Our son had just been released from the hospital as a newly diagnosed kid with Type 1 Juvenile Diabetes, so one of the first things we did was go to his school to set up a plan for him to manage his diabetes at school.
We had to meet with the school nurse and discuss how much insulin he needed and figure out where he would take his insulin. I didn't really know what to expect as far as it being complicated or not. I didn't think it was going to be a huge deal though.
When I met with the nurse she had a whole health plan that I had to go over and sign and then she began to discuss where he would keep his insulin supplies and snacks and such. For T1 Diabetes, he would need to have insulin, needles for his insulin pen, his blood glucose monitor, the emergency glucagon injection needle, and then snacks in case his blood sugar got too low during school.
The nurse told me that he was to keep all his supplies and his monitor locked in a cabinet in the counseling office. She said at lunch time he would have to come in there and have them unlock the cabinet and then he could either do his insulin injection in the counseling office or the nurse's room. From what I checked out, the counselors office was this big room with windows all around it, and the nurse's room was really gross and seemed more like what once was probably a janitor's closet. I didn't really like either choice. It was still new for him and he didn't want to be out in the open in the counselor's office especially if it was time for an injection site that might need him to pull his pants down. And then the nurse's office just didn't seem very sanitary. This was how it was set up, so I guess I didn't have much choice.
The nurse was to be there at lunch every day to help him with the injections and make sure he was doing everything right as far as doing the right amount of insulin. I was a little worried though when she told me that she did not always follow the doctor's orders and that sometimes she would tell the students to do amounts different than prescribed. That did not seem very safe, so I immediately told her that she would do only what was directed by his doctor.
I signed all the papers and sent him off to school the following Monday with a bunch of granola bars and a pack of juices. It made me nervous, but I hoped he would be alright. Little did I know that there were going to be a lot of problems at first.
