Posted by Sandy Donchess on October 01, 2001 at 23:20:30:
In Reply to: Re: Focus, Please posted by KenC on September 30, 2001 at 20:44:12:
Ken,
My Brian is now 14 and in 9th grade. He was diagnosed over a year before he entered Kindergarten. For Brian, Kindergarten was only a few hours in the afternoon, not an all-day thing. Still, I was extremely nervous. I met with his teacher before school started, and gave her a document I had written that explained what Type 1 was, what caused low and high blood sugars, and what to do if certain symptoms showed up. I had the school clinic folks and the assistant principal at the meeting, and went over the document with everyone. (This document has been modified over the years, and I still use it with everyone who will be in Brian's classes or in the clinic or in administration.)
Brian had a few lows during the year, but he was able to tell his teacher that he felt low, and she took him to the clinic to check his bg. Things went well, and he sometimes told me not to worry, that he would be fine.
I was more nervous when he went into 1st grade, as that was an all-day thing, every day. Again, I met with his teachers, the school nurse and clinic assistant, and the same member of the school administration. There were a few too-low lows, but they were handled well. I never sent insulin to the school until he was in 5th grade. I always instructed them to have him check his bg if he could, and if he was "out of it" to treat the low immediately without checking the bg. I told them to rely on what Brian told them, unless what he told them seemed out of sync with what he was doing or how he was acting. I always asked/told them to call me immediately if anything unusual happened - unusual being a low or a high within certain parameters. This has worked well for us.
The next year or two will be the hard ones, as Therese said. It IS hard to let go. For us, the best plan was to set things up ahead of time and monitor things very closely. I made a lot of calls to the clinic; sometimes I called daily for a week or two, rather than just once or twice a week.
I still do this, although the daily calls are rare now. It's very important to establish a very cooperative, consultative atmosphere. It's also important to involve Liam so he feels he can participate in what's going on. Brian has ended up being his own best friend in this respect. He knows a lot about diabetes (dammit!) and people are impressed with what he knows.
I hope things go well for you. I hope they continue to go well for us. :-)