Teaching with T1 diabetes

The day begins with some anxiety of how the students will behave and how many will argue with me or yell at me when I correct their behavior so the classroom is quiet.  This anxiety, in turn, causes adrenaline to be released into my body which causes my blood sugar to rise.  The day is endlessly a roller coaster with blood sugar swings that I try to stay on top of while monitoring teenagers.  The teens who want to learn do not have a voice and so much energy is put into correcting or waiting for the poorly behaved to correct their behavior or be sent from the room for not behaving.  This is a daily occurrence.  Some may say, I need to work on classroom management, but I have shared my stories with teachers who have taught for 20+ years and they say the behavior of teens in our society and the lack of discipline in the schools, has deteriorated drastically.  It is not my fault and many of those teachers are retiring or counting the days until they can get out.  This makes me so sad since, again, those who want to learn do not have a voice.

In the classroom, I deal with high and low blood sugars every day.  I have never once asked for the health needs or adaptations I may need because daily that would be impossible.  A person would have to be hired to stand by to take over my classes each day so I can treat and wait for treatment to work for the swings in my blood sugar.  This is not healthy for me either.  The treatment can take anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours to take effect!