It's Going To Be Okay!!!

Hi! If you are reading this, you have found your way to my new blog! Welcome!! =)

This past week was BIG for the Sugar Family... and you know what? It’s going to be okay…. It’s going to be OKAY! OH.MY.GOSH! I COULD SING!!! (Even though you really wouldn’t want me to – let’s face it, the singing is better left to Sugar Daddy!) IT’S GOING TO BE OKAY!!!! =)

For months I have been carrying a weight around. I didn’t know just how heavy of a weight it had become until it was lifted. Sugar Boy and Sweet Girl started Kindergarten Prep this week. The Sugar Kids are now officially school-aged. I was so incredibly scared of this new challenge in our family life. I think it’s difficult for ANY parents to send their kids off to school for the first time. But sending them off with Diabetes in tow… that made this process especially difficult.

So much to prepare!!! We had to write a 504 plan (THANK YOU Heidi and Hallie for lending me your documents, so that all I had to do was tweak them, and make them Sugar Boy specific!!), we had to get an extra “sugar box” together that was just for school, we had to meet with the nurse and teacher and train them on how to keep him safe for the 4 hours a day that he is there 4 days a week. We had to fill out forms and have them signed by his endocrinologist saying that he authorized the nurse to dispense Sugar Boy’s insulin and, if ever needed (the thought alone sends chills up my spine!!), the glucagon. All of this in ADDITION to the normal preparations that go with starting school: new clothes for both kids, new shoes, new backpacks, school supplies, and schedule juggling. Thank goodness for my fellow D-Moms supporting me and bolstering my poor haggard emotions when they needed it! (Not to name names or anything… but Wendy, Tracy, Reyna, Hallie, Heidi, and Kristi you are my ANGELS!!) =)

The first time I felt a tiny piece of this incredibly heavy weight come off was when we went to Open House at the school and met Sweet Girls and Sugar Boy’s teacher for the first time. Mrs. A is WONDERFUL! She is an older lady that has been teaching for a very long time. She had a Type 1 Diabetic in her class last year and one a few years before that. She herself is a Type 2 Diabetic (although VERY well controlled!) so therefore she is very familiar with the signs and symptoms of both hyper and hypoglycemia! She assured us immediately that her first concern is to Sugar Boys health and safety… that teaching him comes second to that. As soon as she said those words I felt myself breathe a sigh of relief! She GETS it!!

The next day we had a meeting set up with Mrs. A and Nurse L. This is where we gave them our 504 plan as well as two monkeys named George. Let me explain: Heidi had given me the BRILLIANT idea of creating lanyard tags for the teacher and nurse. Basically, these tags would be a “cheat sheet” for them to follow for Sugar Boys care. I tweaked the idea a bit by adding his picture, and having it be a bit of an introduction card on one side and then having the “cheat sheet” part be on the backside. Instead of having them wear them around their necks, I attached the card to a little stuffed monkey, which the kids predictably named George. I couldn’t be more pleased with how both our 504 plan and the Georges were received by them both. The nurse (who is starting her first year as a school nurse- she has been a hospital nurse for the better part of her career) seemed relieved and grateful to have such detailed instructions. And Mrs. A was simply calm, cool and collected. Sugar Daddy and I walked away from the meeting feeling that the weight had been lifted! It was truly a WONDERFUL feeling!

The next day was the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!! We went through all the normal first day jitters. Sugar Daddy and I dropped them off feeling like we were about to leap a huge chasm, and not completely sure we were ready for it. The Sugar Kids were fine with us leaving them, though, and off we went. For the next four hours I think I checked the clock on my phone AT LEAST 40 times. Sugar Daddy did a good job taking me out to eat and shopping… trying to keep me distracted. =) I knew that Sugar Boy’s first BG check was scheduled to be at 2pm (as it will be every day) and at 2pm I was staring at the phone… part of me wanted it to ring… wanted Nurse L to call me just so I could know what the reading was; part of me dreaded it ringing… because that meant that there was something wrong… that Nurse L had run into a problem she didn’t know how to handle. The phone never rang. We were back at the school by 4:20 to pick them up when class let out at 4:30. The first thing I did was check Linkie (Sugar Boy wears a Continuous Glucose Monitoring System [CGMS] that is integrated with his insulin pump – we have affectionately named it “Linkie”) and it showed he was 235! I was more than happy with that number!

The Sugar Kids were totally wiped out – it had been a big day!!! They fell asleep in the car, and Sugar Boy’s number came down on its own. All was well!!

That night we downloaded all the information from the pump so we could see EXACTLY what had been done though out the day… there we a couple of issues that needed addressing… but nothing major!

In the end… what I can say is: IT’S GOING TO BE OKAY!!!!!!! And let me tell you – saying those words is a relief! But even better than that – being able to say them and BELIEVE what I am saying… that is quite simply MAGICAL!!!