Way of the World

Chapter 1

My name is Fae. I'm eleven years old and a type one diabetic. I've always lived in an orphanage in Charleston, South Carolina. I never really thought anything of it. Friends come and go and new people come to take their place and so on. I don't actually think I have an original friend. I slept in a room with one other person but my old roommate had just got adopted. I'm just about the last person anyone wants to adopt. I'm too high maintenance with me being a diabetic and all. I can't help but remember when I was nine someone wanted to adopt me. Eleven months passed. I had just turned ten and the adoption was almost complete when I was diagnosed with type one diabetes and they didn't want me anymore. I was so close. I hate to remember that feeling I had when I got the news. I had just gotten an insulin pump a few weeks later. I was so depressed, sad and angry. I then remembered that I had an insulin pump. I unclipped it and tried to commit suicide by pumping the max amount of insulin into my body. It wasn't long before I passed out on the floor. The director, Ms. Hetridge, was giving a tour to a new girl about my age named Camille. They had almost finished the tour. Ms. Hetridge had showed Camille to her new room. When Camille walked in, she found me on the ground nearly lifeless. She yelled for Ms. Hetridge to come quick. She flipped me onto my back and saw my insulin pump. The delivery still had fifteen units left to give me but she ripped out the needle before the delivery was complete. A few seconds later, Ms. Hetridge came bursting through the door. She saw me and quickly stabbed me with the glucagon and called 911.

I woke up a week later to all these annoying noises and I knew I wasn't in heaven. I saw doctors and nurses all around and Ms. Hetridge at the nurses desk. It took me awhile to realize I was being pushed in a hospital bed. I couldn't move anything but my eyes. A nurse looked down at me and screamed inconsiderately, "SHE'S AWAKE!" Everyone turned to look at me. I finally choked out the words, "Where are you taking me?". The bed stopped and a doctor told me that I was pumped with insane amounts of insulin so many of my cells died and my body parts aren't working like they should now. Then he told me they were taking me to the operation room to try and fix me. After that, they started pushing the bed again. I was in shock I didn't die. Then I just felt angry that I am alive and I have to deal with my life. Just then they parked me in the operating room and put me to sleep.

When I woke up again, I was covered in more bandages than a mummy. Ok, maybe not that many, but I had a whole lot of bandages on me. I still couldn't move. I was in an actual hospital room. The doctor walked in. "Oh great! Your awake! Hi, my name is Dr. Paulo." I asked him how long had I been asleep. He told me a little less than a week. "Your new roommate, Camille was it, found you passed out on the floor. Your insulin pump was giving you forty-five units. She pulled out your needle before it was done giving insulin. Good thing too. If she hadn't, you'd be a dead woman. By the time you got to me, your blood sugar was 6. Surprised you were still alive." I looked down. I whispered to myself, "Why didn't it work?" Dr. Paulo heard me and asked, "Miss, did you do that to yourself on purpose to commit suicide? Be honest." I cringed and said, "Yes. Nobody wanted me because of this stupid disease, so I figured it should be the thing to take me out. I'm sorry." Dr. Paulo looked at me and said, "It's ok, just don't do it again. I'm warning you, when you get discharged, you will have to spend a week in therapy." Then a girl I had never met before walked in. Dr. Paulo said that he would leave us two alone. She said, "So that's what you look like awake. I had done that whole death by insulin to myself before. I ended up just like you. I only did it because my parents were murdered. I just got out of therapy a week and a half ago." I looked at her like she was crazy and said, "Who are you?" She laughed and said, "Oh! Sorry, I forgot you've never seen me while you have been awake. My name is Camille. I'm your new roommate at the orphanage." I told her, "My name is Fae. I have diabetes. How did you pump insulin into yourself if you don't have diabetes?" I asked realizing what she had first said. Then she smiled and said, "But I do," I just stared. I'm not alone anymore.