Silver Lining

A big Up High, Down Low thank you to Beth for turning my wife's doodles into a beautiful necklace that she truly cherishes. Beth and Daniel over at Monsoon Artisans do absolutely amazing work.

Thank you to Beth and Manny for selecting mine amongst so many other wonderful contest entries.

Bad Case of Diabetes

I think Charlie may have a bad case of diabetes. He may have also caught a touch of the disease from a diebetish looking kid at the playground. To read more, hop on over to Blogabetes.

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Courtesy and Coconuts

Courtesy: Given or done as a polite gesture;Willingness or generosity in providing something needed.

I just went out in the torrential rain to drop off JDRF canisters at a supermarket near my office. The woman behind the courtesy desk was "having one of those days," she said to anyone who walked by.

She wasn't pleased from the get-go. She interrogated me on whether I had permission to have the store collect donations. She complained that the lack of lids on the canisters would be a problem. A quick call to corporate cleared me, but she kept a suspicious eye on me as she hung up the phone. Her irony as office manager of the courtesy desk was outstanding.

I thanked her and walked away but not before hearing her say "this sucks!" as she carried the stack of canisters to the back room.

No. I'll tell you what sucks. Having a child with diabetes. That sucks. Testing your child this morning before leaving for school and seeing a blood sugar of 598. That sucks. All because he was excited to go to library for the first time in his life. He gets excited and potentially damages his organs. Yeah, I'd say that sorta sucks.

If I only I had the buy one get one free, clubcard member, 3-day sale, Florida fresh coconuts to tell her this.

The Meeting and First Day of School

The meeting on Tuesday went very well despite the noticeable absence of the Newark Boys Choir. Susanne and I met with the principal, Charlie's kindergarten teacher, the guidance counselor, a guy from the district, the nurse, the gym teacher, the art teacher, the music teacher, the librarian and the nurses aide, who first found out as she sat down, that starting the next day, she would be Charlie's shadow. The meeting lasted three hours and I think we expressed our concerns well - scaring them shitless in the process. Priceless looks on all the faces when we broke out the Glucagon.

So they assigned Charlie a one-to-one health aide to be Charlie's point person (pardon the pun) for finger pricks and bolusing. We're thrilled about this. We hope she'll just blend in the background in the classroom and not be so obtrusive in caring for Charlie. To make the testing process more seamless, the principal decided to have an IP phone installed in the classroom so that the aide can easily consult with Susanne and the nurse. Or was it IT phone? Hi-C phone? ET phone home? I don't know. Whatever it is, sounds good. The 504 part of the meeting was a non-event. I pictured us going through it line by line and it becoming similar to a cantankerous divorce settlement. Not the case. We just all signed some papers and that was it. We're very pleased with how accommodating and flexible the school has been and Charlie's teacher is great.

Charlie really enjoyed being in school, but it was sort of a rough first day. He was very high I think because of the mix of excitement and nerves. It was agreed upon that Susanne would be there for the first few days to show them the ropes. So Susanne was in the classroom, testing him at 9:30 am and again at 11:15 and taking him down to the nurse's office to test for ketones after a couple consecutive high 200s. Charlie wasn't pleased. He was really excited about being a big boy and going off to school. He just wanted to enjoy the experience, it seemed, without the constant distractions. He wanted to be like all the other kids. Regardless, he loved being there and can't wait to go back tomorrow. He's off today.

Susanne is driving out to Long Island tomorrow to visit her grandmother who has become very ill, so I'll be the aide to the nurse's aide tomorrow.

This is going to be an interesting year.

Freak Out

In a couple hours we go to the school to iron out the 504 and then stand before the teacher, the principal, the guidance counselor, the gym teach, the art teacher, the janitor, the mailman and possibly the Newark Boys Choir to teach Charlie 101.

From the amount of instruction we've printed out for the staff, you'd think Charlie was going away to a boarding school in Antarctica with no communication allowed between us and the school. In reality, he's going for only 2 1/2 hours each day to a school I can see from my bedroom window.

Still, it's freak out time! School starts tomorrow.