What Most People Don't See by Rafael

What Most People Don't See by Rafael - January 2018 Scholarship Essay

HELP. It was the day of my brother’s kindergarten graduation. Final exams of freshman year were looming and I couldn’t afford to miss any class, but I could no longer ignore my symptoms. My mother was already dealing with so much: the constant battle with the school district over my little sister’s special needs, my little brother’s eye surgeries…Health care costs had broken my family, so I put off going to the doctor until it was unavoidable.
One hour later I was in the Emergency Room. The diagnosis hung in the air like smoke, suffocating me: Type 1 Diabetes. One day earlier, I had been normal; now I had to rely on daily injections of insulin to stay alive. Not only did I have to process this new way of life, but so did my family. My aunt called to share a home remedy that would cure it (it’s incurable) and my grandmother suggested that I lose weight (it’s an autoimmune disease).
As a Medicaid health insurance recipient, I am grateful for having access to quality healthcare. However, the Texas state program denies me access to the medical technology, a continuous glucose monitor, that would alert me to dangerously low and high blood sugars. Left unchecked, these conditions lead to ketoacidosis and comas. With the monitoring device at over one thousand dollars and the sensors at four hundred dollars per month, this life saving bio-technology is cost prohibitive to patients like me who rely on government health insurance. Growing up in Houston while almost all of my extended family lives in the Rio Grande Valley had repeatedly exposed me to economic disparities, but I never thought that this disparity would become a matter of life and death for me.
I had a decision to make. The frustration and HELPlessness of having independence stripped away from me could have been too much to handle. I could have decided that the multiple needle sticks to my fingers and insulin injections all over my arms and legs daily was too frustrating and overwhelming. But instead, I decided to take advantage of my resources through school, Boy Scouts, church, and work with those who were willing to help me. I realized how lucky I am to be in a city with a world-class medical center and to have a family that supports me no matter what obstacles come my way. I have learned how to ask for help. I have learned how to build a support network and know the value and importance of community. Through education and advocacy, I have realized that anything is possible. I met with the social worker at Texas Children’s in order to petition Congress for a change in legislation so that continuous glucose monitors are covered for all diabetics who need them, not just those on private insurance. I am meeting with Houston school district officials in order to change the protocol at HISD schools so that all teachers are required to complete a diabetes education module for the safety of their students so that no one has to go through what my family and I experienced when I returned to school after my diagnosis. This world that we live in is not going to fix itself. We have to fix it together. I want to make sure that fewer people go through the hardships that people with chronic illnesses such as myself have to endure.
Why do I want to go to college? After all I have seen and done the answer to that question has become more than "because I need to make money" or "I need to support my family in the future" or "because my mom wants me to". What these experiences have shown me, both the personal ones and those of my family members with extremely poor health education, is that college is going to be the biggest stepping stone towards HELPing people who cannot help themselves. Watching my Tia Nora suffer from diabetic nerve pain and other obesity-related health complications, and seeing how blind my grandmother was to the fact that she was diabetic for several months...It's nothing short of horrible. I want to go to college so that I can do my part, assisting others like me and like my extended family, so that maybe at least a few less families will suffer through everything I have. I will no longer wait for the HELP. I will BE the HELP.