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.