To be continued.
- Larisa: Whew, I’m feeling really down. I think I need a shot.
- Sandra: You’re totally addicted to that stuff, eh?
- Larisa: Yeah, TO-TAL-LY. I’m such a junkie.
- Larisa: AAAAAA
- Teacher: AAAAAAA
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Sandra and Woo: a webcomic about friendship, life and the art of (not) eating squirrels
New comics every Monday and Thursday |
Sandra and Woo in German/auf Deutsch | Gaia (our fantasy comic)
New comics every Monday and Thursday |
Sandra and Woo in German/auf Deutsch | Gaia (our fantasy comic)
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![[0060] Addicted](http://www.sandraandwoo.com/comics/2009-05-18-[0060]-addicted.png "[0060] Addicted")
[0060] Addicted
└ posted on Monday, 18 May 2009, by Novil
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Sandra and Woo by Oliver Knörzer is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. See the About page for details.
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I see, so one of Sandra’s friend’s is Diabetic/has allergies,rabies etc.
Uh, oh! Not good! I hope that teacher’s hallucinating or something!
(I still <3 Woo!)
shots are also for diet meds, steroids, and hormones also.
Im guessin… diabetes? Probably wrong though
Most probably diabetes. And a MEAN sense of humour!
However, diabetics don’t take insulin when they are “down” (or “hypo”, which means they took too much insulin, so they take sugar to compensate ), they take insulin when they are “high”.
At least, that’s in Britain. Jargon may be different in other places!
Without insulin you can’t digest the sugar in the food. That can leave you hypo too.
As you’re in the UK, Rick, you might know it was a recent storyline on Waterloo Road (check iPlayer) where the girl wanted to lose weight so she stopped taking her insulin. Left her with headaches, poor eyesight and weight loss because she wasn’t getting any energy from the food.
In short: Hypo can be because insulin has been taken, but no food – diabetics then eat sugar, or sugar and insulin if they’ve had neither. Alternatively, it could be because sugar has been eaten but insulin has not been taken – nothing to digest it with, so the energy just sits in the gut doing nothing to get into the blood.
As one of my good friends has diabetes, this is important to know! Though he usually injects just after he’s eaten, and in his belly.
Gah, where it says “the girl wanted to lose weight so she stopped taking her insulin. Left her with headaches, poor eyesight and >>>>weight loss<<<<” , it should be “fatigue”
I wonder if it is from Liberty Medical?
All of the above?
Mmm, Over-reaction.
hahaha…so much fun to do to teachers.
Obviously the kid’s diabetic.
Thankfully not every teacher assumes the worse.
Muwahahaha! I totally LOLed to that one
Seems like they start so young 
Just a minor nitpick regarding BritBloke’s summary of diabetes. Diabetics can digest sugar just fine. The trouble comes in when they try to use the sugar that’s in their bloodstream for energy. Insulin is like a key which allows this to take place. Without insulin a type I diabetic’s blood glucose level would skyrocket since the sugar is entering the bloodstream but is only removed through the kidneys. This is a very unpleasant feeling, incidentally, and is damaging to the circulatory system. An excess of insulin or exercise, or a shortage of the right kinds of food will result in starvation in particular of the brain, resulting in a different set of unpleasant and potentially dangerous symptoms.
As a diabetic myself, the use of jargon confused me here – “down” and “low” have always meant a blood glucose of less than 80 to 100 (milligrams per liter), while “up” and “high” always mean more than 200 (The average, non-diabetic person usually has a glucose of 80 to 150).
These are the same terms my endocrinologist uses, as well as most of her colleagues, so I’d imagine they’re pretty similar for most people, even if the glucose readings that would correlate to the terms are not the same (the range varies between meters, individuals, and so on). Judging from the kit, the lancet, and the vials, I’d have to guess this “IS” diabetes, and not something else, being depicted here – don’t know of many other medical conditions that would require such equipment. If it is diabetes, maybe Larisa should look into getting an Insulin Pump! =D
Rust hit most of it on the head, but will add that a high blood glucose does not always produce the said sensations – some people only get a tell with low glucose (fatigue, ect), while others only get a tell from highs, and others from both. Varies from person to person, and the tells aren’t always the same, either. In fact, this could explain why Larisa is saying she’s feeling “down,” when her glucose is high – I’ve known other diabetics to have symptoms like that before, although I myself don’t. (I feel like crap when my glucose is low, but have a hard time spotting a high one.)
