I'm Doing What?

For reasons we're not privy to, the regular middle school nurse has not been at school lately.  Instead, the school has been offering a 'nurse of the day' program for the past 2-3 weeks.  Since we're in our 8th year of school nurse use in this district, we're very familiar with the substitute nurse rotation and with the regular nurses on staff throughout town.  My daughter has seen most of them as the school year closes down.  She was particularly happy to see a couple of faces she hadn't seen since elementary school.

Then the day finally came when the list had been exhausted and a new face appeared.  Loosely in my child's own words with animated facial expressions to match, this was the experience:

I walked into the nurse's office and there was a nurse there I'd never met.  She was wearing silver leggings- like sparkly, really-, a white shirt with a black cloud on it, and a very bright neon yellow sweater.  I went straight to my box of stuff and started to check just like I always do.  She didn't say hello but she was just staring at me.

"I have diabetes," I said.  "It's my lunch time."

"Oh, so you're monitoring your blood glucose then?"

"Um...yes."

Um...yes.

And um...yes, this phrase is sticking around.  Prior to all meals and other checking scenarios, we'll make sure to remind my child to 'monitor her blood glucose.'  It's very, very important stuff.

Doopities

"Do my doopities?"

I still remember the first time my daughter asked this question.  She was very low.  She had some juice.  I breathed a sigh of relief.

Within a couple of months of being diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 13 months, my daughter had made up this word.  "Doopities" meant checking her blood sugar.  Nonsensical?  Absolutely.  But when it was time for food or bed, we'd say, "let's go check your blood sugar," and she'd say "doopities."

"Do my doopities?"  The first time she asked this out of the blue, she was maybe 24 months old.  She felt low.  She knew what she needed to do.  It was a bittersweet moment for sure.  Mostly, though, I was relieved.

From the day we brought her home after being diagnosed, we spent every waking moment watching her like a hawk.  Was she slowing down?  Were her eyes glazy?  Was she pale?  Why was she crying?  Was she lying in the grass because it was fun or because she didn't feel well?  Was it o.k. to let her play in the sandbox by herself 40 yards from where I was weeding the vegetable garden?

After this first request for 'doopities,' we were not, of course, home free.  She was 2. We watched her like a hawk for several more years.  We still usually picked up on lows before she did.  We still needed to be responsible for keeping her safe.  Yet at that moment, we turned a little bend which brought us all the way to where we are today.

Now that's she's 12, it's increasingly rare that I'm the one suggesting she check her blood sugar.  Once in a blue moon there will be excessive crying.  Those eyes still noticeably glaze over sometimes.  More often than not, though, she catches lows on her own.

But these days she just says, "I need to check my blood sugar."