New Hurdle

Now our hurdle is figuring out where Alyssa will go to school.

She was attending Pioneer Valley Elementary for a week and a half before checking into the hospital. Now we can no longer send her there since they only have a nurse on site 2 times a week. We made an appointment for yesterday to speak to the principal on what our options were.

When we got there, the receptionist stood up and started talking to us. She told us they "basically couldn't do anything until Alyssa is self-managing and that we should make this our priority." My husband looked like he was fuming. He didn't say a word to her. I replied, "My daughter is 5, she's still a baby and I'm NOT going to make her prick her own finger, figure out her blood sugar, eat, then decide on how many units of insulin to give herself and then give her own shot." The receptionist then asked how our first weekend at home went and I said, "As well as can be expected." She then said, "It could be worse, she could have MS."

Stupid comment. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

When people say to us "it could be worse", "she could have this" it makes us feel like their taking away from what we ARE dealing with and what we ARE feeling. Some people just don't get it.
Anyways. The meeting with the principal went fine, but he said too they can't have a nurse on site more than 2 times a week. That won't work just for the simple reason that even if she WAS self-managing, if her blood sugar gets too low she could suffer a seizure or pass out and would need her glucagon pen (basically a sugar rush in a syringe) and NO ONE would be able to give it to her.

We need a nurse there with Alyssa at the school, ALL THE TIME.

There is one option within our school district, a place called Camas Prairie. But they only offer full day kindergarten. Before this diagnosis we would have loved that, but now that we're just learning how to live with Diabetes, it's not something we want.

We then go to Bethel (our current district), their district office and get them to sign a release of attendance from their district so we can go to Puyallup - the next district. We then drive down to Puyallup's District Office and put in an application for transfer. The Puyallup school that DOES have a nurse there 5 days a week is called Brouillet and it's only 5 minutes away. The only thing I'm not crazy about is that the only opening is in the afternoon class, and she wouldn't have bus transportation anymore, but all things we can deal with.

Now we just have to wait and see if we get approved. I hope we find out soon as my daughter will be missing at least 2 if not 3 weeks of kindergarten! Hopefully not more.

Besides all the school stuff, things are getting more organized here at home. And MAN do you need to be organized and on the ball when you have Diabetes.

Last night was a little scary. When we woke up at 2 am to do Alyssa's safety check (we have to test her blood sugar and make sure it's not too low or too high every night) her blood sugar was at 81. A good number for most people, but scary close to the "too low" of 70. I called the Diabetes Center (thank God for them) and asked them what I should do. They said to check again in an hour. So we went back to sleep for 45 minutes, woke up again at 3 am and checked, up to 100. Good. We could sleep.

I wanted to thank everyone for their prayers and support. We've really learned who cares about us, REALLY cares about us through this whole situation and nothing has meant more.