Well, the test strip canisters have been polished, the needles have been sharpened, the sensor has been freshly inserted and calibrated and the meter has been waxed and detailed.
It’s the first day of school.
Despite the great blog material it generates, we have decided that it would be in Charlie’s best interest if we ended my traditional first day of school diabetes discussion and book reading to the class. We feel we need to salvage what little street cred Charlie has left.
I will miss some of the wonderful questions from Charlie’s classmates.
"Can Charlie drink beer?" was a classic last year.
Of course he can!
It’s just for the best. He’s getting older now and I don’t want to embarrass him or make him feel too different. Apparently there were some complaints last year after I called his classmates up, one at a time, to feel the bumps of scar tissue on his butt.
Susanne met with the teacher, the nurse and the guidance counselor yesterday to go over protocol. It was actually sort of uneventful. No arguments. No disagreements over the 504 plan. No hurling of social studies books or globes at each other. Just everyone in agreement. Boring! What a difference a few years make. When we first sent him to school, it was quite stressful.
We are all in agreement that Charlie is ready to become more independent. It was also recognized that Charlie spent way too much time in the nurse’s office last year. Being low phobic and not having the CGM, Charlie was constantly running down there with false feelings of low blood sugar. As a result, he missed a lot of class time.
So, it was agreed that Charlie will test himself in the classroom if he thinks he might be low. Having the CGM should help a lot as well in giving Charlie a general idea of where his sugars are.
God, I wish he didn’t have to think about any of this bullshit! We want him to be more self-sufficient but at the same time, we hate to place an increased burden of diabetes on him. He’s still just a little kid. I wish he could just focus on school and friends.
I don’t want him talking about blood sugar. I want him talking about the sort of things 8-year-old boys talk about. I want him talking about Star Wars and hockey. Grasshopper guts and girls. I want him talking about his favorite imported beers.
Same thing in the Thompson household!! Teating in class and a teacher who refuses to send him to the nurse for a blood sugar test because he is not sick! We LOVe this teacher!!! Hope Charlie puts d on the back burner a little bit - 3rd grade might actually be fun for our boys!!!
My daughter Cali started kindergarten a couple weeks ago and I am about ready to lose it! She is 6 and was diagnosed 3 years ago. It is hard to put all the responsibility in someone else. I am curious as to how your 504 plan is set up. Do you have a certain number that Charlie is at when the school nurse calls you? For example, anytime my daughter is 300 or over they have to call me. I am literally on the phone 3 times daily with the nurse. I am ready to lose my mind because of all the stress!
I hope Charlie has a great year. (and thanks for making me laugh out loud at the vision of his classmates feeling his scar tissue). Leah had a little breakdown today at school and wanted to share with the class that she has diabetes. (most of them already knew, but she was stressing herself out). I'm hoping she feels better after getting that out...so not fair they have to deal with the added stress. We are always riding that fine line of "more responsibility" vs. "horrible disease you shouldn't have to take on as a child". Ugh. Best of luck.
Wow! I love that teacher too! Exactly right. He's not sick. I hope it's going well for Trevor so far.
Sarah: I feel your pain. Really do. Or rather, Susanne feels your pain. From Kindergarten through 2nd grade, Susanne was on the phone with the nurse ALL. THE. TIME. Sometimes five times a day. And yes, it's very hard to hand this massive responsibility to someone else. But, I can tell you, it does get easier. A little bit. We keep tweaking our 504 plan because Charlie is getting older and we're seeing little areas where we can make a change. For example, we don't feel now that the school has to call us at 10:30 am to tell us what his blood sugar is. In the past, they did. We do require that they call us if fairly high (such as 300) or if he's low. It is indeed very stressful. Feel free to email me at acehotspray@aol.com if you want to compare 504 plans further and all the best to Cali. I hope things fall into a less stressful routine soon. You might find that over time, the nurse will know what to do in certain situations. Take care.
Kelly: That breaks my heart about Leah. It's really brave though, to share that with the class. She did what she felt she had to do. I hope you guys are having a good day today.
Happy first day of school. Your posts always make me think and laugh and then laugh some more, so thanks as ever for sharing.