Newcomer. Parent of boy with Type 1

EmmaRW0811

Member
Messages
14
Type of diabetes
Parent
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
Good morning all. It's now a week since my husband and I had the conversation of "do you think we should take A [our son who will be 10 in two weeks] to see a doctor about his needing to wee all the time?" He was diagnosed with diabetes at 10 pm last Sunday and gave himself his first insulin injection at 8am on Monday morning- which we now know was World Diabetes Day - what brilliant timing he has.

It's been quite a week! We've learnt to count carbs (he's currently eating exact numbers as they work out his doses), he's learnt to do blood tests, injections and to wait until meal times before eating. I've done more cooking from scratch than ever and I've learnt how to organise electronic prescriptions at the doctors and pharmacists. The school has been given supplies and training and the Afterschool club is working out how I can give him 15g carbs snacks that also aren't going to affect the boy with extreme nut allergies...

A went back to school for Friday afternoon, we hope we can be back to Afterschool club as well by Tuesday.
 

himtoo

Well-Known Member
Retired Moderator
Messages
4,805
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Dislikes
mean people , gardening , dishonest people , and war.
why can't everyone get on........
Hi @EmmaRW0811
welcome to the forum !!:)
going to tag in 2 lovely mums with T1 children to come along and say hello
@mahola , @Ellie's mum

It is a lot to take in but it sounds as though you are all getting to grips with it.
My advice--
be kind to yourselves -- you can all only learn in real time.

get the book -- Think Like A Pancreas- excellent resource !!
 

Ellie's mum

Well-Known Member
Messages
108
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Hi there!

Our daughter Ellie is 10 and it will be 9 months this week since diagnosis (my god that has gone quick!).

We took Ellie to the doctors on a Monday night with similar symptoms, Tuesday morning she had blood test, 8am Wednesday morning she was been called to the children's ward at our local hospital to confirm it was diabetes . The nurses were shocked as to how 'well' Ellie seemed as her blood levels were dangerously high, Ellie was even complaining to the nurses that she was missing out on being at school

Ellie took the diagnosis well and started doing her own insulin and blood test straight away, the only time we're allowed to do it is if she needs correcting in the night!

It sounds to me like you've got off to a great start and school is being very supportive. If you have any questions you would like to ask the please feel free.

This forum has helped me so much and hopefully it can do the same for you
 
  • Like
Reactions: azure and himtoo

EmmaRW0811

Member
Messages
14
Type of diabetes
Parent
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
Thank you very much. You're right that the temptation is to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible! And that gives information overload and puts normal life on hold...
 
  • Like
Reactions: himtoo

EmmaRW0811

Member
Messages
14
Type of diabetes
Parent
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
I'm feeling quite frustrated this evening. My son went back to school Friday afternoon and has been in as normal this week. But the after school club are making me jump through more and more hoops. I started discussing it with them last week. I organised all the supplies on Monday and prepared care plans - I even got them a spare pen and spare insulin even though I can't think at the moment of any reason why he'd inject insulin at that time of day. This morning I was late into work because I sat with one of the senior staff members for over an hour going through every little detail of his care plan. I'd done all their paperwork for them - risk assessments, medicine approval forms, wrote about hypos (which we have yet to experience) and even what to do if he collapses unconscious (not a pleasant thing to think through). It took a lot of research for me to do that - and I got it checked with his diabetes nurse.

I went to school cheerful because they seemed to have agreed to take him back. And he went there tonight. But when I collected him they asked me to keep him off again tomorrow(!) because when the person I'd been talking to had tried explaining it all to the other senior managers they panicked.

I'm frustrated and tired - I feel like I did far more than was necessary, and it's still not enough. My boss has been understanding (fortunately) - but after a full week off last week and early finishes and late starts this week, I'm well behind and the pressure is mounting at work. What with the normal stress of adapting to the rest of this (I used to have him on school dinners and making packed lunches is driving me crazy), that extra work stress is not helping.

