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Show or conceal your Libre sensor?

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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
B

Barb

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Just seen Teresa May on the news in a sleeveless number proudly showing off her Libre sensor. Leaving aside the politics :( do your display or conceal your sensor? I tend to cover mine up but that's more of an age thing.🙄
 
Purely depends what I am wearing for me.
I actually quite like it when people ask me what it is as it gives me a chance to explain about diabetes and fingerpricking/sensor readings.
 
I’m the same as Greyhound Gal.
 
It's too chilly now for a sleeveless number, but I wouldn't mind people seeing it. I think a lot of people think they are nicotine patches 🙄 Actually, I like to see the look on people's faces when I wave the reader over my (covered) arm and it beeps and reveals my blood sugar levels! 😱
 
I know I’ve said this before, but if I can’t be bothered explaining I just tell people I’m a synth and that’s my charge point. Who cares, just don’t do the same thing with your colostomy bag.:D
 
Can sometimes be partly seen on me if I've got a short sleeved top on - t shirt or cycling jersey and the sleeve doesn't cover it all. I wouldn't walk around in a sleeveless top as a) I haven't got the physique for it and b) I don't want to look like a prat. None of these options are relevant for the next few months anyway with the weather as it is.
 
I don't worry either way. If it is visible and people ask I explain (e.g. at Pilates).
At the changeover to new sensor I have two in for a couple of days, to let the new one settle.

At this time of year most of the time it is covered as it is too cold for short sleeves or sleeveless.

Glad the visible sensor on Teresa May has raised some questions and awareness. I was surprised when a friend noticed it and wondered whether Teresa May had diabetes. I suppose I was just more aware of the news that she developed T1 because it is more relevant to me.
 
My daughter used to go to great pains to cover hers, but I'm glad to say is a little more relaxed about it now. Changing schools has helped no end, as she didn't go to the local secondary school with all her friends it has been a completely fresh start for her with no-one at all from her old school. And I think it's doing her the world of good, she seems much more relaxed about having her pump on show (Libre is covered up anyway in this weather, except for PE) and she says everyone is really nice, if they ask her what her pump is and she says she'd rather not talk about it, they respect her and don't ask again. She has one friend who is now aware of her diabetes, only because she was invited for tea at half term so I had to explain to the girl's dad in case of emergencies, so now I think she gets this friend to do all the talking if necessary. She still can't stand to tell people about it herself, but at least seems a little less bothered about people asking innocent questions, so definitely a step in the right direction!

It also came to light recently that some children in her class at primary school, despite having been told several times what all my daughter's stuff was for and why she has to do what she does, regularly used to hide her bag in which she kept her testing kits and hypo treatments! 😱😱😱 I don't think she ever told anyone, so it was never found out who the culprits were and it's too late to do anything about it now. I'd have gone absolutely mental if I'd found that out while she was still at that school, maybe that's why she didn't tell me 🙄 :(
 
There are some very cruel people out there inc some kids. I have spent nearly all my life meeting all sort inc some Lovely people. Some just don't know & it will not stop me doing what I want. Big sign on sensor with a flashing beacon :D (joke) 😉
 
Great to hear that your daughter has made such a good transition to secondary school. I remember that you were very pleased after the induction days. Horrified to hear what had been happening at her primary school.

I am giong into a primary school next week to do some lessons and an assembly about Diabetes. I shall bear in mind what you have said when I talk to the pupil and the teachers beforehand. Any ideas from your experience as a parent gratefully received.

Exit card
One person I spoke to who was a bit concerned about explaining things if asked has a card with an explanation on which she keeps in her test kit, and if she feels it is necessary to explain why she is leaving a group and doesn't want to she leaves the card to explain why. A bit like some students in school use exit cards to leave a lesson. Not much good for dealing with hypos in lessons, as your daughter won't need to leave to do that, and I bet most won't even notiec, so long as all the teachers are clued up and don't make a fuss. (This was only an issue for students when they had a lesson taken by a supply teacher who had not been briefed). I haven't tried it yet.
 
Oooh, @SB2015, now you've put me on the spot! What sort of things from our experience are you looking for?

