Question

By the time 14-year-old Jake got home from school he was sick enough for his mom to notice. He seemed shaky and confused. He was sweaty even though it was cool fall weather. “Jake let’s get you a glass of juice right away,” his mother said in a calm manner. She was very familiar with the symptoms. Jake was diagnosed with diabetes at age 6. His mother was very familiar with monitoring his insulin, eating, and exercise. Now that Jake was in middle school he was taking on more of his own monitoring, but he seemed to mess up often.

“Yeah, I know I shouldn’t have waited so long to eat,” Jake muttered once he was feeling better. “Mom, you just don’t understand. I don’t want to be different than the other kids!” Jake’s mom was on the phone with the school nurse before he could finish his sentence.

Jake needed to inject himself with insulin 3 times a day. He knew what would happen if his blood glucose got too high or if he didn’t eat regularly and it got too low. But when he was on a field trip he hated to go to the chaperone and say that he needed to eat something immediately. And he hated going to the nurse every day to do his injections. Even worse, if he didn’t report to the nurse between fourth and fifth period the nurse would come to the classroom to get him and pull him out of class.

Jake was tired of having this disease, sick of shots and angry that he could not sleep in or skip a meal like the other kids. He made a face as his mother was on the phone with the nurse and slammed the door on his way out to find his friend Joe.

1. What can Jake do to make his friends understand his condition?
2. Are there other treatment options for Jake?

Answer 1

As a child, it is often difficult to make other children around you are understanding the underlying disease conditions. Most of children without any intention tend to make fun of the conditions due to lack of awareness and knowledge. Hence, it is important for Jake to demonstrate and explain his classmates and friends about his condition that he needs to eat regularly without skipping a meal and take the shots without which it can cause him adverse health impact. It is important to conduct an awareness class informing the friends about diabetes and how taking the right precautions can help him from falling sick. It is important to explain his friends that if he does not eat his meals regularly and take the insulin shots, the glucose concentration will increase, and it will not be converted into the body to produce energy. Hence, Jake can make an animated presentation or a diagram that helps his friends understand his condition and why it is important for him to take the necessary precautions.

Another treatment option for Jake in this case is that he starts consuming healthy food and maintain an metabolically active lifestyle with regular exercise. However, as a child the options for treating diabetes is pretty much limited for Jake. A sensor can be implanted under his skin which can record the sugar reading and hence the information can be received by nurse. This can help in taking care of his conditions accordingly.