Theme parks

[Adrienne]

"Glucose tablets are small so can fit in a pocket if necessary."


Glucose tablets do not work for my daughter, neither does Glucogel, dextrose tablets, lucozade tablets etc. On the flipside lucozade drink works too fast as it starts her 2% of pancreas (rest was removed at birth) to start overproducing insulin even when hypo. Coke seems to be the only thing that works. We have to carry more than one can obviously on a day out. Coke is very heavy. We have to carry glucagon as well as I've had to use that before in an emergency.

Haribo does not work fast enough. I am in the process of testing Hypo fit which will make the bag lighter and make things easier in general. It has worked well twice but the third time she went down from 3.8 to 3.3 and continued going down so had to give coke !!!

 

[SamInnocent]

Sorry for misinterpreting your post but when you say:
"Diabetes care today is so very very very very vastly different than 20 odd years ago. We have glucometers now, we have MDI, we have pumps, we have different carb counting, we know what foods do, what exercise does (ie send you up instead of down if you are roughly above 14.0) what adrenaline does. The info at our fingertips is so much more involved and we can therefore try to have much tighter control with our children. This includes planning extensively for days out to keep this tighter control. These queues can be 2 hours long and on a hot day with adrenaline, levels go up, the toilet is needed so you leave the line. What happens then, you join the back again!"

it's really hard to NOT interpret that as "we have it much harder than you did". Can you see how it could be interpreted that way?

 

[sofaraway]

Aidrienne has said before that she doesn't think it's harder now, just different. Here is one of her posts explaining it
http://www.diabetessupport.co.uk/boards/showthread.php?t=2927

 

[Patricia]

I sort of missed this, even the original post by Adrienne quoted by sofaraway...

Needless to say, I really take these points. And will, I reckon, more so as time goes on...

The only other thing I can think of to add is that we are products of our time, and ultimately responsive to our time. This means that we are alert to new research, to research done over the last 20 or 30 years which clearly outlines the increased risks associated with less than tight control. As parents we have a duty of care to provide our children with the best chances in life, in all ways. Dealing with t1 is another, rather all-encompassing provision of the best we can do.

It is, yes, all about balance. But the balance is a moving target, as is diabetes itself. With more knowledge and science come more decisions, and most parents on any diabetes forum choose to make these decisions in fairly minute detail -- as did many parents years ago, I'm sure, with as much information as was available to them. It's from these things that the differences between 'then' and 'now' spiral out, and become so much more obvious. We can only act and react to what we know now, as has been the case through the ages.

The final thing I'd say is that 'running high' is always a tempting option for 'unusual circumstances'. Unfortunately a child's life is full of different and unusual situations, and it's clearly unwise always to take that route. So often things are riding quite tight on control, necessarily. Any help with that, esp with young children I think, is a godsend.

Saying all that, I'm sure there is a difference too between having things available, and things being taken up...My son, I know, would at the moment refuse to take up any exit passes etc...Even if we really, really asked him to in order to give himself a break. This may change in time.

Does my own son's stance mean that exit passes shouldn't be available, or DLA, etc? Absolutely not! As Adrienne and others have outlined, in my opinion too there are irrefutable reasons for them being available.

 

[bev]

I think Adrienne has said it all really - there is very little i can add to what is a very honest and genuine account of what it means to be the parent of a diabetic child these days.🙂

I also think there is a huge difference between *being* the diabetic and being the *parent* of a diabetic. I am fairly certain that if you asked your parents whether they would have taken the option of using the 'exit' passes at a theme park - they would have jumped at the chance. Not because as parents we want our little darlings to be spoilt rotten - just simply because our children have so much extra to deal with than a child without diabetes, and if there is somethng so very simple as letting a diabetic child not join huge queues - then what difference does it make to anyone? In the big scheme of things - it really doesnt affect anyones lives does it? Adrienne is spot on when she says we would have to leave the queue - if a child is high and needs the toilet - then has to rejoin the queue - nobody would want you to take your place where you left - there would be uproar as most would assume you were queue jumping! Adrenalin plays a huge part on days out with children - why should a diabetic child have to suffer unnecessarily?All the other children in the queue are excited and produce adrenalin - but none of them need an injection or a hypo treatment - sometimes A wont inject in public as he is too shy ( now on pump though) and this would have meant leaving a huge queue and then try to rejoin etc.. This is not about letting our children become spoilt and expect things in life to be easy - its about making small allowances to make their lives a little bit easier - and also the lives of their parents - who are under considerable amounts of stress!

I do realise this is a sensitive issue and i respect the fact that some were not allowed these sort of things as a child - but things have moved on considerably - and for the better in most cases - it is very difficult dealing with a young diabetic child at a theme park - everything goes crazy! 😱I dont think it is the end of the world if our children are given a tiny bit of slack!🙂Bev


p.s. Well said Adrienne! I hope J is feeling a lot better now after the 29!!!? Your stress levels must be high too! Bev x

 

[Copepod]

a disabled adult's view on theme park queues

A somewhat tongue in cheek opinion about ADHD and queue jumping at theme parks - just want to bring it to attention of board users here, not to upset, although I'm sure it will cause some distress to parents.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/opinion/b1tch/db_theme_parks.shtml

 

[Northerner]

A somewhat tongue in cheek opinion about ADHD and queue jumping at theme parks - just want to bring it to attention of board users here, not to upset, although I'm sure it will cause some distress to parents.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/opinion/b1tch/db_theme_parks.shtml

Thanks Copepod - very interesting. I liked the bit about the train guard. When I was trying to get my money back from the insurance company for missing the Stockholm Marathon, they said they needed proof that I didn't take the holiday - the fact that I was in hospital at the time didn't seem to be sufficient, so they needed proof from the hotel that I didn't turn up! In a parallel universe maybe!!!! These people need to take a reality check.

 

[Adrienne]

A somewhat tongue in cheek opinion about ADHD and queue jumping at theme parks - just want to bring it to attention of board users here, not to upset, although I'm sure it will cause some distress to parents.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/opinion/b1tch/db_theme_parks.shtml

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. I've never seen this column before. I click on the first link 'some disabled people get to skip queues' and that is also brilliant. And it is sooooo true. Why do people in wheelchairs have to queue jump !! Lets all forget the word 'disabled' it is a horrid word and we all agree that we don't like that word and what it stands for, however does someone in a wheelchair have to check their bloods are ok, possibly every 30 minutes to an hour (for kids anyway) whilst in a queue in the theme park, does someone in a wheelchair have to maybe give a shot of something (in our case insulin) via a needle be it pen or syringe, whilst standing in a queue, the list could go on. Probably not. Some rides have stair, ok fair enough, skip the queuing but they could still stand (or sit) at the exit for the required amount of time it takes for their 'real' place in the queue to get to the front !!! I could carry on.....................

Great article.

 

[katie]

I can totally understand why wheelchair users need to skips queues, so many reasons, especially in an airport situation.

This bit is so funny:
"He decided to go alone and then realised he'd need written proof he didn't have any legs and his lack of lower limbs wasn't just an optical illusion."

 

[Adrienne]

I can totally understand why wheelchair users need to skips queues, so many reasons, especially in an airport situation.

This bit is so funny:
"He decided to go alone and then realised he'd need written proof he didn't have any legs and his lack of lower limbs wasn't just an optical illusion."

Katie, I agree re the wheelchair user, of course they need to skip the queues, it would be a nightmare in those lines.