I cannot believe that there is only 3 weeks until school starts.
I'd be nervous and feeling funny about it anyway, since Adam is my baby and sending him off to Kindergarten is enough to make me want to cry, but the diabetes thing...it is starting to feel incredibly overwhelming to me.
Plus, we have our endo appointment tomorrow. I need to fill out the info for his school forms and have him sign off on it. I haven't even thought about what to do about a 504. There is a meeting at our children's hospital this Thursday that we are attending, so hopefully I will leave with a better understanding of what I need to do.
I am completely overwhelmed at what I have to do to get him ready for school. Training the nurse, the nurse assistant, the teacher, the teacher's assistant and the front desk lady. How do I train them when so much is based on my instinct? How do I explain it all?
Do your kids get pre-bolused for lunch? I pre-bolus Adam, but usually only for half of what I've given him, because there is no way to know what this 5 year old is going to eat at a time. I'm guessing he will have to be bolused after he eats lunch at school.
Do I want to deal with the CGM at school? I know most would say YES, but as most of you know, our experience with Dexcom is that it's pretty unreliable for us. I'm trying to decide if I want to deal with it or not. Plus, Adam is totally rebelling against the CGM right now and unless I can get some EMLA from the endo, he's not having any part of it. Frankly, these days I have to chase him down just to do a site change. I don't understand why he's giving me problems now, when it hasn't been a big deal before.
I wish I could give some great advice that would provide some relief for the starting school jitters. I'll give you what I know . . .
ReplyDeleteNot everything will/can be covered before school starts. It is a process, and you will probably find yourself at school more often than you wish at first, but it will get better over time.
I cannot stress enough how important a 504 in place is. We did not, and ran into problems throughout the year with inconsistant care and field trip issues.
Our school bolused all the T1D kiddos (3) after their lunch. This was a standard, but none of the kids were on insulin pumps.
I cannot personally speak about the CGM, as we don't haver one nor did any of the other T1Ds. It may be easier to start without it and work it in as/if needed.
Take it one day/moment at a time and just know it will get better!!!!!
I am having the same overwhelming feelings lately. I woke up with a major panick attack the other day just thinking about it. I have no advice, because I have all the same issues/questions! I haven't even been able to blog about it yet, but guess I need to get it out! I agree about the instinct thing. How can they watch for symptoms of being low when they have a class full of other kids?! Sorry, hope I didn't add to your stress, just wanted you to know that I get it and am going through the same thing!
ReplyDeleteI so had to go check the calendar and count the weeks until Bean goes back to school...it's four! Yikes!
ReplyDeleteThe best advice I can offer is to make it more of a running dialog than one big training session. There should be guidelines within your school district for the training part, but you should be a huge part of it since you know Adam best. I would start by contacting the Health Services for your district so you are informed.
I would go with your gut about the CGM. If Adam isn't into it, I wouldn't make it an issue. There will be lots of 'new' things to adjust to and having 'one more thing' just isn't worth it right now, especially if it's not giving you reliable information.
As the school staff gets to know Adam, they will pick up on his symptoms and might even notice things that you haven't...that was the case with Bean. It's good to give them a list of "Adam specific" symptoms along with the general ones so they know what to look for with him.
Get as many of your ducks in a row and find out as much as you can about your district's policies so you are 'armed' with information going into the meetings with the staff. The more you know, the less they can push you around...not that they will, but you never know!! Even the best intentioned staff doesn't know everything about every situation. You need to be the 'expert' for Adam so you make sure he gets what he needs!
OK. I'll stop now! ;) I'm reminding myself of stuff I need to get done, too. We're dealing with a new principal and nurse and will be implementing a 504 this year, so even though we've done D at school, this year will be (thankfully) different!
HUGS! :)
Hi Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteI have to admit, it's taken a long time, but we've finally gotten pizza down. For now. : )
We started by doing one pizza place only (CiCi's), Matthew always ate the same amount of food and I kept good records. Eventually we got it.
Then, we branched out to other places, using the CiCi's buffet slice as a guideline for carbs.
I hope that helps. Pizza is seriously tough. Especially at dinner. Oh my word. Have NOT figured that out.
Someone posted this on their blog and it's great. Matthew's extended is a little different, but the video is really helpful.
It's by Gary Scheiner. Let me know if the link doesn't work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=necuPdvdbSI
I just wrote the longest comment ever (a book, really), and it disappeared. : ( Maybe I'll blog about it. Maybe it'll turn up? Sorry. I'm thinking of you, girl! : ) ps-I still get nervous about back-to-school, even now. : ) hugs! Holly
ReplyDeleteI've got nothing to offer but hugs! I am so thankful that Elise is going to have the same pre-school teacher as she did last year. I hope everything gets done with little to no stress (hey, we can dream, right???)
ReplyDeleteDid blogger lose my epic comment??? Crapolina
ReplyDeleteyou've already gotten a lot of good advice here so i'll just provide a big "you can do this" cheer. :)
ReplyDeletealso, allow me to second the 504 recommendation.