Yesterday I had to go up to the school because the nurse called to say that Olivia had pulled out her site. On an overhead projector. I have no idea how she did it (and forgot to ask when she got home), but she did. Off I trotted, with a new site, the Sil-serter and a back up reservoir in hand.

When I got to the school, I had to cool my heels in the nurse's office waiting room. When I was a kid (no, it's not the up hill, both ways in the snow barefoot line, so hush), the nurse's office was a desk and a cot. It was dim and cool in there, a great place to lie down when you were feeling poorly or *ahem* hadn't studied for a test. I remember lying there, tracing a pattern in the ancient wallpaper and trying not to freak out over the crucifix hung over the head of the bed.

Today, the nurse's office is vastly different. The nurse at Olivia's school has 10 chairs where students wait to see her. She has three cots, a couple of wheelchairs and a humongous medicine cabinet. While I waited for Olivia to come back from lunch, I saw: two kids with sprains, five kids needing inhalers, three kids with upset stomachs and two other kids with diabetes, getting their insulin. Her phone rang constantly. She was busy, busy, busy. There seems to be so many kids with medical needs now - the nurse is no longer where you go for mercurachrome and a Band-Aid when you skin your knee. Today's nurse has to be able to juggle 600+ kids and all of their medical issues.

I am constantly grateful that we have had great nurses during Olivia's school years. It has helped beyond measure. I don't know what we would have done without all these wonderful women who have taken Olivia's diabetes in stride and have gone out of their way to ease her way as she navigates thru her school years.