By the time 14-year-old Jake got home from school he was sickenough for his mom to notice. He seemed shaky and confused. He wassweaty even though it was cool fall weather. “Jake let’s get you aglass of juice right away,” his mother said in a calm manner. Shewas very familiar with the symptoms. Jake was diagnosed withdiabetes at age 6. His mother was very familiar with monitoring hisinsulin, eating, and exercise. Now that Jake was in middle schoolhe was taking on more of his own monitoring, but he seemed to messup often.

“Yeah, I know I shouldn’t have waited so long to eat,” Jakemuttered once he was feeling better. “Mom, you just don’tunderstand. I don’t want to be different than the other kids!”Jake’s mom was on the phone with the school nurse before he couldfinish his sentence.

Jake needed to inject himself with insulin 3 times a day. Heknew what would happen if his blood glucose got too high or if hedidn’t eat regularly and it got too low. But when he was on a fieldtrip he hated to go to the chaperone and say that he needed to eatsomething immediately. And he hated going to the nurse every day todo his injections. Even worse, if he didn’t report to the nursebetween fourth and fifth period the nurse would come to theclassroom to get him and pull him out of class.

Jake was tired of having this disease, sick of shots and angrythat he could not sleep in or skip a meal like the other kids. Hemade a face as his mother was on the phone with the nurse andslammed the door on his way out to find his friend Joe.

1. Why do you think Jake is not more conscious and responsible forhis self-care?
2. Do you think Jake’s classmates talk about him or does he justthink that they do?