#725 Teacher Mama
Christina is themother of a type 1 and a teacher at her school.
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Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 725 of the Juicebox Podcast.
Today on the show, we'll be speaking with Christina. Christina is the mother of a child with type one diabetes, and she's a teacher. So we're gonna get her teacher mom perspective today. While you're listening, please don't forget, just don't forget, while you're listening that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan, or becoming bold with insulin. I'm gonna say it again, because it has to be said, if you're messed up. I'll try again. If you're a US resident who has type one diabetes, or is the caregiver of someone with type one, please go to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. Join the registry fill out the survey answer the easy questions. It's completely HIPAA compliant and absolutely anonymous. When you answer these questions, you'll be helping other people with type one diabetes you'll be helping the show and you're just might be helping yourself. Go see Wow. P one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox.
This show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries G voc hypo penne Find out more at G voc glucagon.com. Forward slash Juicebox. Podcast is also sponsored by touched by type one head to touch by type one.org to learn more. And today's program is what my grandmother would have called it a program. I don't know why she'd say I'm gonna sit down and watch my programs. I mean, I don't know she was from a different time. Anyway, the program is also sponsored today by us med. US med is the distributor of diabetes supplies. It's where I get our hands on the pods. And it's where I get Arden's Dex comps, you can get your things there as well. Go to us med.com Ford slash juice box or call 888-721-1514 To get your free benefits check. Thanks so much for supporting the sponsors. Now let me get you to the program. You know, in my mind now expect the mandrill sisters to come out and sing or Lawrence walk or something like that.
Christina 2:39
Seattle Aquarium.
Scott Benner 2:40
Oh,
Christina 2:42
and yeah, it was really active. It's like climbing all over the glass. So it's my favorite animal.
Scott Benner 2:47
There you go. I was in Seattle. This year. I didn't know that. Yeah,
Christina 2:53
it's not huge. It's okay. It's you know, it's important, but I wouldn't say that you need to like go back specifically to see the aquarium.
Scott Benner 3:01
If you enjoy them and you're ever in Georgia, the Atlanta aquarium is is quite spectacular.
Christina 3:07
Okay. All right. All right. I will tell ya,
Scott Benner 3:11
well, good plans on leaving I for Georgia soon or No,
Christina 3:15
I don't. But now I'm just gonna go just for that
Scott Benner 3:18
feels like a hollow promise to me. But I want to say I was there with my son when he was like 16. And he was playing baseball. At the end of this very long, very hot day. We had this little gap of time, it was the only time we could go to the Atlanta aquarium. By the way, if you've never been there, their traffic is horrendous. So, the CRAM is pretty close to the hotel. And I'm like, Look, we have to go. You know, we're gonna go We're here. We're this close to it. And he just he did not want to he fought it. He's like, No, I'm tired. I'm hot. I just wanna take a shower. I don't want to do like the basically like looked at the floor the entire time we drove there we were caught in horrendous traffic turning what in any normal place would have been like a 15 minute ride until like a 45 minute ride to you know, get in there. And when we leave some hours later, he says to me in the parking garage. I'm glad you made me come to this. Oh, that's good, nicest concession he's ever made to me in my life on something like that. So
Christina 4:24
that's awesome. That feels good as a parent you need those moments brought this
Scott Benner 4:27
up to him recently. doesn't particularly remember it.
Christina 4:33
That's great. Sorry, the he'll probably have similar experience at some point when the tables have flipped.
Scott Benner 4:40
Or I'm wasting my entire life.
Christina 4:43
Yeah, I have those moments. Those thoughts too. It's apparent like why am I spending so much time on this?
Scott Benner 4:48
You kept that like these most like, I kept thinking of it as like he'll never remember it when he was little. But it'll it'll be the building blocks of who he is. He's got Throwing up and sometimes I'm like, I don't think that worked.
Christina 5:03
Yeah. Well, it's like my daughter just lost to her first two teeth. And, you know, it's like, do you what do you because our parents kept ours, you know? And I'm like, I don't, I don't, I didn't want my teeth. Like, it was really strange when my parents handed me my teeth. And we're like, Here you go. And I was like that that's, that was my part of my body. And that's just really weird. It's just one of those things where you're like, I don't think this is going to be important to you.
Scott Benner 5:31
I need to tell you that I've been recording the entire time and starting to think I'm leaving this in. So I'm going to tell you something right now. All right. I don't know why. But Kelly kept the kids teeth. Okay. Okay, I didn't even know it was happening. And when I found out, I found it a porn. And then she told the kids one day, and they, they shunned her. So.
Christina 5:59
So I made the good choice of throwing them out into the garden, basically, although that could be creepy for someone else, and they buy our house and find little baby teeth.
Scott Benner 6:08
You throw them in the garden?
Christina 6:10
I did. I don't know why, but it was like, it feels less abrupt or like less crude than throwing them just in the trash. I don't know why I was like, I'll put them in the bushes. That was like my middle ground, I guess.
Scott Benner 6:29
Yeah, if we lived in a small community in the 1800s, my children would have made Kelly move just outside of the tree line after they told her that. Right, exactly. That's disgusting. And then she showed them and they were like, no, no, no, we don't care about this. Like, why are you showing this to us? Yeah. I can understand. I think I took that opportunity afterwards to go, you know, some of the other things that you're saving to give them later. They don't want that either.
Christina 6:55
Right? Yeah. And there's like, if you save everything, like where do you possibly even put it all? You know, we have to actually hide when things when we when we, you know, purge, we have to hide them from my daughter, before we throw them away because she wants to keep like everything. So maybe she would be the one of the people that would want her baby teeth. But I really got to work on her right now about this because she's going to be like a hoarder. If I don't, it sounds
Scott Benner 7:18
like you're judging her. But you threw their teeth into a bush. So I'm not certain where this fault lies. Exactly. True. True. I will finish by telling you that my mom is 79 now and she just moved out of her home to a place where you know, somebody can be with her a little more frequently. And she has this candle. It's a Christmas tree. And it's maybe, I mean, no lights, maybe about 18 inches high. It's the most realistic looking candle I've ever seen in my life. And I remember it throughout my life. You know, like it's always been around as a decoration at Christmas and my whole life. I've thought, why don't we ever burn that candle? So we're cleaning up her apartment, she's there. And I'm like, you know, there's a lot of stuff she had to get rid of. She just doesn't have the space for it. And I said, Mom, what's the story of this candle? She goes, That's my mom's and I flipped on the bottom. The label on the bottom is actually made out of cloth. And it's just, it's really old. And I said to her I'm like, okay, she's, you know, like, Well, what do you want to do with it? She was I don't want any space for it. I said, I'm gonna take it home. I said, but I'm gonna burn it. But only on Christmas. Yeah. And she goes, Okay, I said, so I'll have it for years, you know, we'll burn on Christmas. So she was at my house on Christmas. I set the candle. I'm like, Mom, I'm gonna light the candle. Is that okay? Like, are you alright with this? Because most of what I'm thinking is the candles neat and everything. But, I mean, if I if I turned to my kids 25 years to now go, Hey, this candle belonged to my mom and it belonged to her mom, they're gonna throw in the garbage.
Christina 8:53
It's like you might as well just enjoy it.
Scott Benner 8:55
That's exactly how I felt. I was like, why don't we just burn the candle and just enjoy it. And by the way, however long ago that candle was purchased, they made candles a lot better because it didn't drip. It didn't smoke. It burns slowly. We have apparently as Americans forgot how to make candles or we don't make them here anymore or something.
Christina 9:14
Right, right. That's not surprising, unfortunately. But that's really cool. That'll be a really fun tradition.
Scott Benner 9:19
Yes, if I can remember the damn candle is next year.
Christina 9:22
We'll see. The other challenge? Yes. Anyway, Christy,
Scott Benner 9:26
you should probably introduce yourself.
Christina 9:29
Yes, yeah. So obviously, my name is Christina and my daughter Annie started kindergarten in August at the school where I also teach fifth grade. So I was hoping to kind of share a little bit about the start of her year in kindergarten and kind of what we're working on challenges that we came up against in the hopes that might help others prepare and get a little window into what to expect.
Scott Benner 9:53
What if I said to you, I don't want to talk about that. I want to talk about candles and aquariums for the rest of you
Christina 9:57
could probably do that, ya know? No, no, please. I could,
Scott Benner 10:01
but you could.
Christina 10:03
I probably could. I'm a chatty person. So especially if it involves aquariums because yeah, I do like marine biology, but I guess we'll give other people a break.
Scott Benner 10:15
Yes, for sure. I will tell you I think that what's sold my son on the Atlanta aquarium with the beluga whales.
Christina 10:20
Oh my gosh, I've never seen I've never seen those.
Scott Benner 10:23
I think that might have been what did it and pretty amazing. There's also like a main tank in there that is so large that it's hard to wrap your head around. Oh, okay. But that's not the point. The point is, you made some babies. How many babies did we make?
Christina 10:39
I've got two. So Annie is the oldest and then Jack is plays a year and a half. A little bit. A lot more. She'll be two in April. Put it that way.
Scott Benner 10:47
Okay. And how old Danny again?
