According to a May 2012 TIME Magazine article, diabetes affects nearly 1 of 4 U.S teens.  This is a disease in which your body does not produce insulin and your pancreas just simply doesn’t function.  Because of these issues, diabetics have to count every carbohydrate that they eat and take insulin based on how many carbs they are consuming.

As you can imagine, this can be extremely time consuming and stressful.  Going to high school every day can make managing diabetes a little more difficult because along with all the normal stressors and drama of high school, teens with diabetes also have their health to deal with.  However, Normal Community has made it as easy as it can be for students with this disease.

For starters, every student with diabetes receives a nurse’s card at the beginning of the year, and this card entitles them to be able to go to the nurse’s office or to the restroom at any time.  This is extremely helpful because there are countless times that students have a high or low blood sugar, which is an emergency situation, and all they have to do is show their card to whatever teacher they have and they can immediately go to the nurse’s office.

Another helpful tool for diabetics is the carb count list provided for lunchtime.  This is great because diabetics can know the exact amount of carbohydrates they will be eating and can take insulin accordingly.

Mrs. Knollenberg, NCHS school nurse, is amazing.  She has the carb counts ready every day at lunchtime.  She always has all the supplies needed and is understanding about everything.

There is also a diabetic support group at Normal Community that meets about once a month.  This is extremely helpful to all diabetics and helps them know that they are not in this alone, there are many other students dealing with the same obstacles that they are.   Questions are answered in this group and friendships are made.  It’s like a little family.  Normal Community has truly helped students living with diabetes make the best of their situation.