FB 25 (sort of)

Here's my facebook 25, or actually 24 and a lie. Feel free to guess which is the lie!

1. This is about the 8th time I've tried to tackle this meme.

2. It contains one lie (because one of my favorite group icebreakers is the game "two truths and a lie").

3. In High School, I did a pretty decent Ed Grimley impression, I must say.

4. Growing up, we had a poster in our kitchen that read, "Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean we're not out to get you".

5. I managed to avoid visiting the E.R. until I was 37 years old, when I went in with appendicitis, which I knew I had, thanks to quality television like Doogie Howser, M.D., and One Day at a Time.

6. I started using an insulin pump about 13 years ago. That's nothing compared to early adapters like Jackie and Sue Bates. I'm grateful to those who endured bent needles early on!

7. I have four email accounts. Yes, i may have a problem.

8. I'm working on making the leap from "person who takes great photographs" to "Photographer"

9. I firmly believe that words matter.

10. I often use way more words than I need.

11. My favorite piece of my own writing is the piece I wrote for Six Sentences last April.

12. Seriously, I get a huge kick out of the ETrade baby.

13. Kyle Busch once swiped my sharpie marker.

14. I'm the one who told Donna Woods "It's the most wonderful place in the world." during her interview, at Bertucci's in Natick.

15. I remembered that moment when I walked into Bertucci's in Natick on Tuesday night.

16. I used Khalil Gibran's "On Friendship" as a reading at my wedding ("Your friend is your needs answered..."), so I and my iight were represented during the ceremony.

17. I'm not much of a Fan-with-a-capital-F. Exceptions to that rule are Stephen Colbert and Lyle Lovett.

18. I have a freckle that is sort of shaped like Texas on the back of my left hand.

19. I believe in turn signals.

20. I don't believe in legislation that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

21. I can ice skate, if I concentrate, but if I pause to smile I end up on my ass.

22. If you chew in my ear, I might have to kill you.

23. I'm not from here. (And never was that more obvious than during the recent election!)

24. Best 2nd baseman ever: Manny Trillo.

25. I can't wait to visit Ireland. It's the O'Donnell, O'Connell and Crowley in me.

More Luck, and a delicate dance of words

We had another positive school experience this week, as Jake's World Languages teacher contacted me to discuss the upcoming "food exploration" day in her classroom. As an electives teacher (and an itinerant one, at that) she was not part of our easy breezy 504 meeting last week, so I was particularly happy that she either got the memo or was being proactive on her own, and thought to check in.

We were playing a little phone tag, so I followed up with an email thanking her for her concern, and telling her that Jake will sample as he wishes (with the exception of fruit juice or regular soda), then report to the nurse's office to check his blood sugar and call me. We have no idea what people will bring in as snacks, or what will interest Jake, or how hungry he'll be for lunch (which occurs about 45 minutes after World Languages).

The teacher responded that she would "try to keep an eye on what Jacob samples that day just to make sure he is not overeating as I know that could be a problem."

I immediately had a vision of Jake, mid-croissant, being quizzed about how much he'd eaten. Overreaction? Likely. But clearly worth addressing, in the hopes of heading off la nourriture de police*.

My response:

Don't worry about him eating too much - this can be addressed pre-lunch, and, if he overeats, we'll use it as a 'teachable moment' about how to make food choices. Think of it this way, it's not a question of 'is he allowed to eat that?' it's a question of 'is he prepared to address any problems that might come up as a result of eating that?' and the answer is 'yes!'

Here's hoping that concept makes sense, in any language!

*I google translated "the food police". Who knows what they actually call it in France!

That Was Easy

The "Tale of the 504 Meeting" is all too often chock full of frustration and disbelief and "how can they not understand?". I've heard it from friends, I've read about it on blogs, and I've seen it on the childrenwithdiabetes.com forum.

Which is why I was surprised two weeks ago when the instructional coordinator at Jake's school called me to discuss setting up a plan. I was already researching and laying the foundation of a request for a plan, so to have the school reach out to me was a pleasant surprise.