Christina 10:50
She will be six in June. So she's five now diagnosed when she was diagnosed at two and a half, three years. Yeah, we just celebrated this last September. We just celebrated kind of like the tipping point, you know, where she said diabetes in her life longer than
Scott Benner 11:07
not? Would you do fireworks?
Christina 11:13
You would think I would remember what we did for her diversity. But it's kind of weird because of COVID. You know, like the her last couple of diversities have been pretty toned down like the first year we went really big. And we went to Canada. And we had like a three day weekend. And then after that. It was a little bit more scaled down. But I think we just kind of went out. We always go out to dinner and have lots of desserts. We do like a weekend type of thing. So we have lots of dessert that weekend and she gets a little little present and stuff and we just kind of make a big deal of it.
Scott Benner 11:43
Cool. That's excellent. Well, you live in Seattle. I wasn't sure maybe you took over a city block and moved into a bank or something like that.
Christina 11:50
Right? Yeah. Yeah. And we we actually live further north we live in Bellingham area.
Scott Benner 11:58
Christina trying to distance herself from craziness. She's like, I don't really live right there.
Christina 12:04
Okay, Seattle is amazing, but it's actually worse than he was born. But there's so much traffic, it's, uh, you know, crazy. It's just you lose like hours of your day and traffic. So we couldn't do that.
Scott Benner 12:17
Do that, that's for sure. Okay, so any other type one or autoimmune issues in your family?
Christina 12:24
No, you we have type two runs on both sides. I'm pre diabetic, but not type one. It was definitely out of the blue. When she was first showing symptoms. We didn't know what they were. We just kind of she had gotten sick. And we she started drinking a lot of water was the logic you know, those common things and we just chalked it up to her kind of recovering. She had never, she's always had a really strong immune system and had never been to the doctor before ever before being admitted to the hospital. So we just thought that her body was doing what it needed to do to recover from being sick. And then she kept drinking more and more water. And we had luckily caught it before she wanted to ketoacidosis so we, you know, call their doctor and like she's drinking a lot of water. She's wetting the bed, which at that point, she was, you know, potty trained and all that jazz. And so it was abnormal for her. And, yeah, my, it was a kind of a dramatic event because my husband took her into our doctor. And it was like, right at the time when school started for me and the kids. Were starting to come into the classroom and I got a phone call from him saying, you know, he was very calm about it. He's been like, he's been an EMT and a firefighter. And so he like very calmly using his, like, firefighter voice told me on the phone, you know, what was up, like, we need to go to Seattle Children's Hospital. They're saying that she has diabetes. And it was just this very crazy dramatic thing where like, the kids are coming to my classroom and I'm like, running against the tide of students to the off office. And I was like, I have to go now. It was it's always like imprinted on my memory like trying to get down that hallway of students. So but we did catch her early enough to where it wasn't dramatic. She didn't have to be in the ICU or anything. And I feel like overall, you know, our experience with it was pretty smooth as far as being, you know, she wasn't helicoptered out or anything like that.
Scott Benner 14:18
Right. Okay. So some would argue maybe her immune system too strong.
Christina 14:23
Exactly. I know. Seriously, and actually, my, my son has not gotten sick yet. Like he's really I mean, he may, you know, every once in a while he'll have a low grade fever maybe. But it makes me nervous now.
Scott Benner 14:37
Yeah. Ya know, when he like rubs his face on the glass door, and you're just like, Oh, he's fine. Doesn't matter. He's looking handrails. Nothing happens. And
Christina 14:44
yeah, yes. So well. Yeah.
Scott Benner 14:47
Let me say this. No, I'm not pushing this on you. But trial net is in your general area of the country. Like there is the home office there. So if you want to do that with I don't know if home office is the right verbiage. But your hub? Yeah, I don't know. Listen.
Christina 15:03
Yes, we once he, we actually have it in our notes at Seattle Children's that once he turns to we're gonna go ahead and go through that program.
Scott Benner 15:12
Cool. All right. So, very specifically, we're going to talk about your professional expertise and how it's intersecting with your parenting and then maybe some ideas that you might have wrapped around both sides of it. So how long have you been a teacher?
Christina 15:29
Okay, I think I know the answer this question off the top of my head, but I have been a teacher for 11 years now.
Scott Benner 15:36
Okay. And you you said you were teaching fifth grade at the time do you still teach with
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Christina 18:23
I know. It's probably like your son. They're like, What are you talking about? Like this massive life event? For me? It's probably like,
Scott Benner 18:28
can I just check with something real quickly when you are absent one day or you just take a day off? Absent? Like you're not an adult? Let's say you just take the day off? What do they do with your kids? Do they bring in someone to teach them? Or do they put them in a closet for the day? How do they handle it?
Christina 18:44
Yeah, you have to get a substitute teacher. And it's actually a lot of work. So teachers don't often, you know, this year is kind of different with COVID. But you know, that's where you get teachers coming in. They're sick. They're coming in, like, at death's door because it's almost just more work to make sub plans because you have to like, write out every step of like, every minute that a guest teachers in your room what they do prep everything. It's a ton of work.
Scott Benner 19:11
Okay, my daughter's High School now doesn't even bother with it. Which I find disturbing. Interesting. So if your teachers not there that day, they send you to a common area and you sit there and stare at something for an hour.
Christina 19:24
That's bizarre. Do they have subs, like shortages or something?
Scott Benner 19:28
I don't know. There used to be subs and a few years ago this started happening. Weird. And now the teachers tell the kids like hey, I'm taking off tomorrow.
Christina 19:35
Oh, that's that's, that's interesting. Oh,
Scott Benner 19:39
it's not interesting. It's this. It's the feeding. i We I'm paying the property taxes here for that school. And yeah, but that's a different system. I have not heard of that. Yeah, this is how it's being handled how the teacher can't come. That's okay. Just sit there.
Christina 19:52
So interesting. I don't know why. I haven't heard of that. No, that's not a common practice over here.
Scott Benner 19:59
Okay, so So, all right. I want to start I guess with so your daughter's going into school now into kindergarten? Yeah. Okay. And let's start from your perspective as a mom, like what was there to do as she went into school around diabetes.
Christina 20:18
So we, first of all, I started having a lot of anxiety, I think I'd want to, I think I want to start with that, because I, you know, Annie has a really strong, confident young lady has always made friends really easily, I've never would have worried about her socially. And even with that, around like, three months before kindergarten started, I started having just not, you know, waking up at night, worried anxiety about the transition. And I think what I was most worried about was, you know, her, I had these like images of her going in her alarms going off and being kind of like kids kind of judging her being wanting to separate themselves from her excluding her because of her diabetes. And so the first thing that I did when I started experiencing that was I reached out to our team at Seattle Children's, and I asked them to connect me with some families whose kids had gone through kindergarten. So that I could kind of ease some of that and get a more realistic picture of what other experiences were, which is also one of the reasons why I wanted to come on to the podcast, too, because it was really helpful when I was able to reach out to some of those families and say, Hey, did they did your child experience this, and the overwhelming response that I got, and I'm not saying this is true for everyone was that it was, you know, as far as the acceptance socially, was very smooth, there are a lot of other kids who have special needs and classes and kindergarten, everyone's just kind of on even playing field. So that made me feel a lot better. And I would recommend that any other families who are experiencing that also kind of reach out, we don't have a huge community up here. In Seattle, there's a big community, you know, type one community but appear not so much. And so it really is kind of like, a little bit lonely like Annie didn't, we actually just recently met some other type ones her age, but up until even a month ago, you know, it was just kind of so I didn't really have anyone to compare to. So after I kind of worked through that a little bit, in June, we met, I met with over zoom with the nurse and we started setting up some preliminary information to start getting the 504 going, so that she could work on it, write it up. And then we also needed to as part of that we needed to get our paperwork from Seattle Children's that has what they call standing order. So you know, what, kind of directions for how to address her needs at school. But it has to had to come from the, from them. And all of that gets it worked into the 504. And then we met again, in August, before school started to go over that written plan to sign it, etc. So that's kind of like the quick little overview of the setup. So you know, check in the, you know, before the school year yet and prior to start getting that ball rolling is what I would recommend. Yeah, you
Scott Benner 23:13
know, it's funny, as a person who's now had a kid with diabetes go completely through school like Arden's a senior now, and she started school with diabetes. I like my first inclination is almost not to laugh at you, but to be like, Oh, it'll be okay. Don't worry about it. And you know, like, I know you're going to but then I remembered that I think I went into the school like nine months before Arden school year started the tried to get a 504 plan. Yeah. And they were like, Why are you here? Well, they looked at me very strangely. Yes. And they didn't kick me out. But they were like, no, like, we don't do that now come back
Christina 23:48
into, especially right now, because school nurses are so overloaded with COVID. I'm really glad that we and she had reached out to me because of that reason. You know, there's just a lot going on for school nurses in their world right now. I don't know how she's amazing. That's all I have to say. So it helped to just get the Getting Started a little bit earlier.
Scott Benner 24:12
Okay. I am, I would have to say that. I guess I'm interested. Let me just change my my, my thought here for a second. I'm more interested in now that you've seen the whole thing be set up? How many times have you been handed a 504 as a teacher?
Christina 24:27
Oh, frequently.
Scott Benner 24:30
What really happens? Like do you just kind of like listen, do you just kind of like Look at it go, Oh, my kid got asthma. I think you stick it in the drawer. Do you really read it or like how valuable are they?
