All In a Day's Spanish Class

Conjugations, verbs, stem changes, me gusta.
Our professor guides us through exercises and asks us questions in Spanish - we respond back with what we hope is a semblance of the correct answer.

My blood sugar is cruising at 85 - no worries here.

Me, te, le, nos, os, les...
fui, fuiste, fue, fuimos, fuisteis, fueron.


I grip my pencil in my hands, jotting down the occasional note or two.

Is it just me, or is it getting warm in here?
I push up the sleeves of my jacket and shift in my seat.

A wave of dizziness gently rolls over me, and it's easy to miss. I put it in the back of my mind and focus on class.

Tap, tap, tap.
The pencil shakes softly in my hands.

Streams of voices assuage me, abrasive, and my head spins.
A bead of sweat drips down my back.

I close my eyes and concentrate, drowning out the excess, listening to the unfamiliar words, forming them in my head and on my tongue.
I strain from the effort, working hard to grasp my fleeting focus.

My arm is shaking now, my mind a slur of voices and verbs and the blue sky outside.
Birds land on the tree outside the window. Somebody walks up the library steps. A train sounds its whistle somewhere far away.

I close my eyes, and the all-too familiar feeling of weakness closes in on me.

Silently as I can, I unzip by backpack, pulling out the meter inside.
Trembling, I grasp the lancet in my hands, gripping it hard, test, wait for the result that I can already guess.

48.
I grab the granola bar sitting within arm's reach inside my backpack, eating it and trying to keep the spinning at bay.
The 17 carb granola bar is all I have, and it should do the job, but it works slowly.
I sit, immobilized, until 20 minutes later the low finally edges off.
Class is over, and we are free to go. I gather my things and leave the room.

Lows have no language barrier, no concept of good timing. Diabetes doesn't wait. It's just another infinitesimal event in the day for most, but another battle for me - one of the many battles I fight, each day, between my body and myself. A battle that, for now, I've fought and won - All in a day's Spanish class.

Te odio, la Diabetes. Por favor, vaya.