We Truly Are Family

*Because our numbers are private information and some people are more sensitive about other people knowing them I'm going to keep the second characters numbers private. Her name will be K and we'll just say her numbers were low.*

During 5th period I felt a low coming on and I kinda just buckled down and fought through it. I didn't want to test and I didn't want to leave so I just powered through it. When I got to lunch I bought my noodles and tested to make sure my 32 carbs would cover the low I was feeling. It was a 40. Surely 32 carbs will cover a blood sugar of 40 easily and I will be able to go on my way. So I didn't go to the health office right away like I should have. 15 minutes into lunch and 10 minutes after the noodles my low symptoms were just getting worse. I knew I had 5 minutes left of lunch so I tried shutting my eyes for a couple minutes to see if it would help. My friends don't quite get the concept of I'm low leave me alone so they kept poking me. I kinda wanted to punch them in the face. Anyway at the end of lunch I retested at a 42. Not high enough to go back to class so I went to the nurse. I sat there drinking a juice box giving my all to fight sleep. 15 minutes later I retested. 67. You have got to be flippin kidding me. Well, I was talking to Mrs. E (the fill in lady) and she wasn't quite sure what to do so she called Mrs. C (the actual nurses sub who was at another school). While she was on the phone K walked in asking if she had any extra snack she didn't. I happened to over hear that she was low and offered her one of my snacks. She took the Z Bar. And because I was still considered low I had to eat my extra Luna Bar. So we sat in the office eating our granola bars and sipping juice boxes. We made conversation and retested together. We talked about meters and the sky rocketing test strip price. When I retested it was 73 and 1:10 school got out in exactly 6 minutes. She as well retested low again. We were both fighting stubborn lows and both felt like crap. In those moments we bonded starting with the Z bar and ending with the comforting words I hope you feel better as we departed ways. Mrs. C and Mrs. E are probably both sick of us, but it's in those moments you truly feel connected to someone. Like someone else knows what a low feels like and some one else knows what it's like to have needles pierce your fingertips every day. She's a newly diagnosed too, were getting through this even though she's diabetic and I'm hypoglycemic we still have things in common and we can still support each other from the side lines. I have a health office family which now includes K and Z who are both diabetics. We may not talk to each other every day, but we really are there for each other. So the next time you have a chance to offer a Z bar to some one else who is low or share a test strip with someone else who just ran out of time to double check take the opportunity and see it as more than sharing see it as extending your health office family. Because we really are FAMILY!!

Keep your head up and family close,
Ellie <3