We set up a meeting with his team and I went in today with a draft 504 plan (culled from examples at CWD). His teachers took 20 minutes of their team planning time to sit with me and chat about Jake in general, Jake since diabetes, and what they can do to ensure his safety and success at school.

They were also kind enough to spend a few minutes raving about what a great kid he is, how they'd like to have a classroom full of kids like Jake, and how accepting and responsible he's been so far with his diabetes. I returned the love by thanking them for their flexibility with snacking and testing, and I thanked his science teacher for buying him a diet soda when she was giving out candy as a reward (but I also made sure to tell them all that he can have the candy - we'll work around it as needed).

I presented my draft, point-by-point, and was met with nodding heads and agreement all around. His science teacher suggested adding that Jake will be given extra time to make up work missed due to time spent at the nurse's office, or time missed due to appointments. We all signed off on the plan, and the meeting was finished.

Now, I am not so naive to think that this is the end of all school issues. The teacher that broadcasted his diagnosis to an entire class wasn't part of the meeting, so I hope that he gets the point of the 504 plan (and the item about confidentiality in particular). I know that putting it in writing doesn't mean it will happen, but I'm glad that it's all written down, and without any drama or battles (so far).

Already

It has been just over two weeks since we found out that Jake has diabetes. Those two weeks included wrapping up school, our family Christmas party, Christmas itself, travel to Maryland, and a New Year's Eve party. I'm grateful for two weeks of school vacation to get into some sort of diabetes-management groove, despite the crazy busy schedule of the holiday season.

Here are some of the things we've already experienced:

• Clueless peers (granted, they are only 11). Jake told his friends at school about his diabetes, and one of them said (and I quote): "Dude, if you get a cut on your foot you could lose a limb. That happened to my grandmother!"
• Asinine teachers. Jake was low at lunch time at school, so I asked the nurse to pull him from class just prior to getting on the bus so he could check his blood sugar. She paged him out of orchestra class. After he left, the teacher informed the class that Jake has diabetes. Jake and I chatted about it and agreed that the teacher had absolutely no right to do that, and was very wrong. It is his favorite class, though, so he has not yet given me permission to raise holy hell about it.
  
• 117. This one's for my camp friends: 3 days in, Jake had his first "117" blood sugar. Fantastic!
• A football low. 49 after a neighborhood pick-up game.
• A pasta high. 267 after some yummy angel hair with marinara. I think it was the sauce I mis-counted.
  
• A random breakdown (mine). Four days in, I went to the grocery store and barely made it back to my car before losing it. Something about looking for kid-friendly snacks with reasonably low carb counts just hit me hard.
  
• An overdue breakdown (his). Before we learned the tricks of taking lantus, the nightly shot stung. That, plus a high blood sugar bad mood, gave Jake the opening he needed to set aside that brave face for just a few minutes. I was relieved that he did, and hope he lets it happen again.
• A sleepover. Across the street. I swear I sat up until about 2AM watching the house. Not sure what I was watching for but going to sleep was a tad more difficult than usual.

Many of my inner thoughts the past two weeks have focused on how incredibly hard diabetes must be for parents who get blindsided by their child's diagnosis. I know that a sleepover 10 days in would be 100 times harder if we didn't have a head start on this disease. Scratch that, everything would be 100 times harder.

Knowing the disease, though, is a double-edged sword. While I have fewer fears about his future (because I know that diabetes hasn't stopped John or I from pretty much anything) I also have a deeper knowledge of what diabetes can do. I was low the other night, and hating the way my body felt, and I thought of Jake experiencing a low, and that was tough.

People with diabetes will understand me when I say that you can live a 'normal' life - in the minutes between shots and injections and lows and highs. But when diabetes interrupts it can be a minor glitch or a major pause (which is to say, it can really suck.) Parents, whether or not their kids have diabetes, know how much we want to shield our kids from the bad stuff while at the same time preparing them to be able to manage the bad stuff. The diabetes bad stuff, unlike many of the far-fetched and largely unfounded fears that can crop up for a parent, is all too real for me.