Ready for School....

This Thursday Austin and Brianna go back to school.  Austin will be in 8th grade and Brianna in 4th.  Courtney starts in a few weeks, she will be in pre-K.  They are growing up and changing so much.  Somethings though will never change,like buying school supplies.  You know notebooks, folders, tissues, the usual stuff.  Notice I didn't say pencils, markers or crayons?  I guess the school got a great deal on some items and this year we didn't have to purchase those. (They included the price in our school fees.)  So Brianna's school supplies really just consisted of this...

All the school supplies she needs!

But we all know T1 requires it's own supplies.  For Brianna we keep a box of  diabetes supplies in the nurse's office.  It consists of most everything she could possibly need during the day.  The box sits on a table in the nurse's office right where she checks.  In the box we have batteries with a quarter taped to it (easiest way to get the Minimed Pump opened in a hurry), syringes- honestly I have no idea why I pack those we haven't used a syringe since she started pumping almost 3.5 years ago, sites for both MM and Omnipod (right now she is sticking with Omnipod but who knows when she will change- look for a post on that soon,) test strips for both meters she could use, alcohol wipes, tape, glucagon, tablets, lancets, insulin, and a ketone meter and test strips for it.  I think that's all.

All her supplies

Box, insulin for the fridge and Glucagon for the cabinet.

 Each teacher has a classroom bag they grab in case of an emergency- like when they go outside for a fire drill. This year Brianna has three different teachers.  I made a bag for each of them and for her special teacher's rooms, the art room and media room.  Right now we are bringing 6 different bags to distribute.  My thought is that I never want her to be without food in case of a lock down.  I put things that are higher in carb and could hold her over for a while.

Again this isn't exactly what our first choice for low foods would be, but I think it would work to keep her numbers up for a while if necessary.  They are also foods that I don't have to worry about being crushed, broken or really expiring.  This is why we don't have goldfish or pretzels or things like that in the bags. Each bag contains a total of 89 carbs- if she ate it all.  I included in each bag a list of how many carbs each item has.


Below is a picture of snacks and drinks we keep in the nurse's office just in case.  These are more if something happens to her lunch or if they have a snack she doesn't want or if she just needs something.

Yesterday we met with the nurse and Brianna's three teachers to go over what the plan is for Brianna.  First let me say her school and nurse are AWESOME!  They work with me and accommodate Brianna whenever it is necessary.  Brianna is on an IEP so we just add her diabetes needs into that.  For her we put that she has unlimited access the bathroom, water and the nurse.  Really we don't have a big formal document.  It also includes how tests are to be handled regarding diabetes (like classroom tests and state tests.)

This year we are doing things slightly different, but keeping some the same.  For us this works- the school, nurse, endo and our family.  What we do might not be okay with/ or for everyone.  We are keeping it the same that when Brianna arrives at school she swings by the nurse and tells her what number is on her sensor. Usually the number is going up as she just ate breakfast, but it gives the nurse a feel for how Brianna is starting the day.  The next planned trip will be before recess she will do a fingerstick at that time.  She will come back in after recess and usually check again and carb for lunch.  She then comes at the end of the day for the last fingerstick before dismissal.  Those are her planned trips to the nurse-4 times.  Here is the part we are changing-  last year each time her CGM would alarm it meant a trip to the nurse.  Some days that could be a TON.  As much as I love the low predictor alarms they can be overkill sometimes.  Why do I say that?  Well, it predicts a low, then beeps low when she hits it, then will predict low and this time she is on her way up.  We have her settings on the CGM that she beeps every 20 minutes when low and every hour when high.   So for one low she could beep 3-4 times.  That's a LOT of trips to the nurse and sometimes they were not necessary.  So this year Brianna will be carrying her Ipod with her.   It gets WiFi and she will check IN THE CLASSROOM, and text me a picture of her PDM and CGM, that will give me enough information to help her decide how much to treat or correct.  Thus reducing the trips to the nurse and time away from class.  When we talked with each teacher yesterday we went over where she will check  Each classroom has a sink so she will check back there by it.  Then return to her seat.  I am SO hoping this works.  I hate for her to miss class time.  So for all these checks the nurse is not being notified.  If she feels low or if she is under 60-70 or above 300 she has to go to the nurse so I can talk with the nurse to decide what is going on.  The nurse also will ALWAYS be accessible to Brianna and I can call the nurse with any concerns I have and she will get Brianna.  My goal is that this will help Brianna feel like she has more control over her care.  Is this a lot for a fourth grader?  Maybe but I really think she can handle it and this is what she wants.  So fingers crossed this works and goes smoothly.  Will keep you posted!  I also like this because she will always have all her supplies with her and wait until you see her bag. 


Well, that is about all I have for right now.  I'm off to finish packing those supply bags and getting her stuff ready for open house this afternoon.  I have lots more posts started that I need to finish like, pumping at the beach, cheer leading, her ENDO appt, and her new diabetes bag (which is totally aweseome.) 


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