My Poco-poco Teacher

My poco-poco dance teacher for Saturday mornings is a Type 1 diabetic which means his pancreas does not produce any insulin to metabolise sugar and carbohydrates; as opposed to Type 2 diabetes where the body is somehow resistant to the insulin produced by the pancreas thereby impairing the metabolism of sugar and carbohydrates as well.

Type 1 diabetics are insulin-dependent and they never leave home without their insulin kit. Every meal must be preceded by an insulin shot a half-hour before. They have to constantly monitor their sugar levels - never letting it get too low (hypoglycemic) by being strenuously active or not eating or both, or letting it get too high (hyperglycemic) by not having their insulin shots before meals. My poco-poco teacher was not able to fast because of this. Every year he pays fidyah as replacement.

One day during the Ramadan break, teacher decided to spring-clean his other house which is in a new development, in preparation for hari raya. His wife prepared a meal for him to take with him whilst she manned their bazaar stall. Teacher is well-known for being house-proud and fastidious about it too. Too engrossed in the cleaning, he neglected to have his meal on time.

And as to be expected, he experienced a hypoglycemic episode. What is a hypoglycemic episode? Hypoglycemic episodes occur when the sugar level in the blood is too low. An episode may be different fom one sufferer to the next and may include dizziness, disorientation, even fainting or seizures. This can lead to dangerous situations eg when driving, biking, or handling sharp objects and machinery, etc.

Actually teacher had decided to have his meal after showering. It was in the bathroom that he got disoriented. He had come out of the bathroom in his birthday suit, walked past the living room and straight into the glass sliding-door which was 5mm thick. He hadn't installed grilles for aesthetic reasons. He said diabetics going through such episodes sometimes experience abnormal strength, and as a result he left a hole in the sliding-door in the shape of a man just like in the cartoons.

He then fell unconscious among the shards of glass on the floor. Fortunately for him one of his neighbours noticed the broken door while she was driving home and alerted the head of the Resident's Association, who happened to be Mr Lee next door. Mr Lee knew of teacher's diabetes, he being similarly afflicted. So when he investigated the complaint with another neighbour and found teacher sprawled in the raw, he suspected the cause. They covered his modesty with a towel, made him drink some coke with some chunks of chocolates but called the police anyway just in case it was a criminal incident or breaking-and-entering.

When the police came, he had already come to but what he was incensed about was that instead of offering to take him to the hospital in the police-car, the mata-mata kept commenting how beautiful his house was (2 semi-dees combined into a single unit), with tastefully elegant decor and such. And there was teacher bleeding all over and in pain from the many cuts. In the end, it was Mr Lee who took teacher to the government hospital's trauma and emergency department.

Which turned out to be another traumatic experience for teacher. Because he had to have 50 stitches. Some jagged cuts were stitched by an inexperienced houseman who was directed to do so by the supervisor "pandai-pandai kau lah buat". Houseman's hands were shaking and houseman dropped the spiral suture and then had to search the shelves for another one, not knowing exactly where such things were kept. Teacher told houseman "If you mess up the stitching and my thumb drops off, I'll sue you".

While lying on a bed pillowless waiting to be warded for a night's observation, teacher saw a patient die, he witnessed a foreigner being denied a bed and told to sit outside, he saw a high-class looking lady yak-yakking loudly on her handphone with a pillow under her head and one on each side of her. Teacher sniggered when she screamed as the doctors realigned a foot or something. Mr Lee rolled up a blanket for teacher to use as a pillow.

Poor teacher. His wife vowed never to let him go anywhere alone again. He has recovered quickly indeed. Last Saturday we resumed classes after Ramadan and the festivities. He started off by putting us through the basic (for now) poco-poco steps and then torturing us with continuous repetitions of arm and shoulder exercises. Floor exercises were equally torturous and I found that I couldn't execute the full range cobra pose the way I could before the break, not to mention the 100 sit-ups and pelvic raises.

Tsk,tsk ...Should have continued with my stretching exercises during Ramadan.


Check-out these Swedish students doing the basic poco-poco. My teacher has in addition to poco-poco taught us cha-cha, salsa, rock-n-roll, zapin, basic indian and chinese steps too. The classes are fun exercise and never as boring as the gym could get.




Hope teacher has learn't his lesson and doesn't go hypo on us in class.