First time posting, but been reading Sandra And Woo for a while now, and have to say I enjoy it – can’t wait to see Thursday’s update. = )
I she isn’t diabetic or doing drugs either! I am diabetic and it’s no fun! I’ve experienced most of Rusty and Britbloke said. Frequent urination,poor eyesight,lathargit,depression,dizzyness,increased thirst,dehydration(due to frequent urination),nausea, weightloss,”fruity breath and multiple organ damage are some of the symptoms of high blood glucose level if you don’t keep up with your insulin dosage or don’t know if you suffering from onset of diabetes! Weakness,confusion,depression comes from low blood glucose level. A coma and or death could result from both. Over dose of insulin wil give you a seveare headache,nausea,stroke,numness,and causes death! Using blood glucose meter is important!
I ment to say “I hope she isn’t a diabetic or on drugs ! Reinacting t.v. shows or whatever she saw with syringes isn’t good either!
@R-ONE, I know what you mean!
A perfectly reasonably reaction, there. I’m sure junkies are shooting up in public ALL THE TIME around the school…
I have a manager at work who is a diabetic and when he doesn’t properly take his insulin when he needs to, he can feel really worn down, tired and overall grumpy. And usually it’s best to avoid him. I think that is what the lad meant by feeling “down”, as in a drag. I believe he is a diabetic.
Heh, this reminds me of carrying around glucose tabs for my aunt and one of my college buddies a couple years ago.
Sandra is also holding somthing, Is it candy?
I can understand the freak out. Little girl shooting something into herself with a freakin’ needle. Even if it were just insulin I’d be doing a double take at first.
no fear for me moroni … though i haven’t seen it in person (seen plenty of shots and blood-taking close up though, former assistant med tech :p), the last documentary i saw that featured diabetes in it had a tweenage girl shooting herself up with insulin as part of her daily routine.
in the thigh, i think. needs to be more of a delayed absorbtion into the bloodstream rather than the instant all-in-one-go “hit” of other drugs like adrenaline etc
but a strip with a talking raccoon and a north american red squirrel is maybe not the place to be discussing absolute medical minutiae before it’s even been made explicit what she’s doing, whats in the syringe, or if indeed it’s all an act to just freak the teacher out. the joke of it all and the reaction is the thing.
also the ecstatic look on her face could have come right out of the Fallout instruction cartoons or something. can we have a zoom-in on her happy face (and arms/torso/syringe…) with the rest of the background erased as a scary wallpaper or something plz?
Hmmmmm…
There are a lot of conditions that would require a shot like that.
Can’t say that if I needed an injector that I wouldn’t do the same. Making adults freak is fun.
Ooohh, you know what else is fun?
Having an illness that sounds like something serious but isn’t. Needing to take pills do to “exposure to tuberculosis” can get a few flip outs if you play it right.
Am I the only one creeped out here?
yes. you are.
I´m obsesionated with sly cooper and you were inspired in (remember the fist comic)
@J.P.: No, you’re not. I’m vaguely creeped myself. Everybody’s assuming diabetes, but diabetics don’t feel ‘down’ before taking insulin. The best case scenario I can think of is tht Larisa is taking insulin and just trying to freak out the teacher. Worst case scenario is that she is actually a druggy, but this strip has always been too light-hearted for that, plus her comment in panel two. Also, the bag she’s keeping her needles in does remind me of the one my stepdad used to keep his in.
So, my bet is that she’s playing a particularly mean trick on her teacher.
It’s so much fun to creep people out about insulin shots. I do the same thing when I pop some acid. Ascorbic acid that is.
Funny, but serious.
A friend of mine has diabetes and needs a “shot” – usually in public after he had a meal. He has been arrested by the police a couple of times because they though he was using drugs. And try to explain it without speaking French/Italian/Slovakian. Well, not a very nice experience…..
Cheers,
Jo
There are two basic types of insulin, Tahrey. One type, sometimes known as a metabolic dose, is meant to be released into the bloodstream over an extended period to provide a background insulin level. This is usually best given in the abdomen. The other type is faster acting, to be taken at meal times (or to bring down a high blood sugar level, but this is not the factory default use), and is generally given in the thighs or upper arms.
As to this scenario, I’ve found that things have changed a lot over the past 30 years. When i was that age, no way could you give yourself an injection in public. You’d have to find a restroom stall to hide in. Now, however, I find that I can take injections pretty much with impunity, and the most that ever happens is somebody asks, “Oh, are you diabetic?”
