Charlie begins first grade tomorrow. He will have two health aides. One in the morning and another in the afternoon. Neither aide has seen a pump and I'm pretty certain, they've never tested someone's blood sugar. So ...
Susanne will take the first shift, stalking with binoculars from an old, abandoned house across from the elementary school in army fatigues.
As for me, I'm going undercover - enrolling in Charlie's class as a transfer student from Ghana.
We do feel fortunate that the school has decided to provide health aides, but we just hope that they can slip somewhat into the background. We're also very much aware that this sort of special arrangement could be socially detrimental for Charlie if we were to continue beyond first grade. For now, however, it gives us a little peace of mind and it buys us time for Charlie to learn how to test himself, and bolus himself, etc.
Still, I have this horrible image in my head of tag-team testing - one aide pricking a finger on his right hand while the other pricks a finger on his left simultaneously. I picture Charlie reaching desperately with his tongue into a bag of pretzels while both hands are occupied.
Aide #1: "I got 168. What did you get?"
Aide #2: "I got 172!"
Aide #1: "Damn! You win again!"
Aide #1: "OK, one more time before he goes to art class. Double or nothing."
New nurse. New aides. New headache coming on suddenly. Susanne will be at the school most of the day tomorrow giving the aides on-the-job training. I'll be there on Thursday reading a book about diabetes to the class. Something tells me the kids will give me plenty to blog about. Stay tuned.
