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.

I don't think you were being unreadonable at all ( except in how you were rude to the receptionist).
I think you need to have a better system in place though with the school and your son fir getting a message to him

You did what a good parent does

As someone who works with young adults, our biggest first aid incidents are epilepsy and T1 diabetes, caused by a mixture of stress and them not taking meds / eating correctly to keep up with their peers. I'd have phoned an ambulance for those readings, so you WNBU, and your DS needs to start taking this seriously. He's going to really damage his health if he can't get this under control.

I'd ask your doctor for help with the monitor, to see why it glitched, and whether a pump would be suitable for DS if he's not controlling his insulin properly.

Did you? It was the school receptionist, not the medical lady. And she raised her eyebrows, not rolled her eyes ( Receptionist clearly raised her eyebrows ). The ‘medical lady’ who was dealing with the OP’s son said it was quite understandable to be worried ( Medical lady said it was natural that I was a bit anxious as still getting to grips with diagnosis ).
Neither was a nurse.
You seem very unclear. Maybe reread the OP.

Right about the receptionist.
Harsh about the comment for the boy to grow up and manage his blood sugar levels.
He is a kid with a life threatening condition. I have seen adults struggle with this.
OP my son was diagnosed at 13 and never went back to school again.for many reasons ,one being me having no confidence in the schools ability to keep my ds safe.
And hell yes I would have been racing to the school under those circumstances.
Totally unrelated but is it a libra monitor he has? If so how do you get sent the results? I assume your ds gets them on his phone .

The other night i woke at 2.9 and felt dreadful and very anxious at how low. 2.2 would be exceptionally dangerous. however, you do sometimes get weird lows if you're leaning on it.

You didn't do the wrong thing but you need to sit down with your son and ensure he keeps an eye on his sugar levels with his own phone. you shouldn't need to monitor it yourself.

If he doesn't want to keep his phone on him then i think both libre and dexcom do handheld monitors. they are a bit pricey though but he can have that out so he's not taking his phone out.

But at 13 he should be managing it himself and you really need to enforce how important it is

As parent to a T1 child,

• don't bother call a doctor about the sensor issue, call the provider. (Dexcom or Abbot I am guessing)
• nowhere does it say he's not controlling his insulin - the sensor glitched. It happens all the fucking time
• all of you saying DS needs to take this seriously - I am sure he is. It is a relentless disease, one you have to think about all.the.time. You are trying to act as your own internal organ, constantly. You have to calculate every gram of carbohydrate that passed your lips, you have to account for any exercise you do, over and above a gentle stroll, you have to factor in stress, illness, the weather. IT IS RELENTLESS. This child, and yes, he is a child, needs to be a child still - there will be occasions it goes wrong. Stop putting the blame on this poor child.

The receptionist should have empathised with you. Glad he's okay.

Hypos can kill.
Nobody wants it to reach the stage where they are unconscious.
Type 1 is not to be taken lightly.

1. The above needs addressing as it's a safeguarding issue. School should be challenging him if his phone ISN'T visible. None of the teachers what him to have an episode so it's in their interests to do this

2. Say the monitor HAD been right. There is every chance he would have needed to go to hospital or already be on his way to hospital. In which case, his parents being there makes it a lot easier all round for all parties - you, him and school.

Focus on this. Forget whether you feel judged or have been embarrassing. It's irrelevant.

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

I'm assuming you have no or very young dc.

13 year olds are unpredictable as hell. They regularly lull you into a false sense of security by acting like responsible mini-adults for ages. Then out of the blue they do something so overwhelmingly, jaw-droppingly stupid/ irresponsible/dangerous/immature that it really hammers it back home to you that they're actually just children.

Something as life and death as this - only a total moron would put 100% faith in a 13 year old to manage and monitor it.

To be fair to the receptionist she could have just reacted to the shock and horror the OP was feeling as it was unexpected and it just surprised her, you can't just assume judgement etc from raised eyebrows.

You absolutely did not do anything wrong OP, that's your child and he has a life threatening disease, who cares how it looks, you rush in any time you think you might need to!

Doesn't sound like DS did anything wrong either though, he couldn't help the monitor malfunctioning.

@cardibach you need to get out more. All this is irrelevant. OP wanted to know if she was unreasonable.. no she wasn't. Get a life!

You did the right thing 100%. What if the monitor hadn’t been wrong? This wasn’t you ‘being a bit anxious’, this was you acting on information that your son’s life was in danger. It sounds like you don’t trust the school procedures 100%. Is there a named contact you can go over it with to ensure they know what to do, and you feel confident that they do?

I agree with pp who said most people don’t know how dangerous Tupe 1 is, and how difficult it is to manage.

Would've done the exact same thing. Doesn't matter what the school staff think. He's your dc and comes above all. They should've been more understanding. That's really stressful.
My dd's school have tried to tell me that she can't have her inhaler in her bag. Fuck that. It'd be too late by the time they'd got their finger out of their arses and found the one in the school office. I just tell her to keep on in her bag anyway.
I'd probably get the device checked out if it's faulty.

I think I'm probably just repeating what everyone else has already said but as another T1 parent, I would also have reacted just as you did if my son was showing as 2.2 and still dropping. 2.2 is dangerously low, you had no way of knowing it was an incorrect reading, or of knowing if it was being dealt with.

For context, my son is 12, and has been dealing with this for nearly 8 years now (and has only ever dropped to 2.2 a handful of times). He is however still a child and managing blood sugar levels is really, really difficult as anyone with T1, or any parent of a child with T1 will know, so the comment above that your son needs to grow up and manage his blood sugar is laughably misguided.

Ah. So you’ve looked and realised your quite aggressive response to me had its facts wrong so are going to attack me for not having a life? Weird n
Ive already posted to say the OP wasn’t unreasonable, incidentally.

This, in spades.

Ok, I just saw this. This is unacceptable and the staff need to know your son’s feelings and to know the impact that shaming/stigma/embarrassment can have in T1D. This should be part of your discussion with school about supporting him. I was a teacher with diabetic students and had zero training on how to help/support/what their needs were and I would have really appreciated knowing how best to help.

Completely agree. In this scenario I don't think it's sensible to just have awareness with the school nurse.

At work we regularly do lunch and learn sessions. About all kinds of random stuff but the emphasis is on diversity and building awareness of differences. Any reason not to go into the school and do one for the staff?

Just a thought but if your DS doesn't want his phone on display on his desk, he could always place it on the desk of the teacher when he goes into every class... Presume that would encourage him to proactively check his levels a bit more so it NEVER vibrates.

I get the embarrassment thing. DD is dyslexic and while she is generally very good, she hates being marked out as different

It's not life threatening though.

You did completely the right thing and I'd go tearing in there every time.

Same. Next time it might be the real thing, it's best to never take the risk.

Yanbu. It's not like you rushed in over a slight scratch or something. It's a serious condition

I would have done exactly the same as you, I’m sorry you’re going through this (as well as your DS! Might be his diagnosis but as a family it sounds bloody scary and stressful)

He might have been unconscious somewhere, you were right to go in.