this if doctor agree that checking your sugar is paramount to good control there should not be a set of parameters (i.e, nurses office visit) to justify the blood sugar is low enough.

[AllieBeatty]

Absolutely! It's also the reason why the death rate due to hypoglycemic unawareness is rising. The blood glucose (from a finger stick) and the blood glucose in the brain are usually about 40 mg/dL different. If your finger stick says your bG is 50 - your brain is probably a bG of 10 mg/dL. Remember -- if your brain is 0 mg/dL it's an official flatline...aka "braindead"

[AllieBeatty]

Hey Toranacar and Sachabest! Thanks for commenting :) My school was always supportive of my "D" too. I don't know what is causing this "change of heart" within schools, these days. The severity of lows is misunderstood - putting the person at greater risk. I'm just trying to make the world a little more aware and cautious of diabetes issues. Again -- thank you so much for commenting!

[smiley2smiley96]

I have type 1. When i started high school i decided just to do everything myself. My class all knew i had diabetes so i just checked in class and all my teachers understood. But this was my choice

[peaceloveandballet]

i SO agree. im 16 and during this past school year i decided against the chain reaction of thinking i feel low, thinking about if it's worth the trouble to make a scene in the classroom, decide its worth the trouble to make a scene in the classroom, ask the teacher for permission to save my life, take a five minute stroll down the hallway and finally arriving in the clinic. i FINALLY just tested and corrected when i needed to. im so glad i did, its my health and i have the right to control it.

[kcld54]

I appreciate this. my boyfriend is affected by type1 only diagnosed at age 19 last year; and i had a few friends who were type 1 and the same policy at our high school was there and the schools below and those kids refused - they checked it in class told the teacher to ignore the beep and did what they needed - some administrators complained but they did anyway; most places school nurses arent even allowed to administer glucagon shots but they can an EPI PEN? people should be trained to know how

[vinceed9]

Diabetes FTW!!

[DiabetesGirl3145]

THANK YOU!!! When I am low, i feel like crap already, then I have to tell the teacher in front of the entire class and feel even worse. I think that we should be alowed to test and treat in the class room. Thank you for posting this video.

[DiabetesGirl3145]

really?

[belliott6969]

nice vid.. teachers always get cut at me when i eat glucose in class, although i tell them on a regular basis that im diabetic.

[steffany4lyfe]

amen to that!

you what some real beef? right ive just made a blog about my own experiences with diabetes just now with more details but my first secondary school (which i left) wouldnt let me do my injection at lunch in the lunch hall, or in a classroom and because there was no medical room as such there i was forced to do my injection in the TOILET.

yes thats right THE TOILET.

its gross i know.

luckily i am in a much better school now and they are fantastic with my diabetes!

[xjoecool123x]

n310ea hi i have type 1 diabetes and the only way that you can feel normal with a low blood glucose is if you have lows very frequent in which case the lows feel normal to you.