My daughter used to have some cards, you can buy them but we made our own. A green one that said "I'm feeling fine", a red one saying "I am having a hypo, please leave me alone to deal with it", and various others saying things like "I feel wobbly", "I am diabetic", "if I feel wobbly I must do a blood test" and so on, so that she could just show the relevant one and not have to talk about it. She decided what she wanted written on all of them. We also tried buddying her up with a friend who could do all the talking for her and get help e.g. if they had a supply teacher who didn't understand the situation. (Although they should do a proper handover to any supply staff and give them a copy of the care plan and some basic info.)

We found that the class teachers were great, if you get a proper care plan in place and then arrange a meeting to go through it with them, they usually take it all on board. All ours did anyway, where we had issues was with staff who knew my daughter was T1 but didn't actually teach her very often (and probably hadn't read the care plan, even though it was on the staff room wall for all to see) and thought they knew all about it, but in fact were stuck with the idea that "diabetics can't eat sugar" and that's all there is to it. Hence the problem we had one Christmas when she had bolused for a large plate of biscuits and then had several nosy teachers telling her that she could only eat sausage rolls!

I did find through, for example if we had had a cannula failure overnight and had woken up to BG of 25 and ketones of 3.5, I'd sort it all out and then take her into school and mention to the teacher that we've had a problem, I've sorted it but she's still very high at the moment, please can you make sure that she tests in an hour and see that it's coming down again. And they'd say yes of course, but then you could almost bet your life that they would forget, as it fell to the teacher who was busily trying to look after 29 other kids as well to remember. Luckily this never caused a problem, but it might have done! Whereas at her new school they have a dedicated medical department and they treat her care plan like the word of God, so if it says that she needs to be retested after an hour then they jolly well make sure that she is - if she forgets to go back to the medical room herself, they will go and look for her!

With regards children, younger ones tend to be more accepting. My daughter was diagnosed at the very end of year 1, years 2-4 everything ran pretty smoothly, the occasional blip of course but I thought we were very lucky that we didn't really come across any know-it-all do-gooders and so on, and there were no issues with children other than my daughter getting very upset when they asked questions. Which is mostly down to her confidence and not liking being different. Only in year 5-6 did we start to get problems with kids being a bit nasty. Because of having to do her insulin and then eat fairly soon after it was done it was impossible for her to line up for dinner with the rest of her class, so the year 2 teacher set up a system where she would pick one friend to stay with her each day. This worked great until year 5, when they suddenly started saying "I don't want to go with you today, I want to sit with so-and -so" which left my daughter feeling a bit rejected, she was only picking people who she thought were her friends therefore it shouldn't have been a major problem for them to spend lunch time with her, and she tried to pick a different person every day so that they had got 4 other days a week to sit with whoever they like! Some staff members seemed to think it was selfish of my daughter to mess up other people's lunch time, well why should she be stuck on her own when everyone else can sit with whoever they like?! Kids also only seem to see "she's eating sweets in class, that's not fair" and "she gets loads of extra attention, that's not fair" and don't seem to understand that she doesn't actually want the extra attention and would rather be just like them, and that when she's having jelly babies forced down her throat she actually feels pretty rough and isn't enjoying the sweets and would rather not have to deal with any of it! They don't see all the cannula changes and carb counting and other rubbish that we have to deal with either, I think that actually nobody really fully understands unless they have to deal with it themselves.

In year 4 we had a DSN going into school to do a special assembly to tell the whole junior school about my daughter's diabetes, they talked about pumps and all sorts of stuff. There were also 2 or 3 other occasions when the teacher had a word just with her class to remind them. Yet in year 6 we still got kids hiding her medical supplies, I have no idea whether it was because they didn't understand, or weren't listening, or didn't believe that it was really that serious because she looks so normal most of the time and usually deals with hypos quietly in the classroom by herself. Kids can be cruel and presumably there was jealousy involved (of the extra attention she receives, without people realising what a high price she has to pay for it), but I find it very hard to believe that someone might have wanted to see what happens if she can't make herself better and has to be carted off in an ambulance! Maybe they didn't realise that it could go that far?

Anyway I've rambled on long enough, and have no idea whether this is the sort of thing you were looking for, if there's anything specific you would like to know about, please ask 🙂 Perhaps PM me as we are wandering off topic now!
 
Sally71 said:
Oooh, @SB2015, now you've put me on the spot! What sort of things from our experience are you looking for?