Christina 24:41
I think it depends on the severity of the diagnosis. So for instance, because if I before is is used for a large range of things. What I most commonly use see fiber force for are like learning disorders. So things like, you know, if a student has ADHD or something or something along those lines, it could be asthma related. Yeah. And in general, in, I would say, in fifth grade, it's a little bit different, because fifth graders are much more able to manage themselves. So for instance, if a student has asthma, it's, they're much better about saying, I need to use my inhaler right now. versus, you know, if you are in a kindergarten class, and the kid is unaware that they need their inhaler, and might be like wheezing, you know, get to a point where they're using so. And when it comes to learning, you know, accommodations for learning. That's where it's nice to have that copy. You know, I have like a binder that I use, it's right in front of me. And I have students who, you know, every year who needs special education services, and they have accommodations, and I think it depends on the teacher, perhaps, but I'm constantly kind of flipping back and forth to those to make sure that I'm following them. So even even when it comes to like, when I'm making a new seating chart, you know, making sure that I'm following that plan, and if there's like preferential seating, following through, but that being said, I teach fifth grade, I have one group of kids. And if I, you know, was teaching middle school or high school, you've got a lot more kids. Yeah, it's a lot harder to manage. And I think it's really important to teach kids to, to advocate for themselves, even from a young age. And we're already teaching Annie that as well.
Scott Benner 26:28
I bring it up, because one of the things that I kind of see online frequently is newer diagnose people send their kids off. Ooh, hold on a second. Yeah, I don't, I'm not sure just what happened there. Sorry. I'm trying to get some water while I'm trying to hold on to my idea. So I see newer diagnose kids, right, and their parents have set up this 504 plan. And then something doesn't happen in the 504 plan. And they kind of lose their shirt a little bit. You know what I mean? Like, and sometimes it could be I don't want to say inconsequential things, but sometimes it's smaller stuff. You know, like, it's not like, I mean, don't get me wrong, like I want the kid tested, you know, blood sugar tested, you know, alarms being treated properly, you know, blood sugars being handled, like all the like the like Do or Die stuff, obviously can't get ignored. But when it's some like little weird thing, you put in your 504 plan, and they didn't do it, and then they start running around, you know, yelling about like, we could sue over this. I was like, I don't know what this is doesn't seem important to me. You know what I mean? Like, sometimes, you know, I've only spoken about this a handful of times, probably on the podcast, but my thought process going into the school Saans the first time when I went in like a year before Arden was going to be in kindergarten was I guess I realized in that first meeting, they looked at me like I was out of my mind. And I thought I don't want to be the crazy parent. Like Like, because, you know, once you leave the school, they're just they're people at their job. And, you know, when I walked out my imagination told me that they stood in that office, they're like, What is wrong with that guy? You know, and, and I thought, I don't want this to be the case. I don't want it to be adversarial. And I don't want them to think of me as like reactionary and overreacting. So I'm cognizant about, like, keeping the 504 plan thoughtful, but simple, and followable. And then I just realized at one point, like you can't, like even if you read it, it's not like it means anything to you. If you don't know about diabetes.
Christina 28:40
Yeah, and it's such a, it's such a complicated disease, right. It's not, it's not like, you've taken inhaler, when you have a symptom. It's, you know, it's, it's such an ongoing management throughout the day. And I agree with you, like, even when I even with frequently looking at this stuff, there's absolutely times where I'm gonna forget, because I think one thing that's really important to remember is that it's such the classroom is such a dynamic space. And you have kids who are in the room that have all kinds of needs, and it's not always it's not always physical, right? So, especially, you know, this is a great example, we have a lot of kids who are experiencing trauma, anxiety, depression, you know, who were already experiencing those things and then put a pandemic and isolation on top of it, it's, you know, really, really traumatizing and then and then so you're trying to manage all of their needs, their academic sides, but you're also trying to manage the whole child and think about what they need social emotionally, in order to be just like a good person in society. And so you're trying to meet those needs in addition to the layering on top of needs that are in a 504 and then every day is just really different. It's the thing that I love about teaching is that you go in and your day yesterday is not going to be the same as the one that you're having today. And sometimes that's great. And sometimes that really is challenging. But it? It does, there's so much variability that again, I think it kind of, I think what you're saying is spot on and that you got to be careful about. You want to think about the battles, what you're what you're kind of highlighting most are the battles that you're choosing. And, and that that was one of the things that I was going to talk about too, is just that, we've absolutely had to change some things from how we expected them to go. So Right. So for instance, I can kind of tell you a little bit about how we have it running and then some of the challenges we came across.
Scott Benner 30:41
Can I I do want to hear that. But I want to say first, you got to like when you went to college, you're you have an undergrad and what what's your undergrad?
Christina 30:51
So I have a bachelor's in English and comparative literature. And then I have a master's in education, and my multiple subject teaching credential and my single subject teaching credential,
Scott Benner 31:02
nursing classes. I No. No, pre med. No. How about Psych? Did you take any psychology classes? No, no. So are you trying to say that a bunch of children are coming together that have a lot of needs that, you know, nobody's really qualified to help with like, you're, you're qualified to teach them, and then they they show up with all these other needs. I think it's just very important for the parents to remember that you're not sending your you know, I don't know you're shy kid to a psychologist, you're sending them to an education major. And there's, you know, and you're not sending. And by the way, too, how often do we talk about on here? How nurses don't get any training around? Oh, my goodness. So. So you think they tell teachers about it?
Christina 31:49
Right, or, you know, or even like, it's very rare to find a school where there's a full time nurse just dedicated to that one school. So their caseload is usually spread across several schools. You know, and that's that itself is a challenge. They're not always on your child's campus.
Scott Benner 32:07
I think the last thing I want to add before you move on, is that we are in a really wonderful time around diabetes where everything is obvious to you like I can pick up my phone right now. And I can swipe up and tell you that Arden's blood sugar's 91. That looks pretty stable to me. And like, I know that in the blink of an eye, but hundreds of 1000s, if not millions of children, before your kids went to school with diabetes, and they didn't have a CGM, or some of them didn't even have a meter. You know, and, you know, maybe their long term health won't be the greatest compared to yours. But they did live through fourth grade. So, you know, I think there's a way to, there's a way to what do I want to say here, Christina, I don't want to be too antagonistic. Sometimes, you got to not want to be upset. Because that makes sense. You have to want to not be upset, like, it's sometimes it's too easy to want to want the fight. And yeah, and that's it. That's just my opinion, my opinion, is you're looking for harmony, and as much understanding as you can get, given the situation? I don't know.
Christina 33:20
Yeah. And I think we, you know, I think we're used to having to do a lot of fighting, especially with like insurance and, you know, pushing back against, you know, like, I know that we have done a lot of push back with even just her diabetes care team around her higher blood sugars and said, like, no one, you know, we want to get them lower that kind of thing. And so I think, I think I think, too, we're just we're that's our kind of our natural trigger. And it does take a while to kind of bring it down. And I had to work on that this year, too. And it was kind of good that I knew, you know, I'm obviously, my, they're my colleagues that I'm working with. And so it was kind of nice to have that because I was able to kind of stand back and tell and, you know, remind myself, this isn't just the school nurse, this is so and so I know them, I have a history with them. I know that their hearts in a good place. I know all of these things. And I'm able to kind of step back a little bit more. Yeah. And trust.
Scott Benner 34:18
So you think it's easier, it might be easier for a stranger to look at the school nurse and think she's trying to screw us. Whereas you look at the school nurse and you're like, that's Pat, you and Pat's a decent person, and I've seen them work very hard at their job, and I know they're not trying to mess up with us and you have a little familiar outtie so everyone, you know, I think you have to just assume that in all these situations until it's proven over I'm not saying look there are people have horrendous stories about school. I'm certainly not lumping them into this right little bit of a conversation here.
Christina 34:51
But your times to be upset. Yeah,
Scott Benner 34:53
I'm pleased and I you know, at some point in this conversation will tell you about you know, when I got very upset and did something, but I'm just saying, like don't want the fight, like want to want it to go well. And if they don't get it right away, I wouldn't take that as being as them being adversarial. I would take that as I'm not understanding. That's my point. Yes, absolutely.
Christina 35:17
And I, I think that's a huge point that I want to drive home to is like, it's it's Boy, oh, I guess I'll wait to like go through our process. But I do want to talk about that, for sure.
Scott Benner 35:28
Tell me about the process used?
