I realized today that I haven't even informed my roommates about the signs, symptoms, and treatments for hypo/hyperglycemia. It never occurred to me to do so until we were eating lunch and I was having trouble focusing on what they were saying because my blood sugar had dropped.

Hypoglycemia is a big long fancy word for low blood sugar, which means that I have too much insulin in my system and not enough carbohydrates. Usually when this happens, I become agitated, can't focus on anything, feel weak, and generally make no sense. The only solution for hypoglycemia is a fast-acting carbohydrate (i.e. a glass of orange juice) followed by a slow-acting carbohydrate (i.e. a cheese sandwich). If left unattended, hypoglycemia can result in seizures and, in very severe cases, can be life-threatening.

Hyperglycemia is the opposite of hypoglycemia, high blood sugar. In my case, I can usually tell when my blood sugar is high when my heart starts to race, I am extremely thirsty, and I am overly excitable. Hyperglycemia occurs when I have too little insulin in my system. Usually this is treated with a dose of insulin. If left untreated, hyperglycemia can cause diabetic ketoacidosis to occur, which is potentially life-threatening.

Thinking about it now, I really should stop trying to pretend my diabetes doesn't exist and educate as many people as I can about what they should do if I did have an episode. Last March I took a school trip to Rome, and an hour after landing I had a seizure outside of a Piazza. Nobody knew what to do, because I had thought "nobody needs to worry, I am in control". I ended up waking up in a hospital bed with doctors speaking Italian to me and an IV tube in my arm. If my friends had known that inside my purse, a device called a glucagon (syringe loaded with a high concentration of glucose) would have probably made me conscious before the ambulance arrived, then I wouldn't have had to wake up alone and scared in a strange hospital.

For my whole life I have tried to hide the fact that I was diabetic, so that I would just be a normal person. But diabetes is a part of my life, and who I am. I am slowly starting to acknowledge it, and am probably much safer now because of it.