29 Comments
Do you think your (or your child’s) performance in school was affected by T1D?
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The kids that I knew who developed diabetes when young were all excellent students.
High blood sugars causes my child migraines and he has missed numerous days of school due to that.
At times, yes my performance was affected. While in grade school urine testing was all that was available. So knowing where one’s blood sugar level was unheard of.
Net to my knowledge, T1D had zero known effect(s) re: my academic performance directly. Hospitalized/more I’ll from XYZ due to diabetes occasionally, but causal to academic issues never, not once
I am not sure. It possibly could have as I went to school with diabetes from third grade through 12th grade without the benefit of blood sugar monitoring. In college is when blood glucose meters came into play for me. There were times my sugar level went low during class so maybe I couldn’t concentrate as well at those times?
I am compelled to say, no, since I have known no other life. 18 years of school plus kindergarten. I, like so many other people, got my real education after I got out of school. You know, the place where they give the test first and the lesson afterwards. ︡⚈ ︵⚈︠
My kid’s were all out of school when I was first diagnosed as being diabetic. All are now have been diagnosed as being pre-diabetic. 3 with PCOS (and 1 miracle grandson!)
I don’t think it affected me academically, but this shy kid entered high school with the shame of someone like a drug addict. Letting anyone know I lived on daily injections felt mortifying. So much better being an adult, and knowing all that horror is behind me. Times have changed for the better :^} !
Diagnosed in college. Succeeded despite the challenges T1D and being on NPH insulin sometimes posed. Highs sometimes made me drowsy during lectures I loved. Lots and highs and lows trying to avoid NPH peaks and crashes during 2-3hr science labs. These surely affected my performance at times. Overall, I think living with T1D has made me resilient and an effective and creative problem solver, so also enhanced my performance.
I was diagnosed in college too and perhaps about the same time period as you as I have the same memories of problems with NPH timing. Timing was difficult back then! But I never said a word about it to any of my professors.
I have now been a college professor myself for 22 years and have only had two students who revealed to me that they were T1 and hence may need to eat during class, leave the room, etc.
My son says it does when he has to miss school due to an early morning low that knocks him on his behind or a stubborn high we can’t get down throughout the night. Or when he has to leave early. He doesn’t feel lows so those don’t affect him more than the few minutes it takes to treat. Highs at school are typically from his gym class, that Carson spike I think he called it. But drops on its own so he does t do a correction dose. He is really good at communicating to his teachers about his needs so other than missing school due to his type 1, he says no it doesn’t affect him.
Yes, I definitely think all the lows and highs I experienced from 1955 on made a difference. From 3rd grade until 8th grade I was taking one AM injection a day of beef/pork Regular insulin. I tested my urine twice a day…and that was the available glucose management. The years from 8th grade thru my undergraduate studies included a carousel of different insulins resulting in frequent sudden lows that made taking notes, paying attention to lectures and demonstrations and taking exams difficult. I did well in most subjects, with math being an exception, but I have no way of knowing if I could have done better.
Because I was only 7 years old when dx with T1D, dealing with a shot every day and no longer able to eat sweets, school curriculum and my performance was the last thing I was thinking about. Was it effected? I don’t think so. NOT UNTIL I GOT TO BE THIRTEEN!!! Who wants to go through puberty and deal with T1D at the same time?!!! And add high school curriculum and the personality changes that are part of that experience and you’re asking if T1D affected my performance? I don’t have anything to compare it to!!! I’ve been T1D since the 2nd grade!!!
I did not have T1D while I was in school. But, I can definitely tell you that T1D did affect my performance at work and during work related trainings. Especially before blood testing was available, before insulin pumps, and before CGM’s. I was constantly fighting off low blood glucoses multiple times daily throughout those years, and my brain was in a constant fog. Once I got on an insulin pump, using blood test strips, I was able to stay up with my peers.
I agree! Had no problems in school as far as grades etc were concerned but at work through the end of high school and college I had plenty of lows at work that interrupted my ability to do my job. I do not miss those pre-pump/CGM days!
