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From: lindley@ut-ngp.UUCP (John L. Templer)
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Re: diabetics in college
Message-ID: <1497@ut-ngp.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 27-Mar-85 00:05:36 EST
Article-I.D.: ut-ngp.1497
Posted: Wed Mar 27 00:05:36 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 29-Mar-85 00:43:58 EST
References: <1151@reed.UUCP>, <7598@rochester.UUCP>
Organization: U.Texas Physics Department; Austin, Texas
Lines: 55

In article <1151@reed.UUCP> thoma@reed.UUCP (Ann Muir Thomas) writes:
> > Hello, I have a new subject which I'm hoping you may have time to
> > respond to:  I have type I diabetes, under moderately good control, and
> > am currently in my 3rd year at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. A lot
> > of people here have called me "crazy" for having an educational/career
> > goal since I am technically handicapped.
> > ....
> > how one deals with telling professors, potential employers, etc. that
> > one is NOT what is considered "normally healthy" and yes, that it CAN
> > interfere with ability to perform, but that *I* think I'm worth the
> > risk.

In article <7598@rochester.UUCP> gary@rochester.UUCP (Gary Cottrell) writes:
> I'm not sure why you think you are handicapped, and why you think
> diabetes will affect your performance. Is juvenile diabetes worse than
> other types?
> ....
> Again, I don't know what type of diabetes he had and what type you
> have, but it is unclear to me that it should even come up in
> conversation with professors, et al., unless you are, in fact,
> debilitated by it.

Sorry, but I just couldn't let this one pass.

Yes, it should make no difference to your employer or proffesor, but it
often does.  My sister and brother both have juvenile diabetes, and
they often find that people don't know how to treat them.  People think
that they have to treat them as if they were somehow "fragile", always
asking them "do you think you should be doing that?", or what's worse,
suggesting some activity, and *then* remarking "Oh, I'm sorry!  I
forgot you're diabetic."

Another reaction comes from professors who refuse to believe that
Lacinda is not "shirking off" when she has to miss class because her
blood sugar has gone high.  One idiot of a vice-principal at a high
school we went to kept insisting on turning her in as truant unless she
brought a signed note from the doctor each time she was absent.

And of course there are the fun facts that diabetics face a much higher
risk of going blind, that they are overly sensitive to infectious
diseases, and that when their blood-sugar goes up too high, they become
very grouchy.

Sorry Gary, if I sounded a little irittated.  I am, but it wasn't
directed at you.  And Ann, good luck on your degree.  Maybe you can
convince some of those who doubt you should be in college by doing
better than them!
-- 

                                           John L. Templer
                                     University of Texas at Austin

       {allegra,gatech,seismo!ut-sally,vortex}!ut-ngp!lindley

      "Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose."