Juggling BGs and exams - rant!

[Redkite]

Hi all, just need to vent my annoyance!

My son's had end-of-year exams all this week, which will determine what set he ends up in for maths, science and english next year. He loves maths and is currently in top set and would be gutted if he was put down because of a bad mark. So since Sunday he has been wearing a glucose sensor at my own expense and we have been watching his levels like a hawk and tweaking things minutely. Monday he was all in range (miracle), Tues he was in the 10's all morning so not perfect but not disastrous. So this morning, we increased his breakfast bolus ever so slightly (0.5). This was following a night where he started high after taekwondo (13.2) so cautiously corrected a couple of time in the night, woke on 5.2, with the sensor showing the past 4 hours in the 4's. He routinely checks his levels before going out the door (to avoid hypo on the walk to school) and this morning was only 4.3 (unusually low straight after brekkie), so erred on the side of caution and had 100ml of apple juice. He checked again at 9am and was 6.7.

I've just had a phone call from him saying he was 21.7 at the end of his maths paper!!!!! His sensor graph shows a cliff face! He was around 14 when the paper started at 9.30, rising to 22 by the end. He can't possibly have done his best with those levels - how unfair diabetes is 😡😡

 

[Andy HB]

Ouch!

Still, at least if things do go awry you have evidence as to why they did and can act accordingly.

However, fingers crossed that he was doing so well on the paper that he didn't notice the rising levels!

Andy 🙂

 

[Northerner]

That is terribly unfair - stupid diabetes! I would hope though that his chances rely much more on his teacher's knowledge of his abilities and enthusiasm rather than an exam result. Hope it doesn't prejudice the outcome for him 🙂

 

[Lauras87]

Oh no!!!
I hope your son's exams go well.

Can I ask, isn't he allowed supervised breaks to check his sugars?
That's what my school did

 

[AJLang]

Hi Redkite please try not to worry about his BGs during his exams. When I did my degree I could only do a finger prick blood test before the exam - nobody suggested breaks for testing - and I graduated with first class honours. Diabetes does not need to affect your exam results and this was per MDI so there was little I could do whatever my BG was.

 

[Mel]

Daughter is in middle of AS and tends to run a little on the higher side (10) as she doesn't want to hypo - she gets rest breaks if needed and seperate inviglation as she used to stress off everyone else and drop her BS massively.

 

[Redkite]

At the moment he is allowed to check his BG and have a snack etc. at his desk (middle school). The longest exam is 90 mins. His problem is he probably wouldn't notice he was hypo if he's concentrating hard! I did send a note into school saying he needed to check beforehand, but he did this and still shot up into the stratosphere. Everything I've read says your cognitive ability is reduced when hyperglycaemic

Next lesson is games (athletics), and he shouldn't be exercising with a BG in the 20's. He's corrected and will check in 1 hour if it's coming down ok, otherwise I'll have to go up to the school with his injection pen. Fed up! Why can't diabetes just play nice for a few days?!!

 

[delb t]

Hi Redkite I read your post just before H's lunchtime test and thought it'll be SODS law we run high- he has AS history this afternoon
Great a 12.7 not
H always seems to run high with exams it does my head in - they work hard on thier revision and you get to the day and it goes to pot!!!!!
Hope your son is ok now- I totally get your rant

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Ouch! Sorry to hear this Redkite

Stress can make BGs just go nuts without warning can't it - and never in any kind of predictable way 😡

 

[Hanmillmum]

Really hope it hasn't been detrimental on his marks - how frustrating

Fingers crossed, and for delb t's son too.

 

[Redkite]

Thanks all! It seems word filtered through to the Head of maths, who let him have another 20 minutes in the afternoon to go back through the paper, so that was good!

Good luck to all those whose children are doing GCSE's and AS and A levels 🙂

P.S. his level has shot back up to 19.7 this eve, and it's very unusual for him to be above 14 at all, so I suspect an underlying problem (bug incubating?). Tonight will be interesting.....

 

[Tina63]

I would like to add that if the school are aware of his diabetes (which of course they are) and this exam result is way out from where they would expect it to be, then surely they would take this into account. Maybe write to his Maths Teacher/School Head and explain the situation/lack of concentration with high bloods with any supporting evidence. Hopefully one exam won't in itself jeopardise his grouping for next year if he is comfortably in the level class he is currently in.

I agree with others, stress may well have pushed his levels up. This being so, you will find this in all exams. Without the benefit of CGMs and even frequent testing, I have no idea what my son's levels were immediately before/after GCSE exams, but he got through.

Once it gets to 'proper' exams then the exams boards will take on board any evidence you can supply if things go awry on the day, as long as you have several days worth of results. What we were told though is that if there is a chance of a retake (ie if any exams are done at any other time than the final summer term of year 11) they will not tweak results as you can resit.

Hope he is not coming down with something though ...... you just never know!

Good luck for his results, I am sure he will be fine.