What’s Up With Jack?
Chapter Two: Back at School
Author: Julia Ransohoff, high school student writer
The next day, Jack found himself in Dr. Brody’s office again, holding a blue insulin pump in his hand. The doctor was explaining how a needle would be in his body to supply him with the insulin his pancreas didn’t produce. “Wait,” Jack told himself, “a needle?” Needles were the one thing Jack couldn’t stand, and having one inside him all the time was going to be a nightmare.
He took a deep breath and decided to suck it up and deal with it. He had no other choice. This time, Jack left Dr. Brody’s office a little less confused, but definitely still scared. He had his new blue pump and a kit to test his blood sugar level, and he knew how to use it. Everything would be easy sailing from here -- or so he thought.
When Jack went to school the next day, everyone gave him weird looks because of the pump clipped to his belt, but Jack wasn’t ready to tell his friends what was going on yet. His mom prepared a note for his homeroom teacher explaining how Jack might need to leave during class to have a snack or a drink if his blood sugar got too low, and she delivered packs to the nurse’s office and the gym that included a glucose level reader, snacks and juice boxes.
Jack had swim practice every day after school, and he had missed Monday and Tuesday, so he had a lot of catching up to do. His coach already knew about his diabetes, so he told Jack not to work too hard. Jack knew that if he exerted himself too much, he could get hypoglycemic, meaning his blood sugar would be too low. He took it easy that day in practice, but none of his teammates knew why, or why he was wearing the little blue pump. No one asked what was going on, but Jack saw a group of jocks laughing at him. “If only they knew what I’ve been through the past few weeks,” Jack thought to himself as he stared his teammates down, “then they wouldn’t be doing this to me.”
After swimming for 20 minutes, Jack began to feel tired. He hopped out of the pool and went over to his gym bag to grab a juice box; he guessed his blood sugar was too low. He pricked his finger and waited for the number to appear on the small, colorless screen. When the meter showed the number 67, he knew this was below where it should be, but that he would be fine if he just had some juice and waited a while before going back in the pool. Sitting in the bleachers, Jack watched his teammates continue to swim and stare at him when they came out of the water. “They must think I’m a baby, having to get out of the pool to have some apple juice like a kindergartener,” he thought. Practice was ending soon, so Jack decided there was no point in going back in the pool, which might mean being teased. He headed to the locker room and got ready to go home.
“See ya tomorrow at practice,” Jack heard someone call over his shoulder. It was his coach, giving him a wink to show that he understood what was going on. “Sure,” Jack shouted back, but in his heart, he knew it wasn’t going to be that easy to come back tomorrow or the next day, and to go through the same thing all over again.