Stories on Health

When I first started going to college, I struggled with whether or not I should tell my professors that I had diabetes. On the one hand, I didn’t want them (or anyone else) to think I was asking for special treatment. But on the other hand, I wanted them to have a heads-up if I need to eat a snack in the middle of class or leave to take my insulin.

Most importantly, I did not want my condition to interfere with my university education. Even if I had to spend time in a hospital or for doctor visits, I wanted my teachers and classmates to know that I would still pull my weight 100%, not use diabetes as an excuse to slough work or ask for timeline extensions.

I did finally decide to go ahead and share my condition with my university teachers. Not because I wanted to wear an “I Have Diabetes!” badge on my sleeve, but because it occurred to me that information is the most important thing. “Hiding” my condition will not do anyone any favors; instead, I hope being a good example will take just a little more of the stigma away from the disease.

Don’t be afraid to let people know about your condition. The more people hear about it, the more they will be comfortable and curious about it, which could lead to more research—which could even lead to a cure one day.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 at 6:19 pm and is filed under Health, Illness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.