This is my hope.
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I think it’s different if it’s in one of those towns where the town itself is dry, etc. because that’s all there is in the town. Waco has its own thing going so there is going to be alcohol at places around the campus, if not on campus proper.
To be honest, I my classes stayed in two maybe three rooms, with all men, small group, it was all very nice, and I do miss it, but they all were real nice and some interested in it, asked where I kept supplies, for an emergency.
Like I said before, I could do what I needed to when I had to, I ran into no problems that I can recall. I wouldn’t want any of you parents to worry though, I know when the time comes even right now you do, but think of it as a time to learn (lol, literally), I had gone through a lot before I even picked a college to go to so maybe that’s why it was such a breeze for me ( that could maybe be another story or nightmare). and like @ClaudnDaye had said, “roomies” if you will be staying on campus, make sure they are comfortable but don’t overwhelm them or scare them, you may even ask if they could get a room close to a certain place, but let your child talk with them more, because they may be more open with the “new friend”. And if you go to look at the collage make sure you talk to everyone who will be around the said child. I mean to be real, there is only so much you can do, by that time I would hope you child would know on point themselves with everything, but it would be very good to have at least one person, maybe that new best friend to be your rock. I was blessed with mainly three when I went to collage, best “brothers” I could have asked for to look after me, though like I said, the older I am, I had zero problems because I learned when I was “younger” and you grow from that, but I was also a good girl, I didn’t really take to many ricks, when I did, it was nothing to major.
If you guys have a specific concerned question, I can try my best to answer it, from the sound of it you guys have a bit of time, but I will be here to help. 
-ßðð
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That’s the best news there is to hear. Our jobs as parents is to just make sure they are fully prepared before they go away and hopefully follow your example in not doing too many stupid things. Having that one solid rock will be important but as you said, this is probably going to work for our kids if they find these rocks themselves by the natural course of events. Someone they grow to trust…literally with their lives potentially.
Thanks for this! @Michel and I still have some prep time to make sure we’ve got all our ducks in a row before we push the little birdies from the nest. <3
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lol
In a dorm situation, the RA would be the responsible person to have contact with. Campus Police as well. This particular University, they are not just security but are real (state authorized) Police and are very friendly and protective of the students.
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One thing to keep in mind is that during this period, your son quite possibly may not have the same level of super tight control as now, which might be ok and even preferable in some respects. What’s the most important thing is preventing dangerous lows, especially while drinking. Second most important, preventing dangerous highs/DKA (make sure they understand sick day rules etc). Third most important thing, reasonable control—but a person can be less tightly controlled for a little bit and then tighten it up back up as they get the hang of everything. I did fine diabetes-wise with the chaos of college and drinking etc (I lived in the dorms and I definitely drank, not all the time, but many times the point where severe lows would have been dangerous), and I honestly don’t know that I would have been as safe at like 6.0 or lower A1c, where I likely would have less strong hypo symptoms. When drinking more heavily I tended to purposefully run closer to 200 and go to bed at that level, sometimes over, to be safe (since not waking up from a hypo when drunk has a much higher risk of being fatal), and I’d encourage that at least to start in any young person, especially someone not familiar with drinking (but also encourage them not to drink too frequently, so they aren’t doing that constantly). Telling your kid not to drink ever probably won’t work, so better to have a mature convo about the very real risks, how to mitigate them, and the need to balance it all reasonably so that things don’t get too out of whack. Also, if someone is on the pump, I’d actually think they would want separate alcohol overnight basals—I adjust my long-acting insulin down a few units, but the pump would probably be much better for that.
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I was recently thinking - how did I actually mange my diabetes in university? I mostly clearly remember my university days (20+ years ago) but for some reason my memory of diabetes control during university is hazy. That is probably becuase it was mostly uneventful and routine
I have a couple of thoughts…
I recall sarting MDI in about 1995 (I used to do R/NPH twice a day up to that point but DCCT meant endos were chaning to MDI) up to that point life revolved around fixed meal times - which sucked. Also I remember the introduction of Humalog around 1997 which was huge. With doing Humlin R MDI you were supposed to give the shot well before the meal. That was tough - I mean can you guess how many pints of beer you are going to drink in the future? What if your friend show up to the pub late? Are you going to have the whole pitcher to yourself? With Humalog it was more shoot-up and drink which was much better for my control. My serious point is that with CGMs and modern insulins your kid will have an easier time that folks in the past like me.
At the time, the local hospital had a program for young people (18 to 21ish) - sort of a “your parents are out of the picture now so here is what you need to do” - there was bribery involed (major league sports tickets, concert tickets, etc.) To get you to attend, and I was taken in by the bribery. Basically it involved getting a group of about 8 young people with diabetes together and having an informal chat about life, visiting an endo, dietician, nurse, etc. What was useful is you got to talk with the 8 other kids with diabetes for about an hour - One girl talked about her experience passing out with a low by having a couple drinks before dinner. Guess what - I sure rememberd that story and while I did drink without eating, I at least thought about testing more often. Kids also talked about how hard it was to feel low and how testing more often when drinking (like hourly) was a good thing to do. I found the endos in he program very down to earth. It was never DON’T SO THIS! It ways always - If you do this - then here is what to expect. I recal the endo going through a list of illict drugs and explaining how each one impacted you blood sugars and how to be safe using them (sorry I can"t rember any of it as I am not an illict drug person). Point is it was all about education and information and not lecturing. As a young adult I really listend and as I previously said had a pretty uneventful diabetes life during university.
