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.

You were not at all unreasonable. It was very serious. Receptionist was rude and clearly if she is working with children with serious illnesses needs to be educated.

I had a cousin diagnosed as a teenager. You absolutely did not over-react. The seriousness of hypos is not to be under-estimated, both short term and long term.

Some feedback to school to raise awareness sounds in order. Not least for the behaviour that can accompany sinking blood sugars. My cousin used to get quite aggressive when going into a "low".

I second the poster who mentioned "teenage rebellion". It's tough to be diagnosed when you don't want to appear different from your mates. Best of luck OP

My ds receptionist told my ds he didn't need antihistamines once when he asked for them.

The hives were up to his neck when I got him 10 minutes later - I was picking him up and only found out he'd asked when I spoke to him at home.

Receptionist said she refused because she "can't just give him them to him Willy nilly"

You did the right thing. I think sometimes they forget we sit with the consultants and hear more information. Hope he's ok .

That's outrageous of the receptionist! I hope you complained and it was made abundantly clear to her how wrong she was.

As the wife of a type.1 no not an over reaction at all. I'd be raising it with school as an education issue for staff. The monitors do occasionally seem to go wrong, DH always does a finger prickle if monitor says low and he feels OK to confirm his blood levels. Would they have preferred you waited untill he was comatose somewhere!

I look after a couple of type ones at a secondary school I work at. We have an iPad that monitors their sugar levels, and if one of them had been doing that, I would have gone and found them to check they were ok. I would not be surprised if a parent had turned up, particularly as it is a fairly new diagnosis. Next time you could maybe phone medical and save yourself a journey - good luck with your son -it's a tough thing for a teenager to deal with.

This is very good advice.

You did the right thing.. they will always think you are neurotic but who cares!
He is your son not theirs and you did the right thing. Unless people have a child/teen who can get into a life threatening situ v quickly they just don’t understand.
My son looks healthy as but has a life limiting condition and he can go downhill within mins. I knew his ‘big’ school thought I was being overprotective with him but that soon stopped when he was ambulanced away after a collapse witnessed by the entire school and staff. There was no more looking at me like I had ten heads after that. He was ambulanced away many more times during his school career and thankfully after the first time he had made good friends who knew exactly what to do and had my number on their phones for an emergency. One of them saved his life when a supply teacher didn’t believe he was in trouble. The friend went and got help from a teacher who knew DS thus saving his life.
I was always polite but I never took any crap from receptionists who didn’t know my son

I once taught a child with type 1 diabetes and her mum was similarly concerned. It never bothered me and I wouldn't ever have thought badly of her for being too worried, especially with a relatively recent diagnosis. You did nothing wrong OP except maybe embarrass your son - but that's what parents are for! ;)

Not at all! You were being vigilant & absolutely did the right thing.
you may have misread the receptionist’s response, due to stress (understandable), so a brief explanation & apology to her would no doubt be appreciated if you think this may be the case. Potentially a good opportunity to build a trust with her for any future occurrences.

Just to add not only is it difficult for a teenager to adjust to having type 1 but being a teenager is one of the times when type1 is the most difficult to control. Definitely ask for staff to be properly trained.

I had one of those monitors on for 2 months (I'm not diabetic but was being tested) and I had lots of results that were 2.5 etc and was rather concerned, went for another test were they took my blood and sent it directly to the lab when the finger prick & monitor indicated low readings- none came back with low sugar when tested at the lab. The specialist said they aren't very accurate but it you get symptoms in-line with the readings then it's more likely to be a better indicator.

Why has she got to apologize ?for being a concerned Parent.
You even said yourself she did nothing wrong.
Do you think for one minute the eye brow raising receptionist wouldn’t be there if it were her child.

The school should be apologising to her! They have treated a potentially life threatening emergency as a scraped knee - I’d be asking for a meeting ASAP!

I'm not prone to panicking, but in your shoes I'd have done the same. As far as you knew, his life was in danger. Thankfully he was fine, that's the most important thing. Move on now and don't give it another thought. You did what most loving parents would do.

I don’t think any parent trying to manage a possible life threatening situation should feel guilty!!

I’d have done the same OP and I’m sure most parents would have.

Complain to the school about the receptionist. We had a similar incident and the receptionist was spoken to and the school apologised. Receptionists shouldn’t be judging regardless of the situation.

I’m glad your son is ok.

As a school first aider, I would have been very pleased to see you; pleased to discuss any concerns and deeply pissed off with anyone who made you feel like you were in the wrong for coming. I would have followed with discussions around a new school management plan for DS.

I would also have been having a very PA chat with reception staff, had you explained you were left feeling silly...

I find diabetes and seizure are both frequently and wildly misunderstood. YANBU.

I would have done exactly as you did, and gave the receptionist what for!

Not neurotic and nothing to apologise for!

@WanderingAroundandAround another type 1 parent here, my child has been diagnosed for a similar amount of time. Luckily his school are brilliant (although primary, I dread secondary).

I’ve fortunately never had to go to school, but we’ve not hit the teenage rebellious years yet. Or hormones.

Have you been offered a pump yet?

BTW, for those that don’t seem to know, a pump has to be approved with funding then you have to select which pump you want then go for additional training. Then it takes however long to adjust. It’s not just a case of getting one and using it.

I can't imagine doing anything other than racing to the school under those circumstances. The whole point of the monitor and the alerts is to respond to situations like this. The school sounds like they need educating on just how serious his condition is, as it sounds like they were far too lax about it (in regards to your reaction). Fine, it wasn't an emergency, but you didn't know that.

better safe than sorry and a hospital visit

You are absolutely not being unreasonable to go and check on him. As you say, it can be a life threatening emergency. I think a lot of people don't realise how difficult it can be to manage, especially during the teenage years! Most people think you just inject yourself with insulin once a day and that's it. I don't know if you were slightly over-reacting to the receptionist's expression but I'm sure given the situation, she won't hold it against you. Glad your son was ok!

Absolutely not ,you did the right thing