Choose your injectable hormone wisely as it may be discriminated against.
I say that sort of tongue and cheek but it does directly stem from an interesting conversation that I had with the officials from the Calgary Public School system. As Cadence is getting older, she is starting to understand more about her disease and the role that it plays in her life. She is also asking alot more "why" type questions. These are great though, she knows exactly why she needs to have insulin. Being 3 years old, Cadence is getting to the age of going to school. An exciting, yet terrifying destination for us as parents as it will be the first time that we have to loosen our grip on her diabetes. In advance of the day, I wanted to find out more about how diabetics are handled inside of the school system and was quite surprised at the answers...or lack there of that I was provided.
I asked what the policy on diabetics in school is, to which I was told that there wasn't one. I then asked the simple question of whether or not someone in the school would be able to do a simple blood test with Cadence. She's 3 years old and can do it herself, but if someone in the school could supervise it and give her some insulin through her pump, that would be great. I was given the response "our teachers are not trained to do procedures, so no that would not be a possibility, but they will provide juice if required." I retorted "but how would they know if she needed juice without a blood sugar?" and was again hit with "our teachers are not trained to do procedures."
The conversation was stalling at this point so I tried to angle it a little differently. I said "okay, so if a teacher were willing to learn, based on my instructions to do a blood test and deliver insulin based on my direction, would that be okay?" Again, I was given the "our teachers are not trained to do procedures line.".
My frustration is growing a bit here, I can completely see their point on the issue: blood, DECISIONS, and most of all LIABILITY. So I asked my question a different way. "Alright, so if you have a child with a severe peanut allergy that eats a peanut butter sandwich because they're hungry, how would that child get an epi-pen or epinephrine injection?" I received this puzzler:
"All of our teachers are trained to use an epi-pen to an allergic child"....sounds like a procedure to inject a hormone doesn't it.
Giving juice to a diabetic is the same as giving a kid with a peanut allergy a peanut butter sandwich because they're hungry. The difference is how your chosen life-saving hormone is classified.
I asked them, what's the difference if the two are just injectable hormones? If Cadence did her own bood test and she required a set pre-set bolus of insulin...what would be the difference between an epi-pen and an insulin pen?
There was some dead air on the phone for a minute...and then...."our teachers are not trained to do procedures, as I've mentioned before, but let me give you the Principles number."
What's your school's policy on Diabetes?
B.
3 comments:
Did your conversation go any differently with the principal?
Knock wood, we haven't had too much trouble. I hope it works out and they step up and do what they need to do.
never heard back...surprise - surprise ;)
Our family, and many others we know who have school aged children are going through this. It made our adjustment to diabetes a traumatic one. We actually ended up pulling Liam out of his last school, hiring someone to stay home with him until we could buy another house, across the street from a good school.
We learned that no one is going to help us with Liam. It has been a real struggle, as we have to constantly worry if he'll live through the day while we HAVE to work.
Somehow, we have managed to hang onto our jobs. It is getting easier as he gets older, as he is more able to take care of himself. But the fear and worry is never-ending and the school staff seem to think we are "helicopter parents." The new VP at the school is T1 though, so that is really helping out.
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