Christina 35:30
Okay, well, I'll tell you kind of how we decided that, you know, the system that we decided to try out, and then I'll tell you like, the challenges that we came across. So how it goes for us is last summer, before COVID, like delta got all crazy again. But Annie went to this science camp. And I was I wanted to do that, because I wanted to just practice her being away from me, with a team that doesn't know anything about IBD. This just to see how it would go and went really well. It was great. But the system that we had with them was that they would just take a quick little picture of our pump and text it to us before snack or whatever. And then we would give directions or if an alarm went off, we would they would take a picture and send it to us at that point, we were using Medtronic. And they're, you know, we could follow her. But there's always a huge delay. So sometimes up to 20 minutes, you know, if she goes low, or something we wouldn't find out on our phones until like 20 minutes later on. So we use that system. So it was little more real time for them. And we actually came up with that, because I remember the episode where you were talking about how you had this realization that you could just text Arden and she could, you know, text you back what her blood sugar number was, or whatever. I was like, Oh, well, let's try that. So we use that same system at the school, we have like a group thread going that has, you know, parents, the teacher, school nurse. And then she also has some individual parents who are like, support people to school who, you know, check in with her at key parts every day, when things are a little bit crazy for the teacher. And he's got a lot to manage just to as a check in point. So yeah, what what happens is the teacher or whoever's checking in with her will take a picture of her phone, which isn't as necessary anymore, because we were now on Dexcom and Omnipod. But I'll get there. And they send it to us. And there's a snapshot of the phone and we give dosing advice, or, you know, so might say okay, go ahead and have her put in her number and dose for 15 minutes before eating or something like that. They do the same if there's an alarm, we'll say Alright, go ahead and give her the applesauce or something like that. When we sent her to school, her lunches and snacks have like a little sticky note on it, that have the carbs. And then for her lunch, we'll actually write down like how much each item has so that they know how much to make up type of thing. So she doesn't eat or carrots are something which wouldn't be that big of a deal. But if she didn't eat her carrots, you know, they we would know that she gets make up like two grams or something. And then we keep extra supplies at the school like, you know, all of her extra be, especially since I'm there, you know I've got insulin in the fridge, I've got slight changes and stuff in my room. And we I definitely have had to do that so far at school. And then of just, of course, extra snacks and juice and stuff. And the interesting thing is that Annie has to be the one to push any buttons in her pump. And this I have heard is different across schools. I don't mind it, it's fine, because Annie is pretty savvy. And she does you know, she does little things here and there with her care and I know that on crease. But she you know, they supervise her but they can't push anything into her pump. She has to be the one to do it. So another thing too is that they're not comfortable doing any kind of temp Bolus. So like if I want to do a temp Bolus, I've gotta like, go in there, have them bring her over and set it.
Scott Benner 38:58
Alright, so that's where so that little bit I can see people getting pissed about that. So the whole thing about like your daughter six, five, and you know, like, she has to push the buttons, which means we think if this kills her, it'll be harder for you to sue us if she pushes the buttons.
Christina 39:18
It's a different Yeah, it's different. Not sure exactly. No, there's an informative and asked, but it's okay for us because Annie was already doing that. Like we already but I don't mind also really good with her numbers. Like,
Scott Benner 39:33
yeah, I see what you're saying like, well, first of all, I don't mind that they do that. I just, I don't. I don't like that it gets like let's not pretend like just say it. You know,
Christina 39:42
the reasons behind it. Yes, for sure. And the other
Scott Benner 39:45
thing is, too, you could have a kid who's not good with that. And then we we have a problem now.
Christina 39:51
Right? Exactly. Which is why you know she's always she's always monitored when she's doing it. So she's never like just handed her pump and told to put it in she's always the one that Like there's always someone watching her, making sure it's all good. But she's fast too. And one that's actually been a stressor for some people at the school is that she'll put in her numbers really quickly and click, you know, to Bolus and they're like, Wait, what did you put in? You know?
Scott Benner 40:14
That shows me the system's pretty imperfect on that specific scenario. I want to stop for a second and ask are you generally what is the word I'm looking for nervous about other things? Or is this just this one thing that got you as she was going off to school?
Christina 40:33
As far as being nervous about the social part? Yeah,
Scott Benner 40:35
like when you were when you talked about, I don't want to get too far away from it. Like when you talked about all that, like concern, and we worry about what would like I just, I'm a boy, Christina, like, I don't worry about things that might happen. I worry about things that are happening. And so like, it's just, it's a different way of thinking, I'm probably not specific to boys and girls, I'm just I was just trying to say that I'm a simple minded person, but you don't worry about it. I don't worry about things till they're going wrong. Now there's, you know, okay, there's, I still pre planned, I did a ton of pre planning to send art into school. But I was never worried about it. And like, that's an interesting thing. Like, I've never worried about, like, if people would like her or not like her or give her problems. And I don't know, I just like, was that something that? Like, do you worry about a lot of things? I guess is my question is, is there something specific about this?
Christina 41:30
I would say that, in general, like, I would say that my husband's probably more along your lines a little bit less worried. I come from a family with high anxiety, I do a lot to like, I do a lot to recognize it. When I have anxiety and take steps to mitigate it, like reaching out to families being like, I was understanding, I'm having this like, movie going through my head, that's probably very unrealistic. And I'm gonna go ahead and reach out. And so I can stop that movie playing in my head. And I also didn't really have any reason to be thinking that because I'm a teacher, I'm in the classroom. I see kids interact. And, you know, I don't see that, you know, but it was still a narrative almost that I had running through my head. So yeah, I would say that. It depends. I think that there are certain things that I get a little more anxious over than others.
Scott Benner 42:19
And that's a good point. I couldn't even think of the word anxious. That's what I meant to say. And I couldn't even come up with the word. Were Yeah. How was your experience as a child?
Christina 42:31
My experience as a child was in school. I was. I was I was strong in school. I definitely got. I moved around a little bit. I definitely got some social, like, teasing. I don't even know if I would call it a bullet. Yeah, I think I would actually call it bullying. So I think that that was probably just something that was a little bit more on my mind.
Scott Benner 42:57
Okay, that's I just yeah, thank you. I should have asked you that. But it's fine. Okay, so you have a pretty good system set up with school, you know, you're sending photos back and forth. So you can see what foods been eaten. Does that end up working for you? Yeah,
Christina 43:13
that's that's actually working out pretty well. The other thing too, that's nice. What is it, she receives all of her care in class, I didn't want her leaving to go to the office. Every time an alarm goes off her she ended check her BG or whatever. She does everything in class. And that has helped enable that to just open up that. It's all it's nice, because everybody is on the same page. It feels very cohesive, like we're a team. And it feels like there's this nice net of people who are supporting each other basically.
Scott Benner 43:42
Yeah, I'm a big proponent of it all happening in the classroom as well. I Yeah. A lot could be lost in the walking around the school. And you know, I'm sure I've told this story on here a million times. But leaving second grade, we thought Arden had a serious math deficiency. And it turned out that she was just going for like a scheduled blood sugar check. At the same time every day, and it was cold. It was it was corresponding with the math lesson.
Christina 44:08
Yeah. And the office is a busy place. It's the people in the front office, they do so much. So you know, you might have a child who's you know, unless she's going low or something, it's not an immediate emergency might sit there for 10 minutes. You know what I mean? Well, they're dealing with other things. Yeah,
Scott Benner 44:25
maybe maybe it would be better just to react and handle it. Right there. But do you but can you possibly. I mean, is it possible that one day you could run into a teacher says, Look, I don't want to be responsible for that. Absolutely.
Christina 44:37
Yes. That part of the reason why this is working is that the team is on board. So her teacher has been amazing. And he has been all for it, I think in some ways. Okay, so he sets timers on his phone at key times during the day to just check in with her, you know, ducks Come and check in with us. So it's very structured. And I think in a lot of ways, it's nice for them not to have to make the decision about what to do, because we are telling them what to do. So it takes some of the pressure of, okay, just going low, how much do we give, etc, off. That's, that's been good. I mean, one of the drawbacks, though, is that it is an interruption to him, like his flow of like the classroom, which is why they have ended up bringing in a couple of folks to help with some, some times of the day that were a little bit busier for him to where he wouldn't need to stop the flow. And like a key part of the class there are, as a teacher, there are just certain times a day that a little bit more crazy. And so we were able to mitigate the interruption by just bringing someone else in. And it's fun, because there's more people in the team that can help out so that if there's one person gone, everyone else knows what to do, and how to respond,
Scott Benner 45:55
how did you end up getting them to pay for another person to be in the room.
Christina 45:59
So we are a title one school, and we receive additional funds. So there's these amazing people called calm parents, and they're there as support for kids and academics, primarily. But they're also the people who are our yard supervisors, they fill lots of different roles. And it's like a five, their their day is very scheduled out. So like from this time to this time, they're doing math support, for instance, for k one. And then from this time to this time, they're outside on the playground. And what they did is they just built in a five minute chunk of time, you know, across a couple of their parents days to just do a quick check in with Annie. And it's just very, very quick.
Scott Benner 46:41
So there's no like person sitting in the corner of the room like a broom, waiting to be needed or something.
Christina 46:47
It would be as if the the person who's out on your yard supervision. When they come in, they just check in with me real quick and then go back out. It's it's very quick. It's not like, yeah, it's not like paying for an additional person to be honest people who are already at the school. They just have that one quick check in built into their day.
Scott Benner 47:04
That's excellent. Like when Artem was young. They just that didn't exist. Yeah, there was a you wait, quite literally had to hire a person to be in the room. Right. Right. That school was never going to do that. For Arden.
