Getting to know you.

A great deal of taking care of child with Type 1 diabetes is following your intuition. Your intuition gets honed when you are familiar with the child’s personality quirks and idiosyncrasies.

Now, getting to know my son was a non issue for me. We were inseparable until I sent him to preschool when he was four. The three of us, my son, my daughter and myself, we are three peas on a pod. Of course, their dad is always welcome in our pod, but most days it is just the three of us while daddy is at work.

So recognizing when my son was a little off when his blood sugar was too high or too low came rather easy for me. I would be able to tell in an instant when his sugar was not level because he would either be whiny or mean, two traits of his personality that are rarely seen.

This skill came in handy when it came to protecting my feelings over the last two years. I will never forget (no matter how hard I try) the Valentine’s Day that he came out of preschool with the angriest look I had ever seen on his beautiful face. He reluctantly walked behind me to the truck and when I gently broached the subject and asked how his day was, he replied, “I hate you.”

I knew in an instant something wasn’t right. This was not my little boy. I quickly grabbed his blood glucose meter and tested his angry little finger, and it registered over 500. A little too many carbs at his Valentine’s Day party and not enough insulin to go with them.

While getting to know my son is not an issue for me, it poses a bit of a concern when we are talking about a new school year. New school year means all new people that do not know my son. Now I know every mother says this, but my little boy is awesome. He is sweet, gentle, kind, respectful, friendly and loving…most days. He creates and builds from any piece of cardboard he can find. He has his six year old moments when he gets a little kooky like other boys, and then there are the high sugar and low sugar moments. Those are the moments I worry about when it comes to school.

Any teacher that my son gets will have to get to know him very quickly. We can’t wait for November for his teacher figure out that he normally does not cry unless there is a really good reason. We need her (or him) to know that my son has an even disposition and only cries when someone really hurts him, or he his blood sugar is low.

We need his teacher to know that my son is normally even keeled. We can’t wait until October and 10 trips to the Principal’s office for the teacher to realize my son is a gentle boy and aggression is usually attributed to high blood sugars.

Any teacher that my son gets is going to have to be a quick study…on his personality. I know this is a tremendous task for any teacher to fulfill, but he is my son, and I expect nothing less. I only hope his teacher feels the same way.