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. (READ MORE)

I never thought Susanne would actually go. Not with the 3 year old. He can't sit still for more than five minutes. But we both agreed it would be pretty cool if she could swing it.

She called me at work with a definite zeal in her voice.

"I'm here!"

It's not every day that a potential vice president comes to your town; to your local middle school.

Joe and Jill Biden came to town to talk about education, the economy and healthcare. The only obstacle standing in Susanne's way was Ben. They needed to arrive at the school an hour-and-a-half before the Bidens were to speak. That's a lot of patience to ask of a 3 year old (our 3 year old). It would be nothing short of a miracle if Ben was to last long enough to see them speak. (READ MORE)

Charlie's classmates grilled me and they grilled me good. After reading the book about diabetes, I was besieged with questions. I was amazed. Adults don't ask such good questions.

A lot of the questions were about the pump:

What happens if you lose the pump? What are all those buttons for? What do you do with the pump when you go to the beach? How long can he stay off the pump?

Charlie stood up beside me and demonstrated the pump like a flight attendant.

Batteries for the pump became the hottest topic of the day:

How do you know if the batteries are low? What do you do if he needs new batteries? How do you change the batteries? Where do you get batteries?

"Dudes, they're just triple As. You can get those just about anywhere." (READ MORE)

To say we hit it out of the park with Charlie's new health aide would be an understatement. I was totally wrong. She does have experience testing blood sugar and she has seen a pump. Turns out she has type 2 diabetes!  Go diabetes!

We hit a hole in one. We knocked the cover off the ball. We laid down a full house. Scored a touchdown. Sorry. Been watching too much coverage of the National Conventions. I can't stop with the sports analogies. But seriously, folks, we really slogged a dibbly dobbly (a little somethin' for the cricket lovers).

What perfect timing. The aide is calling us as I sit here writing this. Let's listen in ...

(hushed chanting while Susanne talks to the aide) "We're number 1! We're number 1! We're numb ..."

Wait what? Can we rewind that? (READ MORE)

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. (READ MORE)

Well, we did it. Charlie got through kindergarten pretty much unscathed. Last year at this time we were nervous wrecks about sending Charlie to school. The school had no experience with a child with diabetes as young as Charlie. They were noticeably nervous as well. We put a plan in place and basically just hoped for the best.

We couldn't be happier with how the school year went.

Susanne and I met yesterday with the principal, the new nurse, Charlie's teacher, Charlie's health aide (Mrs. D) and a representative of the school district to review how the year went and to revise our 504 plan to reflect the fact that EVERYTHING WILL CHANGE!!!!!!!!!!!!! next year. (READ MORE)