If you’ve been following my student blog posts on the DiabetesSisters site, you already know that I’ve had a run of difficult health problems almost constantly since the beginning of October. The fall semester was spent miserably trying to find the proper balance between school, my advocacy and writing work as an avid diabetes blogger, and of course, of utmost importance, my health. Some beneficial changes have occurred, but it cost me the benefit of a normal fall semester in school, and as it got closer and closer to the start of the spring semester, I had some very important decisions to make.

This was not an easy process by any stretch of the imagination! Panicked thoughts, obsessive and compulsive thoughts, and those thoughts led to some slightly depressive thoughts. None of the above are healthy or good for any person, let alone a person with type 1 diabetes! I have been dealing with panic-attack related hyperglycemia problems since my diagnosis back in 2001 (and probably before that period, too!). Since I know that I have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and anxiety in addition to my diabetes, I am very much used to hearing my brain try to tell me to do one thing when I know that I should be doing another. For example, if I have a high BG level, I will correct it with a bolus and then my OCD wants me to continue checking my BG again, and again, and again, even though the results are not going to reflect the bolus yet. It may even serve to harm me to do this because as I see my numbers are continually not where I want them, I get more and more anxious, and that can raise my glucose levels further. It is a vicious cycle.

As you can see, just a simple decision to check my blood glucose levels is not ever a simple decision! Therefore, the process to figure out school for the spring 2012 semester was a huge decision. I am very thankful that my parents, my one-to—one aide who is with me every day, and my professors and advisors at college helped me to make a decision that I think is very sage for me for the Spring. I will be taking a medical leave of absence for the Spring 2012 semester. Don’t worry – I still have plenty of school work to keep me busy as I have all of the course work from the Fall semester that I have not yet completed to finish this semester. My advisors and professors are all supportive, and my family and friends are supportive. It brings back some scary memories of my prior medical leave, when I was away from school, classes and basically bed-bound because I was so sick for almost five years. I am still staying as active as I can with my advocacy work, blogging, and hopefully, with my more flexible schedule, I will have more time to fit in visits to the gym!! I’m trying to turn a negative into a positive, and know that this is just one semester. I will be back in the Fall, stronger than ever, and ready to jump back in fighting to get through my courses so that I can finish my degree in public health and do more to help my fellow sisters with diabetes!