I am sorry to keep this argument going, but I have known several Diabetics who felt “down” when they needed to take an insulin shot, my grandfather being one of them.
With that kit in her lap, almost certainly diabetes… and a mean, *cruel* sense of humor, bordering on the malicious. *grins* I would totally do that if I could.
“Come and knock on our door.
We’ve been waiting for you.
Where the kisses are hers and hers and his,
Three’s Company, too.”
Show always thrived on mis-interpreted situation jokes like this.
Yea … leaving the semi-obvious behind … why dose she seem to carry her injections in what appears to be a sewing bag ?
It just occurred to me, how old is Sandra?
She doesn’t look like shes in the age group that would be suspect for drug abuse.
Oh, and the teacher is a sucker. What the hell kind of heroin addict would shoot up in a school yard?
It’s always fun to see how our experiences color interpretations!
Rationally (and given the nature of this comic), yeah it’s gonna be insulin.
On the other hand, up until about a half a year ago I was working as a drug counselor in Pennsylvania where heroin was very big for a tiny area, and it wasn’t uncommon to see kids as young as 12 doing it, and a lot of it was in the schools. It was my gut reaction here, but then again I’ve never seen anyone shoot up intramuscularly (as in the arm or the leg, depicted here), only intravenously.
True… it would be stupid to try to get high through an injection into the muscle.
But then again, the teacher isn’t a medical expert… or a drug councilor.
Could be that the teacher recently experienced something that made them paranoid. They could have just come from a seminar on student drug usage.
I’m kind of wondering Why people go into such length with strangers over the internet. Is it because we’re anonymous you don’t have to care so much as to what they think. Or are people just more likely to correct someone who’s wrong over the Internet. I know that Diabetes/Sickness/Drugs are touchy and serious subjects but why get so philosophical about it over the Interwebs.
I know that I seem like a Hypocrite, and if you think I’m a… well a (Expletive)… then your right, but I mean this in all seriousness and if I got anything wrong feel free to correct me in true Internet fashion
You know, as I read my own comment I realize I forgot to use Question Marks in that entire little rant there.
Awesome…
Agreed
Being hyperglycemic — high blood glucose — feels AWFUL. You feel like utter crap. Like you could walk under a snake without bending over. The last time I was really high glucose, I felt like I had the flu. Sick, disoriented, lethargic, didn’t want to MOVE. I’m not insulin-dependent, so I had to get up and go for a walk in that condition to burn some of it off, or I was going to have to just sit and suffer. (It wasn’t high enough for a trip to the ER.)
As for shots in public, for an adult, or even a teen or young person out in public, like a restaurant, it’s getting to be fairly common. No one with two brain cells to rub together can mistake an insulin vial and a syringe for a heroin spoon and works. Some oversensitive nitwits get squicked out over a needle, but very few think it’s illegal drugs when someone whips it out in a restaurant unless they’re a total moron.
But in a *school*…those people ARE total morons. There’s this thing called “zero tolerance” now that won’t let a kid have vitamins or aspirin, or their own prescription medication. They have to have it stored by the school nurse, where they must take it under supervision. If they don’t do this, they run the risk of being expelled for “use of contraband”, even if they have a legal right and a medical necessity for the material — even if keeping it from them for so much as a *minute* could be life-threatening. I’ve even heard of some idiot schools keeping inhalers from asthmatic kids. (http://tinyurl.com/pxnmg2)
There are some laws being crafted to prevent this kind of nonsense, but they’re slow in coming. Arizona is one state that has codified protections for diabetic students (http://tinyurl.com/powllt).
Or…
This could be one of the oldest tricks in the book. As a promotion, a local pharmacy gave away mechanical pencils that looked like hypodermic needles…
They don’t do that anymore…. =^.^=
Man… that would be like tobacco companies giving away cigarette-like erasers!
Wow! This is my first visit to the strip, and I don’t know where to begin. Perhaps I should start at the beginning?
Great art!
You know, it just occurred to me, that if her blood sugar level was DOWN, Insulin would have been the last thing that she should have taken as it would have dropped her level even further down.
Sorry to be a pain about that, but living with a Diabetic left a mark on me.
I hated the “Zero Tolerance Policy” They tried to take away my Eppipen. I mean, really. If i’m having an asthma attack i can make it to the nurses office. But if i go into anaphalatic shock without that thing its over. OVER i tell you.