What the hell just happened?
Remember me blabbing away about being so fortunate and grateful to the school for providing classroom aides for Charlie? Aides, who would blend into the background and seamlessly check Charlie's blood sugar, count out carbs and give him insulin? Remember how Susanne spent the first day of school training the aides in how to use the pump? Remember how we met with the school officials and how they all signed off on the 504 plan? Remember how it was the school's idea in the first place to hire these aides for the very purpose of testing blood sugar and administrating insulin?
Well, forget all that.
Oh, and remember the morning aide who has type 2 diabetes? She has really been working out great.
She's leaving. Found another job apparently. Leaving the glamorous life of pricking fingers and counting crackers.
So what exactly is happening? We still don't know. Suddenly and without any warning from the school, Charlie's classroom aides are forbidden to give him insulin. Yesterday they could. Today they can't. The administration of insulin must be done by the nurse.
Things got messy when the afternoon aide called Susanne just as the class was about to go outside for a very short playtime. Based on his blood sugar, Susanne decided she should give him a little snack and bolus for half of it.
"Uh, OK, but you know I can't bolus him. By the time I take him down to the nurse and back, the kids will be coming back inside from the playground."
Susanne was frustrated.
"I'm his mother! I'm giving you permission to give him insulin."
She and Susanne agreed to keep this between themselves and then she clandestinely gave Charlie a bolus.
But she was spotted.
She ran screaming through crowds of children on the black-top, making it halfway up the chain-link fence before a growling pack of German Shepherds pulled her down from her ankles.
Sorry.
But she was spotted. That much is true. And she did fear the repercussions of her actions.
"Susanne! You have to tell them! You have to tell them you gave me permission!"
Nice going, Susanne. She could be fired for all we know. Or in jail. Or fleeing the country. We have been told squat.
I'm sure many of you out there have kids who go to the nurse's office for insulin and I'm sure it works out just fine, but Charlie was very upset. He didn't understand why he had to go to the nurse's office when he never had to before. He thought there was something seriously wrong with him.
If we ever do get an explanation, I'm sure it will have something to do with the legality of a non-nurse administrating medication. Still, the school could have handled this better. First by calling us immediately. I don't like that they kept us in the dark. We would have liked the opportunity to explain to Charlie why he was suddenly going to the nurse's office.
"Charlie, you're going to the nurse's office now because you made the morning aide quit."
