Miss X vs. Diabetes: and this time, it's oh so personal
Hypos and type 1 diabetes in general can be quite a
nuisance, particularly in the school environment. Sometimes, because of low
blood sugars launching surprise attacks, I need to eat during class. Teachers
at my school are well aware of this, including substitutes, with my face pinned
up in every single staffroom in the school (worst photo ever might I add) with
big black letters stating DIABETIC. Now, I could take one standpoint one that,
I don’t want to be known as ‘the diabetic’ but hey, if it’ll help these people
remember then stick the word on my forehead if you have to!
As a rule, my teachers are brilliant and incredibly
supportive of me and my diabetes. But sometimes well, sometimes you get the
idiots that think they know more about it than you do and need to ‘lay down the
law’ in their classroom. Obviously you didn’t get the memo, I’m one of the
quiet kids, go attack that one in the corner that won’t stop talking during
your lessons.
One day, we had a new teacher for a subject, let’s call her
Miss X. Now, Miss X wasn’t the best teacher, but giving her the benefit of the
doubt, I tried to give her a shot. During her lesson, my blood sugar went low,
and I needed to eat some jellybeans quickly to get it back up. To do this, I
tend to be as quiet as I can when testing my levels and eating, so that I don’t
disrupt their lesson. Of course, she heard me and immediately snapped that I
shouldn’t be eating in class. Now, if you refer to my last post, my brain isn’t
all there when I’m low, so I tried to explain that I was diabetic. Sure, that’s
ok I can handle it if she had have accepted it and moved on, but no. This woman
was on the war path.
She repeated her statement, and again I said I’m a diabetic,
and my blood sugar is low. After this second exchange I was getting a little
annoyed, all I wanted to do was bring my blood sugar back up…. You know, being
conscious is always a bonus. But what sent me over was this statement ‘Well, I
believe you. But thousands wouldn’t.’
….
Well then.
I was in shock and beyond angry, I dived into my bag,
bringing out my wallet and shoving numerous cards at her displaying my medical
status as a diabetic, getting lower and lower because I STILL hadn’t been given
the opportunity to eat! The look on her face, well that was priceless. She left
me alone for the rest of the lesson as I sat there, finally getting my brain
functioning again.
But that wasn’t the end. Oh no, not this woman.
Miss X was my teacher for a while, and each time I went low
in class (my lovely diabetes usually picked her classes… joy) she would repeat
the same routine, not believing me or claiming to have forgotten. HOW HARD IS
IT! Each time I felt more and more embarrassed and annoyed, it was drawing
attention to my diabetes, and at the time I hadn’t had it for very long. But
the ultimate tipping point was yet to come. She had informed me that I would be
receiving zero for an assessment task.
Why you ask? I handed it in late.
Why? I was in hospital, being diagnosed with diabetes. Oh
Miss X, you’ll never learn will you?