Christina 47:16
That's for sure. Right. Yeah. I mean, it would I feel, I don't know if that would be possible at every school. But it's it's been, it's been really amazing. And I have any feels very connected to her team. So that's been really good. And it you know, like I said, she didn't she hasn't had to go to the office really at all, like so far this year, which is great. And there have been a lot of challenges. So basically, you know, everything around diabetes is based on patterns. And everything changed when she went to kindergarten. I don't know if you remember this was happening with Arden. But it's like when the times that she eats her snack times her periods of active play completely changed. And the type of outdoor play chain she had she was in preschool before this, but they didn't have you know, a big playground that they're running around playing on it. Typically when we would go to the playground, when she uses lots of muscle groups and is running around. She just like her blood sugar just tanked. So usually we'd have to give her like a good 15 to 20 grams uncovered before we go to the playground, just to keep her even. And so that has been what we've been experiencing pretty much right from the beginning of the year is that she was kind of constantly going low. And that that was challenging, obviously, on the team on the teacher was really stressful, especially with you know, it's a very, one thing to keep in mind is that a lot of it's a very scary diagnosis, right? For people. It's just, it's an intimidating dynamic diagnosis in general and stressful for us. But especially for people who feel you know, are at the school and feel like they're responsible for her not dying, you know, it's there's definitely this urgency to it to where it's pretty stressful. So there's been a lot of adjustment that's had to go on. They at one point asked us to her high alarm goes off at one originally was going off at 140. And that was also stressful. The team was you had had experience with type one before, but not with like a CGM or a pump. So it's a different kind of stress, right? And that it's awesome to know their number. It's also a lot of information and the alarms that were going off can be very, you know, triggering and scary. So they asked us, you know, to basically bring up that bring up that high alarm, and that was really, really tough. I had a hard time with that. I was actually kind of really surprised at the emotional reaction that I had to it and in some ways it kind of felt like I had failed, or that, like me, I felt judged I guess kind of like that feeling you were describing when you came in that first meeting and walked out feeling like they think you're crazy. You know, I kind of felt that way. Like maybe people were thinking that I couldn't take care of her. I felt a lot of shame about her blood sugar numbers and, and I had a lot of like anxiety about the stress and or the perceived stress and burden that I thought it was putting on people.
Scott Benner 50:19
See, this is where you and I will like, like, we have different. We're from different, like generations, because I heard that and I was like, Well, I don't care. Like somebody. That's your job and someone's paying you with the thing stresses you out, see a therapist, but I'm not putting my kids blood sugar higher for you. Yeah, that's a, that's a generational like, disconnect for me.
Christina 50:41
I and that would be like, if
Scott Benner 50:43
my garbage man said to me, it's so hard to lift up this trash. I'd be like, Well, you might not want to be a garbage man, then, you know, like, like, seriously, like, I'd be like, Dude, that's part of the job. You know, it's
Christina 50:53
it's, it's interesting, because when I hear type ones talk about judgment, when they go to the doctor, you know, when they have to when they're showing their CGM, it was kind of like that it was, it was really frustrating. Because before she went to kindergarten home, she was Breyers, very stable, her numbers looked great. And then all of a sudden, it was like, what is happening? It just made her care a lot more public. And it I just felt kind of naked about the whole thing. And
Scott Benner 51:18
now it's interesting, because I really do. Yeah, it's
Christina 51:21
it, it's feel you feel very naked. And you feel like, you almost feel like you want to like defend yourself. Like I promised, we were really good at this. But we're just and one thing that I kept, I think that was really helpful is reminding everyone that we're in the data collecting stage. And that kind of helped them and me in the sense that, you know, I had to remind them, you know, everything's my pattern with type one, everything's changing with their schedule. We're collecting data right now, we're constantly changing little things in our pump. We'll get there. But we need information to see like how her body's reacting to situations, because she also has PE now, you know, a lot more physical exercises she has, you know, she's constantly doing like, up and down movement and lots of thought of dancing and total physical response and kindergarten. And so it just has been really, really interesting. And then on top of that, you know, I think she's just going through a ton of growth, like I can see it. In her she is shooting up. She's lost two teeth there, as I said, the bushes she's growing new ones in, and I can just see her physically changing at an incredible rate. Do you remember this with Arden at all? Of course, do you think like five is nuts?
Scott Benner 52:37
Do you think that you care more about how the teachers feel? Because you know them?
Christina 52:43
Um, no, I don't think so. I actually think it's easier for me to talk to them in about it. I think, you know what, I think I think that there's a lot more trust because I know them, and vice versa. So I think when I'm telling them, you know, this is a data collecting stage, we're getting information, we see the number we just, it just gives us information to chew on how to react to it. I think that that has actually been helpful knowing them, because I think that there is trust there. And, and the other interesting thing, too, is like so yes. Okay, so we brought up her high alarm to 180. But the reason why I was okay with that was because we have such a strong check in system that they're not just like letting her fly all day, right? Like there's there's check in times built into the day, she never gets up to 180 or unless she's got a site failure, which we started. That's another thing that happened. She started having increased site failure, she was on the Medtronic pump. And they changed the we were on the Meo sites, and fusion sites, and they just weren't working for us. So we were that had happened right around the time that she entered kindergarten, and we just started getting high blood sugars at school, it was really weird. And we ended up deciding Medtronic isn't working for us anymore. And we decided to switch her to Omni pod early. We were planning on switching her during the summer. But we just said, you know, this is like a nightmare. I'm having to do site changes at school all the time. Like we're just gonna change her. And that also was another big transition. Because Omni pod how they like their dosing increments for basil are different. And so that was kind of like trying to figure everything out again,
Scott Benner 54:33
starting over a little bit. Yeah, I'm doing my best to get past like, I know, I'm 50 and I don't know how old you are. But I I grew up on the maybe the East Coast. You grew up on the west coast, but I'm literally stuck on the beeping makes me stressed out. I swear to God, if any one of my kids teachers ever says something like that, to me, they're not gonna like where the conversation goes after that, and I'm gonna lose a lot of academic or intellectual cred because I'm gonna lose my shit. someone says something like that. And I'm like, oh, no, the beeping is bothering you. She's got diabetes, you're moron. Like Like, this is the situation. And I don't care how you feel like I, this is probably a good time for me to tell this story. So when Arden was first in school, we had a system set up as well. And I want everyone to remember, Arden didn't have a CGM back then she was on, you know, injections. And we had this system set up to at certain times, certain things had to happen. There was this one time before recess during the day, she had to go to the nurse to get checked and then we would kind of like bumper around with food if we had to before she went out. So I have for all of you are wearing index coms. You know, keep this, keep this idea in mind. It's art and going to the nurse. She's five years old, same ages, Christina's daughter now, and it just doesn't happen one day. So one day, the the nursing staff doesn't call the classroom and ask for Arden to come down, which was the process. The teacher who had at that point, had Arden for three quarters of a year, just, you know, doesn't notice it. The kids go out on the playground. But I know because I know the schedule, and back then Scott paid attention like a, like laser focused. So what would happen was they'd call her down to the office, they check her number, they would call me on the phone, and then I would tell them what to do. And this happened every day before recess. So a couple minutes after recess goes by I don't get the phone call. I tried to be reasonable. 10 minutes later, I call the school I get put through the nurse's office. I'm like, Hey, I did not get my call about Arden pre recess. And the woman that the nurse who I still know is like a friendly like neighbor. I just heard it go, oh, Arden and then she hung up the phone. And I was like what? So I'm sitting there like she hung up on me. And I'm sitting there and five minutes later the call comes. Hey, Arden's blood sugar's like 50. Another student came into the nurse's office was an emergency around his heart, they had to put him on a heart monitor at the exact time they were supposed to call and have already brought down. And so I had been telling them that this process that we set up wasn't good enough for ever, and they would ignore me. This is the day that Arden got somebody to help her with this. And we took it off the nurse because I, after Arden was okay. Put myself in my car, drove over to the high school where the superintendent work, walked into his office demanded to see him sat in his outer office until he saw me sat down, explained the whole thing to him, and then said, Do you think it would be cheaper to hire an aide or for me to sue you when my daughter dies, which do you think would be easier for you? I was like, because if you guys kill my kid, I'm going to spend the rest of what I'm assuming is going to be a long and sad life making you miserable. And I just want to be clear that I'm not that person today. But I think I would be that person later. So many goes here, we'll get her an eight. I was like, great. There we go. Like so Arden had to almost pass out by the way, they found her on the monkey bars with our 50 blood sugar. Like, like up on the monkey bars. So if someone were to say to me, the beeping makes me nervous. I think I would laugh at them. And I'm feeling bad about that as I'm having that thought.
Christina 58:33
Right? Like well and too, I mean so, so there you were advocating for your kiddo. And also, I think for me, it didn't really put me off when they first so first of all, they didn't they weren't necessarily telling me in those words, you know, the beeping is stressful. That's my teacher perspective coming in and knowing what it's like to be teaching class and then to have to have a lot of interruptions whether it's beeping or some other I mean there's 1000 things that interrupt your teaching in a day so I just want to be clear that that was not like the teachers complaining but just that they did they did talk about how the alarm seemed like unnecessarily low like when it was going off because we because we are checking it through so often so that's why like I said I was okay with like, doing that system and at that has worked out bring it up to 180 is totally fine.
