Exhaling

So the emails have begun to pour in and rather than answer each individually, I thought I'd share how the first day of school went. I was exceptionally nervous for Grace this morning. There were a lot of unknowns going into today: would she be ok checking her sugar, would she be upset at having to leave the classroom, how would she react to someone else doing insulin, would she speak up if she didn't feel well? She also didn't have a great night last night. For some reason she was running high and went to bed high. She woke up around 11:30 saying she was hot, sweaty, and couldn't sleep. I tested again and she was still high (220) but she didn't want any insulin. This morning she woke up with a normal sugar but I knew she must have been tired with a rough night.

When I dropped Grace at school she was very quiet and I had written out for her teacher when she should head to the nurse to get tested. She's testing every 2 hours and the nurse calls me with her number. Her first check came in high. I was initially concerned but then the nurse said that Grace wanted an insulin snack which made me ecstatic. Her teacher had brought in soft pretzels and while Grace had planned for morning snacks to be insulin-free because she didn't to limit her shots at school, she changed her mind. Insulin-free snacks makes snack time pretty hard-no granola bars, pretzels, gold fish, teddy grahams. But she came home today excited that the insulin had gone well and she wants to now bring an insulin snack. This is wonderful news. Getting her over the "insulin hump" is a major goal of ours.

The good news aside, Grace's numbers were all over the place today. She went as high as almost 300 and bottomed out at with a 67 at the end of the day. The range is insane. The school nurse and I discuss every insulin and we count carbs together. At least when Grace went low she knew immediately to get to the nurse. This created small-scale panic on my part when all the kids came out at dismissal but my Grace was no where to be found. I stood there in the pouring rain searching for Grace with "that feeling" in my stomach. I was just about to head in to see if she was ok when the nurse walked her out to make sure I had her. I knew something was up.

So all in all, Grace's spirits were very high today despite the highs and lows. I'm going to take a page from Grace's book and call the day a success. A success with some obstacles but a success nonetheless.