Forty Days of Diabetes - Day 2

Test Strips and Lancets and Snacks, oh my..........

Back to school shopping looks a little different in our house. It includes the usual stuff like notebooks, pencils and graphing calculators (pink, of course). But, unfortunately, T1D comes with a lot of baggage.

We have a new school nurse this year. About half way through the summer I received a text from Caitlin's usual nurse informing me that she'd taken a position in another school in the district. Instant stress! We've been working with Darlene for two years and everything has gone as smoothly as we could hope for. She's supportive and very understanding of the complexities of T1D. Not all families are as lucky as we are with the support we receive from the Nashoba school district.  

Caitlin and I met with our new nurse yesterday and unloaded our supplies and the first words out of her mouth were, "oh my, I'm going to need a bigger bin". Unless you're up close and personal with T1D you have no way of knowing how much gear comes along with it.  

A typical list looks something like this:

• blood sugar meter and test strips
• lancing device and lancets
• ketone meter and test strips
• alcohol swabs
• syringes
• insulin
• pump sites
• fast acting sugar (candy, juice, glucose tabs)
• Glucagon

These aren't things we keep just in the nurses office at school. These are things we carry with us every single day and everywhere we go.  

And the new school nurse?  I have a feeling we're going to have a very good year.