Scott Benner 59:30
Lovely that you guys found a like a workaround that worked for everybody. I think that's amazing. And, you know, but I would tell you that I was once told, you know, well, we're not going to correct Orton's budget or that's not what we do with the other type ones and I was like so there are four type ones walking around the school have a one season the eights and you want me to shoot for that
Christina 59:49
like right and that that actually we did talk about as well because I as part of the conversation about raising a per you know her high alarm that was brought up like she is the most managed type one that we have. And you know, and just kind of saying that, you know, most most kids, they're a high alarm goes off at 200 or something. And I said, well, that that's not, I'm not okay with that, basically, like, I had to say, I'm not okay with her sitting at 200. And so I did have to push back against that. And I did say I'm okay with bringing it up to 180. But with the, you know, what, with the understanding that she's going to be checked, and so it was a little bit of that, like, No, I'm not okay with this. I'm only halfway here. As long as this is also happening,
Scott Benner 1:00:39
you are so lovely, because I probably in that same situation would have said, I want you to imagine many years from now my daughter is seven years old, and she drops dead, but she could have lived to 77. But you the beeping was bothering you. And I would have said something completely. By the way, I'd go against everything I've said earlier in the podcast, which is don't be adversarial. Right. And I want to be fair, I was only adversarial. Being serious in the office with the door closed with the superintendent. Like with the nurse, I completely understood the kid with the heart monitor, I understood the situation completely. It wasn't their fault. It was a weird scenario. But that wasn't my point the entire time. Like I can't just leave this up to like, hopefully that the nice lady remembers to call the class.
Christina 1:01:27
Yeah. And you know, we, we had gotten her so stable and stuff before kindergarten, kindergarten happened. And then like I was saying, there's just so much change that has happened this year, that we have the opposite problem, you know, we don't even really worry, we're not have to worry don't have to worry about the highs as much because we're constantly trying to figure out the lows. And I really think a lot of it. In addition to the changes that we've noted in the changes in her schedule and activity, a lot of it just has to do with her growing. We have noticed that with Annie, I think we talk a lot about I hear a lot about high blood sugars with hormones, we get kind of this weird thing where she'll go high, you know, at night. And we'll have to do with Temp Basal, and then she'll go low during the day. So I don't know if you've heard anyone else talk about that. But a lot of times when she's having a growth spurt for like, a week or something, you know, she needs more insulin at night, but then during the daytime, we're fighting lows. It's really interesting. Yeah.
Scott Benner 1:02:27
I mean, you just have to be flexible about it. Like when that happens. You you know you're gonna have to I mean, does the teachers have any comfortable? Like, can you set temp? basals? Yeah, yeah, so
Christina 1:02:44
yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's nice. So I can just come in quickly do it, or a couple times, they've walked her down, and I just said, a Temp Basal. And that helps out a lot. What's frustrating, I think one of the more frustrating things has been, you know, we'll notice a pattern, we'll make changes in our pump. And then, you know, that'll be good for like a week, and then she'll gotta go back to her other her other pattern. So there's just a lot more of that this year. And it's been a lot more of a roller coaster. And I think just a lot of it, like I said, has to do with the amount of change physical change that she's going through
Scott Benner 1:03:16
almost a lot of growth, right. Yeah,
Christina 1:03:19
I mean, I'm almost to a point where I'm noticing a pattern that I'm just setting a Temp Basal for like a week, and then just backing off with them again, because every time I feel like every time I go in and change something or pump, it's like a few days later that all of a sudden, it's back to where it was. And I'm like, Okay, we did, we did have to bring down her carb ratios to like once we switch to the Omni pod, we had been bringing down her BS rates because she was constantly going low. And it was interesting, because when you're looking at her line, it was just flat across the whole day, but Skerton that low line, and and she was getting a lot of uncovered carbs. And so we kept bringing down our basil thinking that that was it, because she wasn't like having a huge crash. It was just like floating below. And then it was they were ridiculously low. At one point I decided this cat like I if I give her any less basil. I just don't even like let's try carb ratios. And that actually ended up helping quite a bit. But it was weird. It was kind of like almost reversed of what you would expect would need to happen.
Scott Benner 1:04:17
Well, there you know, there are people who manage to different ways they like there's a lot of different ways to manage. You could manage good solid basil that holds you nice and steady away from food. Or you could be one of those people who uses less basil and crushes meals with a lot of insulin. And to me that's I don't know if there's a right or wrong way. I mean, I guess it's obvious if you listen to that, I think the way to do it is to start with basil and then get your meals right but you know, that comes from a lot of MDI people I think, like Yeah, you know, like there's not an MDI. A lot of times you'll have a heavier Basal than you end up needing when you're on a pump. You don't realize it and you're maybe you're just eating In the right times, or you're feeding your lows or something like that, but I can see how if you had stability and we're in, it wasn't crashing low, that you might have thought basil for up. But that's really cool that you figure that out, too.
Christina 1:05:12
Yeah, it's doing a lot of work. And it's again, it's like, we'll figure it out. And then the other thing, too, she got her COVID shots. So you think about that, like, she got her flu shot one week, next week, she got her first COVID shot. And then two weeks later, she got a second COVID shot, I mean, between their two, like we had crazy numbers. So basically, pretty much from the time that she has started in August, she had like, a few weeks of really stable numbers. And then beyond that, we've just had so much change. And I think, basically, we're still working on getting her all figured out. And I and I think the big change that I've seen with our team is less fear about the number. So I she has an amazing teacher, he's really actually very interested in learning more about type one, he's actually started listening to a little bit of your podcast even because he just finds finds it fascinating. So we've kind of scored there. And he's just worked really hard to just know how to respond. And he he's actually been able to predict kind of what how will the other good thing about the text message that is that they see the patterns and how we respond. And so they get feel a little bit more confident in what they would do you know what I mean? So it's like, I, you know, I, this is the number and then he'll guests kind of make a guess about what I'm going to say, and see if he's right. So their instincts are growing.
Scott Benner 1:06:36
I like that. That's a great way. That's how I do it with Arden, actually. You know, just like, hey, what would you do here? When she was younger? Like what do you think this is like? What do you think the right numbers? How many carbs? Do you think this is like that stuff all is? It's a great way to learn this?
Christina 1:06:52
Yeah. Yeah, no, that's been good. So I guess like my advice for my, you know, big takeaway advice from this. And like I said, by no means is this a perfect thing. We haven't got her totally stable. We're still figuring it out. Oh, the other thing, too, it's cold now. And the other thing to think about with COVID is that we have to keep windows and doors open. And we've had a super crazy winter here. It's been snowing and stuff, we've got snow on the ground right now, which is not normal for this time of year. And it's freezing. So she's in a classroom, and it's cold. And I think she's just like burning a ton with her body trying to stay warm.
Scott Benner 1:07:28
I'm confused. You have to open the windows because of COVID.
Christina 1:07:31
Yeah, so with COVID, you want to keep airflow. So you have to like I turn up my heater and stuff. But the idea, of course, being that more airflow, the less likely that you're going to have an outbreak in your classroom. Gotcha. Yeah. So my big takeaway for advice is just you know, one thing is, you know, pack snacks. So we have pack two recess Snacks, where they have two recesses, the other kids just have one snack recess, but Annie always has snacks before her recess isn't. And we also pack a snack on Pete for PE days, kind of like you were talking about how you know, just pump are full of little extra carbs, which has been super important. And then I would say, you know, this system that I'm talking about, we're on a thread, the benefits would be, you know, take some of the stress off of decision making for the team for the nurse and the teacher, there's increased communication, we always know how her day was where she was at. So we don't really need to look at her data, there's a much faster response time to her needs. So instead of having to go through the office or something, it's immediate, it feels like a team. And it's easier for the team to kind of notice patterns and how learn how to respond to her numbers based on how we respond to, you know, whatever texts are sending to us. And it's also nice, because the staff can input in from you know, suggestions too. So for instance, if my husband responds, Alright, go ahead, and, you know, cover her snack or whatever, their nurse, sometimes we'll pipe in and respond, you know, remind us, hey, just a reminder, she's got music, and they do a lot of jumping up and down and music. And so I'm like, Oh, that's right, let's, let's keep the two grams uncovered or something. And so it's a nice little safety net, and it feels like it's kind of going back and forth. And that we're all I'm all have eyes on it together. Yeah. And the challenges of that the what we're doing, of course, you got to have a teacher who's on board and a staff that's on board. If there's tech issues, like sometimes her teacher, someone has gone to send a picture of it, and that's not working or something, you know, usually that warrants a phone call, that always warrants a phone call instead, which is not a big deal. And that, you know, the classroom teacher might feel overwhelmed or uncomfortable with an interruption to the day. And I think again, that's where the teacher perspective comes into play, like recognize just recognizing that there is there the classroom is so dynamic, and so it is very triggering to kind of hear feedback about numbers and alarms and also We'll just try to imagine like, trying to imagine, like being in a room trying to herd a bunch of kittens around while like something's on fire, like that's sometimes what teaching feels like. And so, and then also having like this alarm going off, it's just a very, especially with young kids. There's a lot of needs. And so taking those deep breaths when you're having those conversations can be helpful. And
Scott Benner 1:10:29
I can tell you that, you know, first of all, it's good to remember that when I'm talking about when our son was younger at school is a really long time ago. Oh, yeah, well, and
Christina 1:10:38
like you said, No CGM. That's, that's scary enough.