My daughter used to have some cards, you can buy them but we made our own. A green one that said "I'm feeling fine", a red one saying "I am having a hypo, please leave me alone to deal with it", and various others saying things like "I feel wobbly", "I am diabetic", "if I feel wobbly I must do a blood test" and so on, so that she could just show the relevant one and not have to talk about it. She decided what she wanted written on all of them. We also tried buddying her up with a friend who could do all the talking for her and get help e.g. if they had a supply teacher who didn't understand the situation. (Although they should do a proper handover to any supply staff and give them a copy of the care plan and some basic info.)

We found that the class teachers were great, if you get a proper care plan in place and then arrange a meeting to go through it with them, they usually take it all on board. All ours did anyway, where we had issues was with staff who knew my daughter was T1 but didn't actually teach her very often (and probably hadn't read the care plan, even though it was on the staff room wall for all to see) and thought they knew all about it, but in fact were stuck with the idea that "diabetics can't eat sugar" and that's all there is to it. Hence the problem we had one Christmas when she had bolused for a large plate of biscuits and then had several nosy teachers telling her that she could only eat sausage rolls!

I did find through, for example if we had had a cannula failure overnight and had woken up to BG of 25 and ketones of 3.5, I'd sort it all out and then take her into school and mention to the teacher that we've had a problem, I've sorted it but she's still very high at the moment, please can you make sure that she tests in an hour and see that it's coming down again. And they'd say yes of course, but then you could almost bet your life that they would forget, as it fell to the teacher who was busily trying to look after 29 other kids as well to remember. Luckily this never caused a problem, but it might have done! Whereas at her new school they have a dedicated medical department and they treat her care plan like the word of God, so if it says that she needs to be retested after an hour then they jolly well make sure that she is - if she forgets to go back to the medical room herself, they will go and look for her!

With regards children, younger ones tend to be more accepting. My daughter was diagnosed at the very end of year 1, years 2-4 everything ran pretty smoothly, the occasional blip of course but I thought we were very lucky that we didn't really come across any know-it-all do-gooders and so on, and there were no issues with children other than my daughter getting very upset when they asked questions. Which is mostly down to her confidence and not liking being different. Only in year 5-6 did we start to get problems with kids being a bit nasty. Because of having to do her insulin and then eat fairly soon after it was done it was impossible for her to line up for dinner with the rest of her class, so the year 2 teacher set up a system where she would pick one friend to stay with her each day. This worked great until year 5, when they suddenly started saying "I don't want to go with you today, I want to sit with so-and -so" which left my daughter feeling a bit rejected, she was only picking people who she thought were her friends therefore it shouldn't have been a major problem for them to spend lunch time with her, and she tried to pick a different person every day so that they had got 4 other days a week to sit with whoever they like! Some staff members seemed to think it was selfish of my daughter to mess up other people's lunch time, well why should she be stuck on her own when everyone else can sit with whoever they like?! Kids also only seem to see "she's eating sweets in class, that's not fair" and "she gets loads of extra attention, that's not fair" and don't seem to understand that she doesn't actually want the extra attention and would rather be just like them, and that when she's having jelly babies forced down her throat she actually feels pretty rough and isn't enjoying the sweets and would rather not have to deal with any of it! They don't see all the cannula changes and carb counting and other rubbish that we have to deal with either, I think that actually nobody really fully understands unless they have to deal with it themselves.

In year 4 we had a DSN going into school to do a special assembly to tell the whole junior school about my daughter's diabetes, they talked about pumps and all sorts of stuff. There were also 2 or 3 other occasions when the teacher had a word just with her class to remind them. Yet in year 6 we still got kids hiding her medical supplies, I have no idea whether it was because they didn't understand, or weren't listening, or didn't believe that it was really that serious because she looks so normal most of the time and usually deals with hypos quietly in the classroom by herself. Kids can be cruel and presumably there was jealousy involved (of the extra attention she receives, without people realising what a high price she has to pay for it), but I find it very hard to believe that someone might have wanted to see what happens if she can't make herself better and has to be carted off in an ambulance! Maybe they didn't realise that it could go that far?

Anyway I've rambled on long enough, and have no idea whether this is the sort of thing you were looking for, if there's anything specific you would like to know about, please ask 🙂 Perhaps PM me as we are wandering off topic now!
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Sally you are a star. That is so useful. Thank you.
I really like the idea of the pupil writing her own cards, and it obviously worked for your daughter.
 
It doesn't bother me if my sensor is on show. I'm currently on holiday in Lanzarote and have encountered 3 different Dutch people wearing sensors!
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
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