Back to School - 5 Lessons Learned

Year 4 has begun.  It's back to school time again.  Just like Chase, we are learning, too.  Every year I ask Chase to do his best and that is my goal for this year - try much better to manage his diabetes in the classroom. 

 

Take last year, for example.  The school district revamped their lunch menu and, as a parent, I saw it as a very positive improvement (much healthier lunches).  But, as a child, Chase was not impressed.  So not impressed that some days all he had was milk and an apple.  Lesson #1 - this year we will make sure to look at the menu ahead of time and mark the days for cold lunch. 

 

The days circled are the days I need to make cold lunch.  Oh, joy.  How many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches can I feed him until the school's chili sounds appealing?

 

Last year we gave Chase the freedom to count and enter his carbs at lunch himself.  For most of the year, he did great (carb counting is easy if you are just drinking milk and eating an apple).  The last two weeks of school, though, not so much.  He'd had it with the questions the kids were asking about his pump and he just stopped entering carbs.  Unfortunately, we didn't realize this until he had a blood sugar of well over 400 at supper.  A quick look into the pump's data history revealed no data in there for lunch.  Lessons #2  & 3 - verify lunch is under control (complacency is not an acceptable parenting skill) and go into Chase's class and give a presentation on diabetes (gently tell the kids to leave your child the heck alone).

My main goal for this school year was to make sure Chase's teacher was informed that she was going to have a diabetic student in her classroom.  His first grade teacher learned about his condition literally the day before school.  I'd like to say it was different for the 2nd grade, but it was the same situation.  Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.  Lesson #4 - no more fooling around -  this year his teacher knew ahead of time and a 504 plan was in place before Chase walked through the doors.

And lesson #5 - sending your non-diabetic child off to kindergarten is surprisingly hard.  Harder than you can imagine.  I'm excited to see what lessons will be learned from Leah's school days.

With 2 days under our belt, we are off to a good start.  Chase is doing his best.  Leah, too.  I hope I'm on my way as well.