…but it sure has impacted my job performance.
I said no mostly because there wasn’t an “unsure” option. I definitely struggled through a few standardized tests (wet myself during one, had to cope with bigoted proctors during another), but I scored well despite the distractions. Who’s to say if I might have scored better without them?
Other because there should have been a category that indicated a diagnosis of T1D after leaving school.
It was affected if I had a low blood sugar but not all the time.
In the 1960s I often went to school both high and low. My granddaughter with T1D uses a Dexcom G6 with Follow. So much easier.
I said no because other than the 3-4 weeks I missed of 7th grade when I was first diagnosed, I don’t remember missing any school due to my diabetes.
I waffled while deciding ‘how’ to answer…. I eventually went with ‘no’, as overall it really had little impact. On the ‘yes’ side, it impacted me only in the 1st year I was diagnosed, as it caused me to miss a good portion of the last 1/3 of that school year. It also caused me to be demoted by a gym teacher, who decided through her ignorance, that I wouldn’t be ‘able’ to cope remaining on the top field hockey (1st- 11’s) team due to my T1D diagnoses and demoted me to the 2nd team (2nd-11’s). What was bizarre, in the extreme, was the fact that I not only played on the 2nd-11’s, but asked to fill in on the 1st-11’s for most of their games. Made no sense then – still makes no sense today! After that year, school wasn’t impacted by my T1D. Went on to earn 3 university degrees after finishing with high school – so, overall, diabetes did not affect my performance.
No, I was dx at age 4, was an honor student my entire schooling career. If anything it made me more responsible.
I answered “NO”. I was 23 years old and just discharged from USN.
Before onset of T1D in Jr. High School (9th grade) I didn’t like to exercise much. After diagnosis I learned to enjoy exercise as much as I enjoyed reading books, always a good student. Really enjoyed HS Honor Classes and friends there. Always did great on tests, scored high on SATs, but found college disappointing at first. Eventually attended grad school. As a kid & young adult I was on beef/pork NPH and big carbo ADA diet with easy to understand exchange system. I kept my diabetes a secret, because I wanted to fit in, didn’t want to be treated differently. But fortunately my mom probably informed school system and school nurses and some parents of my closest friends (w/o telling me). I did my best to avoid lows, usually not a problem. Used Clinitest tablets and test tube at home, and when testape was invented, I relied heavily on that for convenience to avoid sugar in urine (180 mg/dL accepted as threshold for sugar appearing in urine). Finger-tip drop-of-blood glucose meter/strips a huge step forward, instead of the once per year lab test! With diabetes injections and no more candy, I felt more in control, more responsible for my life. That confidence was undermined at times as young adult and in adulthood by unexpected nighttime hypoglycemic tongue-biting seizure episodes. No longer a problem with seizure med and now a CGM. Maybe I don’t need seizure med after all for borderline “epilepsy?”
Suggested Question of The Day:
Using a pump have you been able to go off seizure medication? This would probably have to be addressed to a much larger audience that included the “seizure disorder” community to get any answers.
My T1D was diagnosed when I was in my early 20s. It did not affect my time in college.
No my performance was not affected. I had T1D throughout all my school years. I had a near perfect GPA (the 0.02 below a perfect GPA was NOT due to T1D: LOL!) and I was co-valedictorian of a class of over 400. T1D caused me issues in my school years, but I don’t remember it holding me back on anything. I have more trouble now that I’m retired, with extended family health concerns.
My senior year of high school my blood sugars were out of control. I felt sick for most of the first semester and missed a lot of classes as a result. When I asked for help getting caught up, several teachers said it wasn’t possible. Most let me switch to easier classes, except one. This teacher insisted I stay in his class, but would offer no assistance. As a result, I failed his class and was not allowed to graduate until after summer school.
i know they were affected by MY diabetes – I wound up having a DKA a few months before my daughter was to graduate HS and she missed an important assignment because she just couldn’t do it with my hospitalization – I was in a coma for at least three days