Scott Benner 1:10:41
Yeah. Well, even the idea of like, why couldn't the nurse set an alarm? The nurse couldn't set an alarm because cell phones didn't really exist,
Christina 1:10:47
right? Yeah. Oh, my gosh, I didn't think of that. Yeah, you're right. It didn't come for another year or so after that. We're just like snapping a picture.
Scott Benner 1:10:55
Yeah, yeah. There's no, there's no taking pictures of anything. And nobody had an iCloud account. And a lot of stuff didn't exist. But, you know, what I can tell you that I think has been most valuable through the whole journey was that in the beginning, we had some sort of thing in place. And then if the thing didn't work, we adjusted it. And if the school was helping, that was great, and if they weren't, then I pushed back. But I did not push back just for the sake of pushing back, I pushed back when it was a dire situation, right, plenty of little things that happen, that I could have gotten upset about that I let go. I think I left that school. That elementary school people liked Arden and didn't have a bad feeling about or or me, which I took is a great accomplishment. And why that was very important, is because then when I went to the middle school, to a new place, and tried to explain to them all over again, this thing we've been doing now for years that was working great at that point, they right away, threw their hands up like, Oh, that's not how we do it. But you know, who I brought along to the meeting? I brought the school nurse from the elementary school, who said, you should probably just listen to this guy. Yeah. And so I had a friend and I moved them along. And by the way, when Orton went from the middle school to the high school, the middle school nurse came with me and said the same thing to the high school nurse who immediately heard what we did, and said, No, no, no, we won't be doing that. And I went, Oh, we are. And you know, and she's like, well, I like to know the kids with type one. I want them to be in the room. I'm like, I don't care if you ever meet my daughter. Yeah, yeah. You know, so like you you're there's this transition that always happens in every year, I would strip out any unnecessary stuff from the 504. Because you're gonna find that the 504 plans when they're younger, are overkill as they get
Christina 1:12:40
older. Yeah, absolutely. I'm excited about that, actually. And the reason
Scott Benner 1:12:44
that's important is because it gives the teachers less to be nervous about. So take away the stuff that doesn't matter as you're moving forward. And, you know, having snacks in every room or hidden around the school, you'd be surprised as they get older and older into into high school. What that turns into, like, for the last handful of years, we take, listen, I'm gonna tell you something right now. Arden takes in an omni pod, an omni pod, no insulin, a glucagon? Four or five juice boxes and some test strips. Like, I don't even know why we throw the test strips in there. Yeah, yeah. It's to make the nurse comfortable. Right, right. So what if Yeah, so we'll put this in, because they're like, oh, we have a drawer for her. And I'm like, yeah, she's never gonna come here. But that's not right. And so like, here's some things that make you think I'm taking you seriously. And then that makes them happy. Now this is more 10th 11th 12th grade. And you know, Arden's got a juice in her purse. Yes, that's the extent really, of how we do it. Now. Although I will say this year as a senior, she has a teacher who pulled her aside and said, I bought a whole bunch of snacks. And he opened up a drawer and he goes, these are for you. Oh, she came home. And she was really touched by that. She's like, he bought like all kinds of food in case I get well, and you know, and one time this year, it actually came up where Arden had a low that that we couldn't fix with the juice. And her options were go to the nurse and get the juices that we stashed there. Were I guess she has some in her car, she could have went and got but she's like, I'm just gonna go over to his class and grab, like one of the snacks he has for me. It's really sweet. Yeah, so it just it's going to morph. And yes, I mean, my best advice is, like I said, just set it up so that it works. You know, hope to hell, you don't run into people who aren't going to be helpful because you have a really, you know, a great system. They're set up with great people. I've also interviewed people who that the teachers and the staff, they don't want to be involved at all, you know, right. And that's a different problem, obviously, yes. But at the communication and get get a system in place that works as well for your situation as you possibly can.
Christina 1:14:58
Yeah, absolutely. And you That's like the big thing too is just like expect, expect change. So, obviously, but sometimes dramatic change, like I said, I mean a lot has, for instance, when we went in thinking that we were going to be dosing for fat and protein still, we don't doser fat and protein at all at school, because she just burns it off, you know, she's just running around like a banshee just like playing like crazy. And I when I see her at school, on the playground, she is just red cheeked huffing and puffing like going crazy. So I think that probably it also just depends on the kind of kid you have to you know, not everyone is Annie. But, you know, I think just like, realizing that those first months, possibly even up to for six months to a year, we're just collecting data and trying to figure it out and and just expect some pretty big growth spurts at this time, you know, yeah, there's a lot of hormone fluctuations. And that's been, that's been something that I didn't really expect. And, and again, just like I said, everyone's been very accepting of her. And so if you have any anxiety about your kiddo starting out, it really isn't as scary as you would think it
Scott Benner 1:16:11
is. Everyone goes to school, it'll be okay. Yeah, and hormones were just to get their period.
Christina 1:16:17
I know I am dreading or laughing
Scott Benner 1:16:19
at you right now. What do you think of that?
Christina 1:16:21
I know, I know. Seriously, I think about that, too. And like the cash, this is just kindergarten. One interesting thing. I know we're close to that time. We had we did have a slip up on our end. We had you know, we should we put sticky notes on her lunch with the total on it. My husband had written, you know, 32 grams on her lunchbox, but he had accidentally like looped the end of the three. And so it kind of looks like an eight. So I was in class and I look at the letter CGM. And she is just tanking like dropping and like what is happening. And they had dosed her for 82 instead of 32.
Scott Benner 1:17:02
See, now that's interesting to me. The nurse didn't notice that one day, suddenly, she was getting four times. Well, this was in
Christina 1:17:09
the very beginning. This was literally like, first lunch. So and they don't have any perspective, right
Scott Benner 1:17:15
at that point at that point. Okay. I understand. At that
Christina 1:17:17
point, they don't they notice the pattern over time, like now, if that had happened, again, they would have been like e to that's like, way different. Right? But at that point, they don't. And as a matter of fact, you know, we have kids who, when the nurse was talking to me about this later, she was saying everyone's different, like every type one needs differently. So you had some kids who they might actually eat at to your, you know, grams of carbs in a sitting so it's not really they don't I have no reference. So just be really kind of, you know, clear about
Scott Benner 1:17:49
I understand, hey, did the did the cops have to come when you beat your husband when you got home? Or did you?
Christina 1:17:55
Oh, my gosh, I I actually I felt so I felt so bad for the team. I I've never seen her her teacher looks so just just hangdog. So down. I felt so I actually felt like are you okay? Because he was just so worried I was it was just like, this will never happen again. I was like, well, on our end, either. But really, when they showed me the stick, and I was like, oh no till that toy, it looks like an eight.
Scott Benner 1:18:23
My husband will never make this mistake again. Because his hands are broken, and he can't write. So
Christina 1:18:28
well. And her and her teacher made a joke like, you know, I can send home some handwriting sheets for
Scott Benner 1:18:33
which I thought was pretty funny. You should definitely still do that. That's great. I
Christina 1:18:38
should have put some in his stockings
Scott Benner 1:18:39
to practice your cursive on these dotted lines.
Christina 1:18:44
Oh, yeah, it's been good. It's just been, like I said, you know, a lot of me kind of having to step back and reminding myself not to be judgmental of the journey either. And just recognizing like, man, we've been through a ton of stuff this year. And of course, her blood sugars are going to be need some kind of constant adjustment right now. And just being okay with that. And so,
Scott Benner 1:19:07
I'm just gonna say this to everybody listening, if you think that your insulin isn't gonna be constant adjustment through your life with diabetes, you're fooling yourself.
Christina 1:19:14
Well, I think that's also part of it, though, too, right? Is that I'm like, I'm, I feel this pressure to kind of get her to be like perfectly even throughout the whole day. And then I'm because I feel like, like, it's just crazy. And then there's the other part of me that's like, but she's always going to need adjustment. You know what I mean? Yeah, so I guess that's where I'm at in this journey is me trying to see what normal looks like at school because it is different now. So I'm trying to find the new normal and trying to get her to the most stable spot. And I'm just starting that journey of seeing like, what is a pattern of like, how often I'm actually having to make changes. So that's where I'm very much a newbie. Yeah,
Scott Benner 1:19:59
just because that you don't forget that your new normal might only last for three weeks.
Christina 1:20:04
Okay, yeah. So basically what I'm hearing you say is this is normal. Yeah. And this is this was art in in school. Yeah. Like she was constantly making adjustments
Scott Benner 1:20:13
you, you're because you're newer at it. And you're just seeing this for the first time. You're just you're seeing the same things I saw, you're thinking about them backwards of how I would think of them. So you're, you're seeing she needs more, she needs less activity, like, how do I find normal? Where do I get this? So it's on like, autopilot. Again, I don't think about diabetes like that. Like, I just think it's going to change and you just, you just adjust with it. So there are days when she'll need more and days when she'll need less and you just give her more or less.
Christina 1:20:44
Okay, that's helpful for me. Because yeah, I just feel like, Man, am I just not doing a good job with this? Because like I said, before she wanted to school, it was pretty, like I didn't really think about it that much. And even when she's at home, yeah, I don't really think about it that much. Because she's
Scott Benner 1:21:01
you found the pattern that works,
Christina 1:21:03
right? But school is such a dynamic place. Like I said, yeah, there's more
Scott Benner 1:21:06
going on. And there's and those are all variables for diabetes. And a lot of the very opening it wants to
Christina 1:21:13
write exactly. Okay, here's how helps me just to hear that. Yeah, I
Scott Benner 1:21:17
would judge a here's how I would judge your success or failure. Not to use words that some people don't like, but I have a limited vocabulary. So. So here it is, How frequently does her blood sugar get into an emergency low situation where you're in a panic?
