Had two class parties to go to today. My second one turned into a walk-in clinic (which I didn’t mind). I was looking forward to it bc there is a little girl who sits next to my son in class and she was just dx’d T1D several months ago. She is on MDI and uses the G6. The school is so careful about letting parents interact with kiddos who aren’t their own (like if I go to school for lunch I am only allowed to sit with my child alone in one of the designated booths) that I was hoping I’d get to talk to this little girl during the party.
When we were setting up beforehand, one of the parents mentioned, “Oh, I wonder what we can feed her? Don’t we have to know calories?” “We can give her fruit bc those are good sugars, right?” Teacher: “I can email her mom but I think we’re supposed to know the carbs.” The parents had cupcakes and cookies and were sure there was no nutrition info on the trays so they ended up telling the little girl they didn’t have anything for her. I left my ring toss station, went over to the snack table and looked under the bottom of the cookie tray and found the carb count. I let the teacher and the little girl know the carbs for a cookie so that she could participate. The little girl gave me a huge hug, said she was so glad I was there, and asked if I’d promise to come to the next class party. When she came through my ring toss station, she skipped the game and just talked diabetes gear with me. And then I got to chat with her more during clean up. She evidently likes to fish so maybe we’ll be able to take her fishing with us sometime. She hugged me again before I left and said she wished she could come home with me. (I’m not entirely sure what her home story is.)
Another adult asked me about my diagnosis story bc her college aged daughter was just tested for T1D and celiac (both negative).
Then a dad came up to me asking how to take care of his pre-diabetes bc it showed up during a DOT physical.
Busy day! I’m thrilled that I was able to connect more with my little buddy.
In the darkness of the disease that surrounds her when doing the most basic of elements for daily existence, in the anxiety of the hour, in the turmoil faced by her in something that for everyone else in her class requires absolutely no thought, and in a potential time of sadness made worse by the unrelenting and unsympathetic joy of her peers at that particular moment, you were there…
Aaaaw Allison you’ve always got the best stories. I’m so glad you were there.
I have a T1 student in a class of mine, gave her an apple the other day when she was going low. Then talked about T1D with her today and sent here here to FUD. I hope she finds it. I told her you ladies and gents will be a boon to her health. It was so nice to feel helpful, and she was so thankful to have someone to talk to her about it with. I said we owed our willingness to change EH’s regimen to @Eric and offered to have her over to talk diabetes, like he did with us.
My big takeaway - it’s worth changing something to see if it works. If you hate it, change back.
It feels so hard to shift from lantus+humalog or triseba+fiasp or whatever. But it’s not permanent! And it might be better!!
Anyhow, @T1Allison, this little girl has someone to talk to - who gets it! I hope you meet her parents someday! Or get to go to another party. Yay!
That story melts my heart. Thank you for being there for this precious child. As a kind T1D young man said to me “No one can understand what we deal with.”
Being that I’m a bit challenged with how these forums (is this what it is or is it a blog?) I’m thinking it was Eric that beautifully wrote the passage “In the darkness…” Wow, that really hit me! As fortunate as I feel with my LADA situation, I have to admit I feel that way sometimes. Thank you
Gotta sign off to get the Kleenex box
I left my ring toss station, went over to the snack table and looked under the bottom of the cookie tray and found the carb count. I let the teacher and the little girl know the carbs for a cookie so that she could participate. The little girl gave me a huge hug, said she was so glad I was there, and asked if I’d promise to come to the next class party. 
