Wednesday, June 1, 2011

School Camp - YIKES!

Next week my son goes off to his first school camp since diagnosis.

He's 14, you'd think I'd be looking forward to the peace and quiet - and most parents would be.

But not a parent of a kid with Type 1 Diabetes.

Every parent of a child with Type 1 Diabetes dreads school camps and the amount of stress they cause is enough to drive anyone to drink!

The camp my son is going on is for 5 days and is 2.5 hours drive from our home. That's a LONG way away if something goes wrong.

Today I have to meet with the school to discuss my son's care needs while he is away. I have been trying to organise this since the start of the school year however, as is usually the case, the school does not seem to have any idea of the complexity of managing this disease so they have put it off time and time again. I am sure they think that I'm some crazed overprotective parent who just needs to be placated.

The school sent home the usual consent form with the Medical Form attached. Typically, there was half a page for Asthma and another half page for Anaphylaxis; a great big section for consenting to giving your child Panadol or putting on a Band-Aid.

Where was the section for Type 1 Diabetes?

It doesn't exist.

Crammed in amongst the other general information is ONE LINE to "list" any other medical conditions, any medications and the dosage and time required.

Over the last two days I've been putting together a document detailing the care required for my son while he is at camp. So far that document is 9 pages long and I am nowhere near finished.

When our kids go to Diabetes Camp we have a form to fill out that requires us to list pretty much everything relating to their care - if on pumps, basal rates, sensitivity, insulin to carb ratios etc, if on injections, what type of insulin, how much and when - soooo much information - and the more you can give them they happier they are. And for Diabetes Camp the people in charge either HAVE Type 1 Diabetes themselves or are trained Diabetes nurses!

Oh dear, even writing this post is making me feel ill again.

Well - I have to get my "instructions" finished, pack up all of my son's diabetes supplies then take a shower and head to the school for the big "meeting". My son will be there and we have to do an infusion site change right there in the headmaster's office. I'm wondering just how confident they will be that they will be able to look after him once I'm done.

Oh - did I mention that my daughter will be going to the same camp at the end of the year?

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