23 Comments
If you had T1D while you were in school, were your blood sugars typically impacted when you had tests or exams?
You must be logged in to post a comment.
© 2022 T1D Exchange. All Rights Reserved.
There were no CGMs back in the 60s so I had no clue.
Similar to Larry’s comment, when I was in highschool and college I had no way to monitor my blood sugars regularly.
I went back to school at age 62 to get my associates degree and did not notice that tests had any affects on my blood sugar either way, high or low.
Mine would be high as I waited to take the test, but they could bottom out during test, especially finials. Wish I could have had a pump back then, instead of just my R and N regimen.
I finished grad school in 1977. I got my first glucometer in about 1985. Any questions?
I did not have a glucometer in high school or college. Based on my current results, I would say most likely yes.
I answered “other”. Like many commenters, I was diagnosed before the availability of glucometer, much less sensors. I had no way of knowing what happened during tests.
I’m joining the other old timers. My last exam was the bar exam in 1976 when we still were limited to urine dip strips – so could not track highs and lows very well my senior year in high school, in college or in law school. I overslept my last law school exam my first year either because I’d been studying until 2:30am or – in hindsight – because I slipped into a pre-dawn low and didn’t hear my alarm. (Jumped into my cleanest dirty jeans and ran to the exam without breakfast, insulin or a shower … )
I was diagnosed in 1960 and graduated high school in 1967. I had no idea what my blood sugars were in real time, as meters did not exist until 10 plus years into the future.
I was diagnosed in 1972. No blood sugar testing or A1C back then.
I had T1D when I was in school, but that was long before we had any way to check BG personally. I had to get BG tests at a lab. I never considered whether my BG might be high or low during a school exam unless it was extremely high or low (hypoglycemia etc.).
Old timer here too. Nuff said.
I could answer both high and low from exam stress. As others have commented personal glucose meters were still a dream when I was in high school, ’60 – ’64 and undergrad studies ’65-’70. Later in graduate school, ’76-’80, still without personal meters, I had a low while taking my Masters written exam. Fortunately, I completed enough of the essay questions to pass. The oral defense of my Master of Fine Arts thesis was very stressful. I ‘m sure both my glucose and blood pressure levels were high.
In the 80s and first few years of the 1990s, wasn’t able to test before or after an exam, so I’m sure my blood sugars were all over the place…
This tech wasn’t available when I was in school, but I rarely felt stressed in school so I doubt it would have had any effect on my blood sugars.
When I was in school I didn’t have a glucose meter!!! It hadn’t been invented yet!!!
Back in those days I really didn’t do much monitoring it was all done through the urine which wasn’t exactly accurate.
As a child, adolescent, and in early college years – IDK. There were no meters or cgms back then – only urine tests and my pee was usually mucky olive green or mucky bright orange.
During first phase of nursing school in the 1980s I would get stressed during exam time and BGs would run higher. Was on MDI and a BG meter in those days.
Later on in graduate school as an older middle aged adult I did get stressed while writing term papers and researching material for Masters in Nursing Science thesis. My BGs could/would run higher but it may have also been from lack of sleep. I was working full-time AND going to school online, plus doing hands-on diabetes care and education in clinical settings with an academic advisor.
No blood testing when I was in school, so who knows.
Other: during my school and college years the only available glucose testing was for urine. It was notoriously unreliable, so i don’t know the answer to this.
My answer is the same as many here, no way to check blood sugars back then. I think if I had a CGM and pump my studies would have been better. I liked school but depression became a part of my life around 10. I suspect it was from the roller coaster we were all on in those days.
When I was in HS, urine tests were ‘state of the art’ for T1D. No ability to know what was going on prior (or during) tests.
My comment is very similar to many others. I was diagnosed in the early 70’s. Urine testing was the norm.