To have rushed to the school or am I a neurotic parent??

[WanderingAroundandAround]

DS is 13 and was diagnosed with Type I diabetes 18 months ago. He manages it well in general but regularly ignores low blood sugars until he’s in a hypo. He has a blood sugar monitor and we try to drill into him to treat (with glucose) if he’s going towards a low rather than wait until he’s in one as obviously he feels like crap and it can cause long term effects if he regularly hypos.

Today I got a notification from his monitor that he was in a low and going further down, he also still had a couple of units of insulin onboard. I normally keep checking to make sure he’s treated it and is starting to go up again but he continued going down to 2.7 which is dangerously low. Lowest should be 4. I called the school to ask them to check he’s treated it and make sure he eats a decent amount to counteract the insulin he still had inside him.

They said they’d get him. He continued going down to 2.2 15 minutes later (lowest he’s ever been) at which point I panicked, jumped into car and drive to school with his glycogen injection (school have one but have had it since diagnosis and didn’t know if it was mislaid or whatever), ready to inject as expecting to have to call 999 and DS unconscious!

Got to Reception and said why I was there. The monitor was registering DS as off the scale low at that point. DH had called in as well from work as we were both panicking! Receptionist clearly raised her eyebrows as if to say that I was overreacting. I said she didn’t need to raise her eyebrows as it was a life threatening emergency. She denied doing it and said she was sorry if I thought she had. Kind of thinking now was I was rude but I was very stressed and know how serious it is, a lot of people don’t.

DS then came out with medical lady, who was a bit WTF, and he was laughing and saying I’m fine and very embarrassed saying why did you come to school! Looks like his monitor was wrong which is rare. Medical lady said it was natural that I was a bit anxious as still getting to grips with diagnosis. We have got to grips with it but he was in a life threatening hypo according to his monitor! I think I was right to be extremely worried.

Left feeling rather embarrassed and like I will judged as a neurotic mother and as if I caused a bit of an unnecessary kerfuffle with the receptionist.

I have never gone into school before because DS has gone into a low. Only called once before as he was very high for a long period.

Was I being neurotic? WWYD in that situation.

Does your DS have a healthcare plan with escalation responses in it? I would sit down with school staff and put together a plan for what should happen if this occurs again. Different medical issue, but there should be a clear plan for who is responsible for checking on him and reporting back to you when this happens. It will help you to know who to contact (reception is probably not the best option) and who within school needs to take action.
There should also be an offsite plan - what happens if he is on a school trip and you can't get there?

It is completely understandable that you reacted the way you did - don't beat yourself up over it, at our school this wouldn't even register on the list of parental behaviour! But use it as a learning opportunity to think about what you would like to have happened and how school can support that. As you DS gets older, and thinking ahead to college or university, you need to work (slowly!) towards independence. That is a hard job!

You thought he was unconscious and momenta from death but the school didn't bother to ring you?

You knew they were aware he needed monitoring, If anything worse had happened they'd have contacted you

I know you panicked but he's 13 and watching his glucose that closely when he's this age is going to make you paranoid and obsessive

We’ve even got him a brand new Apple Watch so he can just look at his wrist. He won’t bloody wear it!

You absolutely did the right thing! Well done!

I think you followed your instinct but in hindsight, a second phone call to the school to confirm they were dealing with it would have been better all round and caused less drama. But I don’t blame you for panicking.

Can't believe people are blaming the child here. He is 13. Most of his class still have trouble remembering to bring the right books to lessons, lose their school ties regularly, and choose chips every day for lunch. You don't suddenly get a fully-developed adult brain when your pancreas stops working.

He was with the medical person. School had responded appropriately. The person on reception wouldn’t be involved really. I’d probs have done what OP did, but the school didn’t do anything wrong (though the receptionist may or may not have been flippant).

Exactly.

I would have done the same.
I would have a conversation with the school about how you felt you were treated, and use the opportunity to impress protocol and severity on them.

I hear you. Type 1 is absolutely relentless - my DS was diagnosed 2.5 years ago and I'm permanently anxious and completely exhausted. His mental health has plummeted although in fairness, he carbs counts like a ninja and generally manages himself really well.

@MyLadyTheKingsMother - just out of interest to you have any experience of T1, particularly in teens? Can I ask that you do a little bit of reading around diabetic burnout and then come back and add some more to the conversation?

@WanderingAroundandAround - is he on Dexcom? It's driving me crazy at the moment. We had consistent low readings the other night at 3.8- finger prick was 12.2.

We are lucky, there are a whole heap of T1s at my son's secondary school, and whilst he doesn't get help with it per se, they are very good when I ring and say "please could you go and ask him to turn his phone on as I'm not getting any readings". The med room are pretty clued up as well although they won't keep glucogon on site - we always try to make sure in DS's bag are pdm, glucose, an orange pen and all supplies need to change a pump.

You realise secondary schools are quite big - he could have been slumped in a toilet somewhere and no-one would have a clue. This is not a primary child - they do not have tabs on each child at any one time.

I would have done the same; better to be safe than sorry.

If you had done nothing, and the worst had happened, you would never ever have forgiven yourself.

If you were rushing up to school every day neurotic may be justified, on the circumstances you describe, absolutely not.

Well done for being so quick thinking, and able to get to the school as quickly as you did.

She had already rung the school and the school would therefore be locating the student.

OP I was nervous just reading your post until it turned out to be a wrong reading! You did the right thing.

Ah, it's hard when they just want to be like everyone else. The penny eventually dropped for ds2, that he feels better when his blood sugar is in range, and so it's worth some effort to keep it there. Took a while though. And quite a lot of bribery.

It's also worth noting that, whilst not the best way to handle it and you were understandably worried, the receptionist knew he was fine so her flipancy was because she knew there had been nothing wrong

No absolutely not did you overreact! I'm t1d and at times of extreme lows you cannot think straight, you don't always have the energy to take the sugar you need, your brain just freezes! You were so right and did a great job! Your son is lucky to have you... Sod what the ignorant nurse said!
Also there's such a thing as non symptomatic hypos, when your body doesn't feel it until right at the last minute. T1d isn't to be messed with. Well done mum I say 👍🏼

You’d rather sit at home and wait for your child to lose consciousness and risk death? Sorry but I don’t believe that for a second.

You would have been irresponsible NOT to go to the school. No parent should watch their child sliding towards a diabetic coma without taking action. You had no way of knowing that the data was false.

What ignorant nurse? The receptionist, who may have had no knowledge, may or may not have raised an eyebrow. The medical person said it was natural for OP to be worried. Neither was a nurse.

This

OP you did completely the right thing and I’d follow up in writing with the school about the potential seriousness of the situation.

Ignore the posters claiming that if they had an alert that their child was having a life threatening emergency they’d just chill at home and assume the school was dealing with it. ANY normal person would go and check their child was ok.

@cardibach sorry "medical lady" whoever she was, rolled her eyes... did you read the OP??

I'd have done exactly the same.

The monitor was telling you your son's life was in danger. Of course you are going to need to go to him and make sure he's safe. You can't just ignore it and hope for the best.

I'm glad he's OK. Perhaps a system can be put in place where if you get a warning from his monitor tge school arranges for him to speak directly to you so you know for sure the correct treatment is taking place in a timely manner.

Some people don't really understand how dangerous diabetes can be.

Yanbu, you did the right thing. You would never forgive yourself if you did nothing and it was serious. And yes, ignore if anyone thinks you are OTT. People don't know how quick this can go bad. We have a few T1 diabetics in our family and I know how scary this is.