Saturday, February 5, 2011

Withholding Information

I am usually pretty open with my Diabetes. I love to talk about it. I cannot think of any reason to hide the fact that I have type 1 diabetes.
So can someone please explain to me why I did not tell my skating coaches? I carry glucagon (and usually glucose tabs) in my skate bag, but if no one knows it's in there, it's not going to do much good.


I think it started with the emergency/injury waiver at The Other Rink, which asked about medical conditions. I am in the habit of checking "No" on these types of forms because getting it signed by my endocrinologist is a pain in the rear. My endo encourages me to exercise and my CDE is aware that I am skating 3-4 days a week, so I don't feel it is necessary to bother them with a silly piece of paper. 

However, this somehow turned into me not telling anyone at the rinks about my diabetes.

Please, before anyone begins to lecture me; I am totally aware of how insanely dangerous this is. 

I had a near emergency last week at the rink. I had to leave in the middle of the lesson to test and treat a severe low blood sugar which forced me to tell Coach M (who teaches my Saturday Adult Group lesson) about the D. 

This week I will make a point of telling Private Coach and Coach Mel at The Other Rink about my diabetes. Because I know that one piece of information could someday save my life.