Missing Class

Low blood sugars have been frequent around here lately.  My daughter seems to go through a streak of them every fall, but the implications are getting harder to manage.  Missing class time in 7th grade is much different than it is in 3rd.

Our current in-school low blood sugar protocol is this:  She checks in the classroom to confirm she's low and is escorted to the nurse by a classmate.  She has a juice box and waits 10 minutes.  She rechecks and if she's back in range she heads back to class. Usually, one juice box perks her back up, but she's had a few 2 box lows lately.

Nobody's comfortable with her wandering back up to class at 53, hoping that second juice will kick in. So there she sits with the nurse.  The nurse, as we all know, is lovely.  But she's not accredited to teach geometry, or geography, or grammar.

So when 4:00 homework time rolls around, I'm called upon for help.  I'm able to help with English. Geography is easy enough with the textbook at hand, and it's interesting.  Geometry?  Forget it.  Helping with math homework consists of me sitting near her, muttering encouraging words while she reads the textbook out loud until she figures it out.

Fortunately she's a smart kid, and can catch up pretty quickly.  But it's frustrating for both of us.  The question is, can we make it so she doesn't have to?

Obviously we're tackling the low blood sugar issue.  No matter when they happen, sticky low blood sugars shouldn't happen on a regular basis.  Adjustments are underway.

But I'm also wondering about our low-at-school game plan.  What could we do so that she misses less class time when this does happen?

As usual, sitting here writing has brought ideas to mind, some of them pretty obvious.  Like when she tests in class and she's 58, she should drink the juice she has with her on her way to the nurse, not wait until she gets there.  And maybe we need to talk with the nurse about whether any lows could be treated by my daughter in the classroom.  For her, some lows are very functional lows at which she can drink juice and keep doing what she's doing.  During others, she feels much safer taking a time-out in the company of a caregiver.  How to quantify or describe this on a 504 plan, I'm not sure.

Any other ideas or suggestions which will keep me from (re?)learning more geometry or algebra are most welcome.