Sally
Goes
to
School
By Joan
Fleitas
This
is a story about a third grade student on her first day of a new school
year. Sally has just turned eight years old, and she is starting school
after having had a pretty exciting summer. During the summer, she found
out that she had a medical problem called diabetes. Diabetes is not about
dying, like it sounds. It's about living, and Sally was learning to live
with it. Though the story is make-believe, "Sally's" experience is much
like that of hundreds and hundreds of kids her age who told me what it
was like for them...
This is what happened. Have you ever heard of a part of your body called the pan-cre-as? This pancreas has an important job to do...it makes something called Insulin. Insulin helps our bodies to use the foods that we eat. People who have diabetes like Sally have pancreases that have forgotten how to make this important liquid. Lucky for Sally that we know how to make Insulin so that her body can get what it needs. It gets this Insulin from a tiny needle, sometimes a couple of times a day. Now this is not fun, but if you asked, Sally would tell you that it's not the worst thing in the world, either. Because Insulin helps to digest food, and food helps her to grow, Sally has to remember to eat foods that are good for her, not foods that are junky. Then she has to figure out just how much Insulin her body needs, so she tests her blood a couple times a day. Too little Insulin is not good. And too much is not good either. So I bet you can imagine that having diabetes is hard work. When you have a lot of hard work to do like keeping healthy when you have diabetes, it really helps to have good friends. Friends who don't tease about it. Friends who want to learn more about it. And friends who understand that Sally is still the same 'ole Sally that she always was, and that that's just how she wants to be treated. So on with her story. I'm glad that you came to visit and I hope that you will be, too. All of the pictures were drawn by third grade students after they read "Sally Goes to School". |
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To the preface | Site map | Let the story begin |
Joan
Fleitas, Ed.D., R.N.
Associate
Professor of Nursing, Lehman College, CUNY
Bronx,
New York 10468
Last updated: November 14, 2004