Boo, I hope you don’t mind my asking – how was college for you in terms of diabetes treatment and issues? My son is a risk taker and I am already worried about how to deal with college with him – not that there is anything I can do, of course.
Honestly, my college life, I did commute, but it was nothing bad, I could do whatever I needed to do whenever I needed to, I didn’t abuse the fact I was diabetic, but yeah, if something came up I could do it right there in class, and there were a few people who were also diabetic within the collage that I cam across but none in my small class. My class an instructors were caring an knew what to do if anything happened because they asked in detail and I let them know. I honestly wouldn’t worry to much about it, you know, yes be a little responsible if you are going to take risks, but I’m sure he will be great.
-ßðð
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And drink lots of beer, right? 
Sorry…feeling silly today for some reason.
Beer can be good…aha.
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Our son is 3, so we have many years to educate him on how to manage his diabetes once he goes away to college. I’ll also need to work on his alcohol tolerance so he’ll be ready for the keggers in college. hehehehe. j/k!!!
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I am looking at my older son going through college: numerous nights without sleep or much sleep due to big projects, deadlines and finals. My younger (T1) son’s BG gets very affected by lack of sleep and tiredness, and he starts forgetting or not managing his BG well when that occurs.
I am worried about his not getting up during a low because he too tired (in particular after what happened to him in camp last week). So you can see what a parent thinks about… Nightmares about what may happen to their children.
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But if we didn’t worry, then we wouldn’t have all that awesome grey hair in our beards.
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Speak for yourself! My beard is darn close to losing the grey and turning white (with worry of course).
My mother is the same way, hers is more of me not waking up at all though, plus, you know, everything else. I mean I don’t have kids of my own, but I can relate to you an my parents, it’s your job to worry, but at the same time you guys as well as ourselves can only do so much. Maybe sit down and have a talk with him or his doctor about some ideas, I am the same way, kinda, there are times I don’t want to get up then when I do I wish I had gotten up earlier, or have something set up with you in the room so you don’t actually have to get to far up.
-ßðð
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I’m sure our sons will have roomies, @Michel. Get in good with them (bribe them) to learn how to watch out for our sons and help them when they need help (hearing alarms on CGM’s, getting juice or tablets for them if they go too low, etc.,). It’s probably the closest we can get to making sure they are taken care of. I’m like you with these fears. I’m hoping you figure this out and let ME know what works so that I’ll be more prepared for Liam!
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That is a strategy I am also hoping to use 
I just have to find the right one!
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@Engel if you have any specific helpful advise that curious (and frightened) parents could use for our kids, to help them in college, we’d love to hear anything that you figure out to be helpful for you. Any tips or tricks are all the more we can add to our arsenals!
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I was, uh, quite wild, certainly “took risks” in college. Partied a lot. I am still not sure how my roomies could tell passed out drunk (ok, in our circle people were passing out all the time…) vs. hypo/ call EMTS but they did. I still would say I had a blast. Studied, wine, women, shared Jack Daniels with Bob Stinson, played soccer with a burning bowling ball wrapped in lamp oil soaked newspaper at 3:00 AM, indoor fireworks, the whole 9 yards.
And here I am 30 years, 2 marathons, 9 1/2s, a black belt in Tae Kwon Do (old school place…), taking kid to college in 2 days…
The main lesson I learned in college is to test frequently…
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I am still not sure how my roomies could tell passed out drunk (ok, in our circle people were passing out all the time…) vs. hypo/ call EMTS but they did.
oh man this is so scary to me. I really really wouldn’t have trusted my college self to know the difference. I had a roommate freshman year who out of the blue started having really bad migraines – to the point where she needed IV fluids from constant vomiting – and it took me like 2 days to figure out she was not well enough to treat herself and I finally took her to the student center. If I was inebriated, no way would I know if someone else was in dangerous hypo territory.
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I am hoping Tandem has the Third Update for its t:slim X2 from its published pipeline which is the Hybrid Closed Loop working with the Dexcom. The launch goal is late 2018. Hopefully this works out.
I would not trust a college roommate who is randomly picked by the Housing Office to help out with anything.
Alcohol is of course a concern. College campuses are obviously ripe with serious alcohol abuse.
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Hate to be the voice of reason, but seriously, kids can get into trouble without diabetes too. I think any parent can have the exact same concerns for what kind of trouble their kid will get into when they get to college.
Possibly, your KWD’s will be the more responsible kids in college, because the disease has taught them responsibility and reason and how precious life is, and all kinds of other valuable lessons. The kids without diabetes will think they are bulletproof.
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For sure this is my hope.
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yeah I think that’s the issue – like if you can’t imagine how you at this age would have done any better, it’s hard to expect that our own kids would be better, even given the real challenges they face.
I was a pretty good kid in college but I still got pretty drunk several times and got myself into dumb situations a few times. I didn’t have any other “also good kid” friends who didn’t do the same or worse…other than the one who went to a Christian college and had to sign a no-alcohol pledge on pain of expulsion.
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Quite amusing.
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This isn’t really protection either, kids gong to Baylor in Texas had to sign the no-dance no alcohol pledge, and the partying there was pretty epic.
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