Try to see if a program like this is available. I found it very valuable. Again - and I think this applies to everyone - the more knowledge you have the better.
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That is pretty awesome. I am really hoping that, when the time comes, we will find something similar. Really a great tip.
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3 posts were split to a new topic: Tandem’s plans for hybrid closed loop
I’m resurrecting this thread because I was reminded of something by another discussion on FUD and I wasn’t sure where to put it.
Something to be aware of when a T1 lives on campus in college is that package delivery may not exactly be “snappy” and at my university, packages required a couple of extra day to be processed by a mailroom before we could actually pick them up. Add to this that the mailroom may have very specific/weird hours for package pickup that may coincide with classes. This is problematic for those overnight pump replacements (and other stuff, but overnight pump replacement is the one that actually gave me trouble)
I’ll set the scene. It was the end of the first week of freshman year, I was busy trying to adjust to campus life and make new friends. Suddenly, one morning, my Medtronic pump suddenly gives me this weird error. I call Medtronic support for my first time ever since I am now an “adult”, and the person tells me they are overnighting me a new pump. Unfortunately, it’s a Thursday. The mailroom was closed on Saturday and Sunday. So I email all the contact people I can find for the mailroom staff and try to tell them what this package will look like and that it’s medical equipment and I will need it ASAP. (I don’t end up hearing back from any of those people until Monday.) Friday afternoon, when the mailroom hours are and after the shipping information says the pump has been delivered, my roommate and I go over to the mailroom even though I haven’t received any notification that the package is available for pickup. The student mailroom worker tries to tell us that it’s not in the system yet and we would have to wait, but thankfully my roommate wouldn’t let him off the hook (she’s much bolder than I) and started telling him it’s important and we wouldn’t leave without it, we know it’s here and we won’t wait until Monday for it. He barely looks around and claims he doesn’t see it. My roommate sticks her head inside the little mail window and says “is that it over there?” And indeed, it was. The guy, clearly irritated with us but recognizing she was very serious about not leaving him alone, quickly processes the package and hands it over. One of the many reasons why I love my best friend, as if I was on my own in that mailroom I probably would have spent my first weekend at college with no pump.
This sort of thing could be a problem for other diabetes supplies (mail order pharmacy insulin, CGM sensor replacements, pump supplies, etc). But of course the mail system at different colleges will likely be different. Just a struggle I’ve faced I thought I’d pass along!
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Could this be remedied by setting up a local P.O Box at the post office? I would do this for Liam if necessary, when he gets this age. That way, there is never anything stopping him from getting any packages.
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Potentially! For my specific experience it might have still been problematic as I was new to the campus and had a very loose grasp on how to use public transit to get places around town. But in general, yes, I think that might help with the slow mail processing issue. Like I said though, may be less of an issue at other colleges, hard to say
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So things to plan for with Liam (potentially…given the mail room hours and difficulty picking up mail through the university)…take a tour of not only the college, but the transit (if he doesn’t have his own car), the local post offices and, if necessary, set up a box for him before school even starts and make sure he knows how to get there and has the ability to do so (either through friends, local transit or driving himself).
Thx for the info!
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Worth taking note whether the school allows cars for freshmen who live on campus while you’re planning the tours so you know whether checking out the transit is necessary. My school doesn’t allow cars for freshmen or sophomores who live on campus, but offered tons of transit options. (And to think of it, if I had signed up for Zipcar sooner I would’ve had less trouble with transit in general.) Who knows what the status of transportation will be like by the time Liam heads off to college though, we may be teleporting everywhere 
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I’ll just throw it out there that I’m an official campus tour guide at my public university in California, if any FUDers have interest in a special tour for their kids (before I graduate in June) feel free to PM me for more details 
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I was in college many many years ago, but this rule still applied. But it was easy to find dorm-mates with transportation.
When we had first group meeting with RA (who I had already informed), I found many volunteers willing to help and gave them quick overview of when I might need help. But back then, was doing single daily injection Lente, so there was more risk of high BGs and DKA than lows.
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Our oldest son is looking into universities in CA - Caltech and Stanford.
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It’s extremely important to have an easy-to-use backup plan that does not require any special technology. A vial of basal, a vial of rapid, a couple packs of syringes, and a little practice on how to use them in an emergency.
Pack it all into an emergency pack with the understanding that it stays in there untouched, unless there is a supply problem. If it is ever used, it immediately gets replaced.
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I go to neither of those, my SATs were good but not that good haha
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He needs to bring up his scores too. His PSAT score this year was 1450 (out of 1520 points). For our state, that wasn’t high enough to be a semi-finalist for the National Merit Scholarships. The index for that score was 217 and the cut off for VA is like 220. He’ll receive a commendation, but not meet the scholarship requirement (we’re not certain because numbers haven’t come out yet, but they don’t tend to deviate too much from year to year in the index numbers.)
His score would have been more than enough in other states to make the cut-off, we just don’t think it’ll do for VA.
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