[Scrabblechick]

About four people at work know about my DX. They are all ones I can trust to keep it mum.

I work at a family-owned newspaper in an at-will work state. That means they can fire me for bad reason, good reason, or no reason at all. The two top dogs in the newsroom are husband and wife. Even though they're late 60s and early 70s, they have no patience for anyone who has medical problems, unless they really like that person.

A dear friend and co-worker had a double lung transplant because she was born with cystic fibrosis. She was a great writer and a wonderful person. However, she started experiencing signs of chronic rejection. Instead of hanging in there with her and trying to see if she would get better, it didn't take long for the editor to start trying to get her to quit. I remember sitting with her in the bathroom as she cried, wondering if she was going to lose her job. Eventually, she did. That was in July, 2001. She died in January, 2002. One reason they were anxious to get her off the payroll was insurance. Her illness was costing Blue Cross money and they were talking about raising premiums. It was awful.

My Dx would be further proof to them that my obesity (which I'm working hard to eliminate) absolutely caused me to become diabetic (regardless of my family history), and therefore I am not worthy of living, since I allowed myself to be fat and to become diabetic. They hate fat people. I wish I were exaggerating.

I'm controlled with diet and medication. Even if I were on insulin, though, I still wouldn't tell them. My job involves working at a computer. I'm not a danger to anyone. And if I did something while hypo that ticked them off, being hypo wouldn't be an excuse. Obviously, I wouldn't have been doing what I'm supposed to do to prevent hypos, which is my responsibility. A true hypo isn't apt to happen in my situation anyway, but still...

Suffice it to say, I hardly tell these people when I have a cold, to say nothing of this.