Christina 1:21:34
Well, it depends this year more often than normal. And I guess it depends on the week and a week. I mean, like I said, we've had so many variables, but I would say in a week. She like the week before we left for school. She was getting there probably like once a day. Okay, like a panic, panic being that she has got a low well, so her low alarm goes off at 75. Okay, so you're gonna miss time respond. So that's not panic. But if it but panic, as in maybe she's like, 6620 down, and she's like, on the playground or something.
Scott Benner 1:22:10
Here's the thing, I would adjust your theories about panicking. And then that would be one thing that would help. So I think you're doing good there. What's there anyone say?
Christina 1:22:19
Her last day when she was 6.3?
Scott Benner 1:22:23
And how frequently do you think she's over? 180?
Christina 1:22:28
Well, she's been going high at night. We just started sending Temp Basal. The last week, she has been going high at night, like every night. And then we just were like, just set the Temp Basal. So that was taken care of. Do you mean Hi, what put a number on high for her is 140. Okay,
Scott Benner 1:22:43
you're doing great there. I told you. You're doing fantastic. So your kid has had diabetes for a couple of years, just started school. You had you were living through COVID There was a lot of like, stability, because there. There were far fewer variables. You've introduced a ton of new variables. You have a low six a one C, she doesn't get emergency low more than a couple of times a week, and you don't normally go over 140.
Christina 1:23:11
Well, she'll go over 140 her high alarm has over 140. But I get your point. We're doing all right, you're doing great.
Scott Benner 1:23:18
Listen, I'm gonna say something to you that I end up saying to a lot of people more privately than on the podcast, but I'll say it here. Your desire to do well. Is why you're going to do well. Yeah, yeah, it just it just takes time. You need to have these experiences they have to happen kind of over and over again so that they start to make sense to you. So that you're not chasing them around, but more making meaningful adjustments. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like there's Listen, art and didn't seem to feel well, yesterday. This is Christmas break. She was just very kind of like laying around quiet. She had food that I thought we Bolus pretty well for. And then suddenly, it just, it got away from her. And I got it and she tried to Bolus like before I got to her and it just didn't happen. Like her blood sugar went up to like 200 and it sat there and we crushed it. And it just went up more.
Christina 1:24:18
Yeah, that's happened to us recently, too.
Scott Benner 1:24:21
So it took me a minute to go okay, like I don't know what happened here. But I can't be making incremental adjustments to this. I have to throw a lot of installers to fix this. And and I did and will that happen today? Probably not. You know it but it might and if it does, I'll do it again. But what I was good at was pivoting like I didn't get stuck in dough. This should be working. I got I was like able to look and go this doesn't work. Do something different. Yeah. And
Christina 1:24:54
there's been a lot more of that this year where I have no clue why she is the number that she is. Like I'm just like This is unexplainable right now. But we'll just deal with it. But it's just it's I think it's been a weird year that way. And I guess I'm, I guess it's a little, like a little baby Prelude prelude to puberty. But because I know that it's like crazy pants around puberty time with with blood sugar numbers, yeah. But I can I can understand like, why, you know, it's just, it's frustrating when they're going through a lot of change hormonally to just because you're like, Okay,
Scott Benner 1:25:25
I guarantee that two years from now. Well, that's unfair, because this might take six months to come out, let's say three years. So now, they say three years from now, if you go back and listen to this again, you won't recognize the person on this recording.
Christina 1:25:39
Yeah, very interested. That'll be Yeah. So this, this even helps, though, like hearing it, because like I said, we don't have anyone to really compare to.
Scott Benner 1:25:47
Yeah, no, I understand. Listen, part of my job is just like, like, you know, you know, when the coach like slaps you on the boat, when you run out in the field, and I go get him, you're doing great, you know, and he, and you run away, and he's like, Oh, this guy's falling apart. But like, it's his job to go like, you're doing great. Sometimes it's my job to tell you, you're doing great. Because you are, and you don't know it, because you have nothing to compare it to. And it feels like an utter failure, because you had such crazy stability earlier on. Now, who knows? If it was she was more sedentary because of COVID? Or maybe she was honeymooning a little bit, and you didn't realize it. Yeah. Like there's all kinds of things that could happen. But if you keep assessing her if you assess her Basal, and remember that she's going to keep growing and as she gains weight, she's going to need more insulin. If you keep doing that, you're going to be fine. The biggest favor you could do for yourself is stop to stop expecting that you're going to find like the place where it's all sweet spot. Yeah, yeah, there's there's no sweet spot so far that I can find an artist. Okay. I just had diabetes for 15. I don't know, hold on a second. to seven. Yeah, like 15 years. And the amount of times where I've sat back and gone. I've got it. It's over. It's very infrequently. So
Christina 1:27:02
yeah, yeah. Okay, that actually helps me, I feel like I can remind myself to put that one down a little more than
Scott Benner 1:27:08
Yeah. And if it gets to be too much for you just walk into the woods, and
Christina 1:27:15
perfect, I have a lot of, you know, what's around here, so
Scott Benner 1:27:17
I just wander in a direction and tell your husband like, I'm done goodbye.
Christina 1:27:23
And Backdraft
Scott Benner 1:27:26
it all I can do can't do anymore. Gotta go. Now you're gonna be you're one of those people who's going to be terrific. You just have to stop fighting with reality.
Christina 1:27:37
Yeah, that's helpful to know, I'll carry that one with me.
Scott Benner 1:27:41
Good for you, I listened. It's a hard adjustment to make, because it feels like it feels like it's a problem that you're going to solve. Instead of a life you're going to live. And it is just not listen, you know, are into diabetes for a really long time. And just the other day, I found myself getting in the shower and thinking, this is not what I thought my life was gonna be like. Yeah, and I felt sad about it for a minute. Yeah, it's not what I thought her life was gonna be like, I don't want any of this to be in my life. Like, I don't want this for her. But there's no amount of hoping or that's going to change that. So you might as well figure out how to do it. Well.
Christina 1:28:29
Yeah, and that's a big push for me is like, No, I don't, I don't want to I need to see me responding in a very, like, negative emotional way to her numbers, you know, because I really want a model for her like it's a number and this is what we do next, you know. And, and I think that that's also one really great thing about her team is that they're all really really positive. Even admits that yeah, chaos. So I think that that's probably one of the biggest things that I'm taking from this conversation too is just reminding myself of that goal. Yeah, it's good for you
Scott Benner 1:29:07
listen. Try to keep your variability lower so not as much up and down. Don't be feeding basil. You know, don't be feeding lows. You know, Pre-Bolus your meals try to stop lows before they happen without causing rebound highs. It's pretty much it just timing and amount on the insulin and just the rest of it is not getting sucked into the into that other stuff, Whirlpool where you just constantly worried and anxious and concerned that you're doing a bad job, like like that, that you thought putting up her alarm at school was an indication that you didn't know what you were doing. tells me you have a lot of like, personal stuff to work out around it. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So little therapy wouldn't hurt. Yeah. That's all. Your thing. Are we good? Did you? Did we talk about everything that you wanted? Yeah, I
Christina 1:30:07
think I think I think I said all the things that I wanted to say, excellent. I hope it's helpful to people who are starting the journey themselves. So
Scott Benner 1:30:15
I appreciate you taking the time to do this. I think it was really helpful. And I'm being texted by my children who are like you said you would cook 20 minutes ago?
Christina 1:30:25
Well, I really appreciate your podcast and your time. So thank you.
Scott Benner 1:30:28
By the way, they can cook for themselves. This is laziness, that they'll sit next to me while I'm cooking. And be like, Oh, look at him cooking their backseat cooking. Yeah, yeah. Oh, they will do that to you don't do this. Right. Like, just take the thing and do it yourself. Tastes good that way. The only mistake you made was having kids. Other than that you're doing great.
Christina 1:30:52
Yeah. All right. different paths, that's for sure. I just
Scott Benner 1:30:56
just 20 years from now, you might be making them eggs. And they while they critique that your eggs are too moist.
Christina 1:31:01
Right? All right. In my cooking class, they said,
Scott Benner 1:31:06
Oh, yeah, because they know anything. Trust me. Right? This isn't gonna end and it would have just been something else if it wasn't diabetes, so don't feel like you were like, seriously, you would just be upset about something different. Right? Right. Anyway, I really do appreciate you doing this. We'll hold on for one second for me, of course. Yes.
Uh huh. Huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, G voc glucagon. Find out more about Chivo Capo pen at G Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juicebox. you spell that GVOKEGLUC AG o n.com. Forward slash juice box. And to get your free benefits check from us med go to us med.com forward slash juice box or call 888-721-1514 Thanks so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Before I go, I'm just going to apologize for the reference I used at the beginning of the of the show. I've done a little checking. The mandrel sisters are in their late 60s and early 70s and Lawrence Welk has been dead for three decades. And so I'm realizing that the reference I used was from my childhood, which was 40 some years ago. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the program.
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