And breathe ... no point getting too annoyed with it. But, has anyone got any advice on how to help the after school club learn what they need to learn? And does anyone have any school holiday club experience?
 

himtoo

Well-Known Member
Retired Moderator
Messages
4,805
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Dislikes
mean people , gardening , dishonest people , and war.
why can't everyone get on........
I would ask your son's DSN to get involved and attend a meeting with the school -- also include the Head teacher
 

EmmaRW0811

Member
Messages
14
Type of diabetes
Parent
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
Thank you. Actually the school itself is fine. It's the separate company that collects him from school at 3:15 and looks after him until I finish work at 6pm that's the problem. And the DSN did come and talk to them and to the school at the same time. I'm sure it will sort out by the end of the week ... but it's frustrating.

The other problem will be school holidays - previously we've organised for him to go to clubs that look after him during the school holidays and most of them are sports-themed - so during school holidays he does a whole day of sports. It's just dawning on me that if the after school club is this worried, we may find it hard to get him holiday cover too ... Perhaps I'll ask on the parent forum part of this how others have solved this problem
 

Ellie's mum

Well-Known Member
Messages
108
Type of diabetes
Type 1
I really feel for you

We've had a few frustrations with school along the way but all of Ellie's out of school activity leaders (swimming, scouts and majorettes) have been really good after they got over the initial shock of it all.

Could you ask your DN to make contact with them to see if she can visit them again to iron out any concerns they have?
 
  • Like
Reactions: himtoo

EmmaRW0811

Member
Messages
14
Type of diabetes
Parent
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
Thank you. I did indeed ask the nurse to go in to speak to them and it really helped.
 
  • Like
Reactions: himtoo

endocrinegremlin

Well-Known Member
Messages
433
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Dislikes
People telling me how to control my diabetes. My health. Isms. People walking their dogs off leads in illegal areas. Meat that bleeds. Late buses.
What is the issue with the 15g snack and nut allergies? Bags of crisps tend to be 15g if proper and not....you know quavers sorts, or a slice of bread so you could give him a mini chease/meat ect sandwich. Bananas are about 15 if you get larger ones. Though in all your hospital should get him sorted so he doesn't 'need' snacks but is 'choosing' to have them and therefore choosing that injection.
 

azure

Expert
Messages
9,780
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
An apple is around 15g carbs too. Also, some cream crackers are around 5g so it's easy to have 3 with some butter, cheese, etc

Things that aren't safe for nut allergies are usually quite carefully labelled.
 

EmmaRW0811

Member
Messages
14
Type of diabetes
Parent
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
Thanks all. At the time I was writing that I was massively stressed. It seemed like every day I came closer to getting them to take him back there was just one more barrier.

I know in the long term we'll be able to match his insulin to what he chooses to eat, but in the short term while we and he and the school and after school club all learn to cope, the nurse recommends three meals and three snacks a day. The meals - breakfast, lunch and dinner with exactly 75g carbs and the snacks - mid morning, mid afternoon and bedtime with exactly 15g carbs - the level his levemir balances out so no extra injections needed.

As a very busy working mum who previously relied on school dinners, switching to preparing carb counted breakfasts and packed lunches as part of the already crazy morning routine has been a really tough transition. I'm exhausted from having to wake up earlier every day. I wanted the morning and afternoon snacks to be simple "grab and go" in this early phase - sufficiently healthy, but also something I could grab at 8:15am while yelling "where are your shoes?" And "can you remember how to spell subtle, it's your spelling test today?" And "here's your packed lunch where's your pe kit?"

The nurse recommends cereal bars. Which seemed the perfect solution. Until I found they were "produced in a factory which also handles nuts".

So that's the explanation- other parents may identify with this. My moaning post was because the afterschool club kept changing what I had to do to let him go back to there and my boss kept adding more to my work to do list, to make leaving work at 3pm rather than 6pm ever more complicated. The nuts in the cereal bars was a "last straw" rather than a big deal in and of itself.

A couple of weeks on and I wish I could say it's got easier. Maybe it has in some ways. But I do feel absolutely exhausted
 

azure

Expert
Messages
9,780
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
It is incredibly tiring and stressful to,start with. It does get easier gradually as you get your head round everything.

You might find keeping a little kitchen notebook helpful. I write on recipes too when I work out the carb count so that the next time I make that, I know a 1/4 equals 30g carbs or whatever.

I had set amounts of carbs for meals when I was firstbdiagnosed and used my notebook to jot down meals so that I didn't have to think too much and knew how to get the right amount of carbs.