Dumb Diabetes: A Short Story

Dumb Diabetes
It all started last summer, when Mom and I were in LL Bean. For those of you who don’t know, my hometown of Freeport Maine, is the head quarters of all LL Bean stores. It’s a huge complex of stores, including a giant hiking boot out front. There are a lot of kids’ areas, so that the parents can shop, while their kids are playing. Anyways, it was August 25. Just an average day in the life of Marielle (that’s me). “How much longer Mom?” I whined. Until, that life changing moment, I had always been kind of a whiny spoiled brat. Looking back on that, I started to realize that. And suddenly, I got a terrible headache, and felt like I was going to die! I said to Mom, “I have to go to the bathroom,” and frantically ran
toward the bathroom. I had always constantly felt thirsty, no matter how much water I drank, I got nauseous really easily, and all of that happened quite frequently.
I honestly had no clue what was happening to me. Anyway… You’re probably wondering, “why should I care,” since it happens so often? The answer is, because I got a mere twenty feet, and everything went dark. When I collapsed, my Mom apparently screamed, “someone call 911!” When woke up, I saw Mom and Dad through my hazy vision, and then it went dark again. I don’t remember anything else from that LL Bean trip except that we were there because I needed new hiking boots for our trip to the Rocky Mountains the week after. When I woke up the next time, I woke up just to vomit on the chair that my Mom had abandoned, mere seconds before. It was close. I heard Mom say, “what’s wrong with her? She’s never acted like this before…” Unfortunately, before the conversation ended, I had fallen asleep. The last time I woke up was when it was dark outside. “Where am I?” I asked
whoever was in the room with me. It turned out that they had put a nurse to watch me throughout the night, and to study the monitors that were near the bed.
“You are in the hospital, Marielle.” she replied quite calmly, especially considering how she had just told me that I was in the HOSPITAL! “Um… this is a dream… right?” I asked, still confused as to how I could have gone from LL Bean to the hospital so quickly, without remembering anything. “No sweetie, you collapsed at LL Bean, and someone called 911, so we took you to the hospital. You have been asleep for quite a while. Your parents went home for the night, but should be back in a few hours.” She explained. “Somehow,” I thought, “she has kept the same face through this whole conversation.” But then I realized that there were tubes coming out of me and literally, I mean literally, as in, I actually did this… I screamed! The nurse must have thought that I was dying or something, because for once, her facial expression changed. A few hours later, Mom and Dad came bursting in. I wasn’t all that surprised to see them, especially considering that I had just been watching TV for the past 4 hours. “Hi Mom, hi Dad,” I said to them. “Oh! Thank goodness you’re awake!” my dad replied quickly. “Can someone please tell me what’s wrong with me sometime soon?” I asked them with qute a bit of
impatience in my tone of voice. “Well,” my parents shared a look, “let Dad and I sit down, and we can start explaining.” Mom said, like it was normal, but I was kind of freaking out inside. If anyone has ever told you that it’s all about the word choice in talking, they’re wrong. It’s all about facial expressions, and that’s why I was so nervous. A long conversation later, I realized that I had Type One Diabetes.”How am I going to go to school with this! I can’t stab myself in the stomach, back of my arm, thigh, or hips, casually at school!” I was so mad, that I made everyone leave my room, and watched TV for another two hours. My nurse walked in, and told me that she actually has diabetes, and when she was my age, she was diagnosed. She sat on my bed and told me how I could, and should do at school. But, that if necessary, we could get a thunky monitor for me to wear at school instead. I shook my head “no” to that one. She told me that I could go to the nurse before science class, and before gym class, to inject the insulin. She also said that I would have to constantly be checking my blood sugar. They gave me a machine to keep with me that had a finger pricker to take my blood sugar with. The next week, I was released, after the doctor was confident that my family knew what I would have to do. The day after I got released from the hospital, was the first day of school. While I was in the hospital, my mom had done my school shopping, so I was all set to go. The morning of the first day of school at home, at least, was quite uneventful, except for the fact that mom was stressing out. “Are you sure that you know when and where to inject the insulin?” and, “Should I drive you to school so that we can talk to the nurse, again?”
“Mom! How many times do I have to tell you? No! I’ll be fine. Goodbye, have a good day, see you when I get home.” I eventually said. But, the second that I was out the door, I got a weird feeling of butterflies in my stomach. “Oh no!” I thought! “I’m going to die!” and, “what if I forget to go before science?!” I was so nervous as I boarded the steps to the bus. However, the second I saw Nada, I realized that I was going to be OK. A few hours later, I was a nervous wreck again. It was just after French class, as I was headed into the science classroom, I realized that I had to go take my blood sugar, and inject insulin. I walked up to Mr. Nirut, my legs turned to Jello. “Um… Mr. Nirut,” I mumbled, “I’m Marielle, my mom said that she e-mailed you… I have diabetes, and I-” He interrupted me mid-sentence, leaned down and said, “you don’t have to ask me every day, you can just take the clinic pass, and go.” He nodded towards the door, where the passes were. “See you in a few minutes,” he said in a serious tone, then he turned, and started class. I snuck out the door, hoping that not many people saw me. When I was done in the clinic, I walked back into science, as Adrienna was passing out donuts. She came up to me and said, “would you like one? They’re happy first day donuts!” She was so excited. I didn’t want to burst her happiness bubble, but I knew that my blood sugar couldn’t take it, so I asked the typical questions about carbohydrates, and because she didn’t know, I politely refused. At lunch, I relaxed, because I was confident, that the year would be a-ok. Now, I have my blood sugar completely in my control, still, even a year after that horrible week last August.