Very Proud Mum!

[Sally71]

This could go either in the Parents section or Pumping, but I'm posting it here because I want everyone to know how proud I am!

My daughter @Charle2911 is going on a 4-day school trip to France at the end of this month, so ever since Christmas I've been slowly training her up on everything about how her pump works. She's only 12, so if she wasn't going away I wouldn't even be thinking about showing her any of this yet unless she asked, but obviously I can't go with her (and she wouldn't want me tagging along anyway) so she'll have to do it herself. She could leave the pump at home and use pens, but in my mind that would be even worse because we aren't used to MDI at all (were only on it for a week before we got the pump) and her blood sugars would be all over the place!

She can obviously do her boluses and is getting pretty good at carb counting, and now she can do a pump refill almost as quickly as I can and is slowly learning about temp basals too. The main sticking point has been cannula insertion, she can load the cannula into the insertion device and line it up on her body, but has had a real mental block about pushing the button to fire it in. I've tried saying that it shouldn't be any different just because she's pushing the button instead of me, but it's been a real problem for her, just confidence I know, and she's very young still!

So I agreed to keep doing them for her for a while but said that in March she will have to do them all herself, the more she does before she goes the more confident she will be while she's away. And this morning was the first one in March! She really didn't want to do it, but I was determined that she should, and after several minutes of trying to build up her courage, she finally did it! And then looked very surprised that it didn't hurt 😛

I'm so proud of her, that will give her a massive confidence boost and the next one will be 10 times easier 🙂

When she comes back from the trip she wants me to go back to doing everything for her, which I'm quite happy to do for at least another year or two, but it's handy that she can now do it herself in case I ever can't!

In case anyone is wondering, it's only a 4 day trip so we could try to wangle things so that we do a pump refill just before she goes, unfortunately her insulin requirements are fairly high at the moment and sometimes we don't quite get a full 4 days out of the pump cartridge! (We used to get 6 easily when she was young...) So she'll probably have to do one pump refill and one cannula change only whilst away, and I don't want her or any of the accompanying staff to be panicking!

She's doing so well learning it all, especially as she really doesn't want to yet and is only doing it for this trip, I'm so proud of her 🙂

 

[Pumper_Sue]

Well done @Charle2911 you are a trouper. Must admit I hated the self serter things it was the noise that put me off so I just use a cannula that I manually insert as feel more in control.

Enjoy your trip to France young lady 🙂
@Sally71 you have probably thought of it already, if not perhaps consider making a bullet list to follow for reference.

 

[Northerner]

Well done @Charle2911! 🙂 I hope you enjoy the trip - I went to France at your age on a school trip, but didn't have diabetes then - great job learning how to do everything and plucking up the courage to try your first insertion 🙂

 

[SueEK]

You are so right to be proud of your daughter, I hope she has a wonderful time in France, I too went when I was her age and had such fun. Is there an adult who would know what to do if she felt unsure though it sounds like she is very competent? All the best to you.

 

[Lilian]

I hope your daughter has a wonderful time. You have every right to be proud of her, but a little bit of that pride should go to yourself for your support and encouragement.

 

[Sally71]

Thank you for all your comments!

@Pumper_Sue yes I have asked daughter several times if she would like a bullet-point list of what to do, she says she doesn't and would rather commit it to memory. So far I've respected that, am tempted to make one anyway though and pack it in her bag, then she can choose to use it or ignore it as she sees fit

The school are having a meeting for parents of all children going on the trip, I shall go to that and then request a separate meeting with some of the staff who are going, to go through medical issues. They have a care plan but that only covers day time at school, they need to know that she must be allowed time for cannula changes and pump refills as and when required, that if they are on a tight schedule they can't expect her to keep on traipsing around battlefields if she's low, that she will have to do her own carb counting for meals, etc etc. I don't know whether she wants to take the glucagon kit, it's one of those things that you hope you'll never need (and most people don't ever need) but I get the impression that it would give her a little extra peace of mind and we just happen to have an out-of-date one at the moment that we could use for demonstration purposes! (Not actually injecting it into anyone, of course 😱). So we've got loads to think about. @SueEK I don't think daughter would want anyone but me helping her with pump stuff or cannulas, and I think the medical team also don't think it's a good idea to try to train up school staff to do things like that. When you only do things once in a blue moon it's a lot easier to get it wrong, best keep it for those of us who have to do it regularly. She seems pretty confident though and can always phone me for advice if anything goes wrong (just hoping it's something that I can talk her through on the phone!)

 

[Flower]

Bonne vacance @Charle2911 , you are a star 🙂 I hope you have a thoroughly enjoyable trip to France 🙂

 

[trophywench]

Well done @Charle2911 !

Just after I got my first pump - also a Combo - I went to a meeting somewhere which was nothing whatever to do with diabetes and this lady I met there had spotted it hooked onto my waistband and asked me how long I'd had it, so I answered 'A week'. Then she asked me how long it had taken me to do my first cannula change? and I answered 'Between 10 & 15 minutes - why?' and she burst out laughing and said she'd had hers a couple of years now and it must have taken her nearly three quarters of an hour! Then she told me she was a GP so she thought I'd done very well - for an insurance broker. We were both having a giggling fit by then - and I hope the tale amuses you, too!

Any idea where you're going yet and what you'll get to see and do?

 

[trophywench]

Sally - dunno if you visit France? or speak any French? apart from the language TBH, and generally better coffee but lousy tea - it's as civilised as England LOL

 

[AJLang]

Congratulations to your daughter. You should both be very proud of yourselves 🙂

 

[Sally71]

Sally - dunno if you visit France? or speak any French? apart from the language TBH, and generally better coffee but lousy tea - it's as civilised as England LOL

I can't stand coffee, like tea but nowhere else makes tea like in England! Can't speak French, other than a few words dredged up from when I was a child! They are going to Normandy to see the battlefields and war graves, actually only the middle two days will be spent doing anything interesting, the first and last days will be spent entirely travelling as they are going by ferry not plane! Which daughter is very pleased about because it means she won't need to argue with airport staff about her pump, and the only time we did fly anywhere on holiday with her she hated it because of the ears popping

 

[Bronco Billy]

Well done @Charle2911 and well done too, @Sally71, you have obviously done a great job of training. A fiver says your daughter won’t want you to do everything when she returns, independence is hard to let go of.

May I suggest meeting with the school as soon as you can rather than waiting until after the meeting? The more time for discussions about the trip and arrangements to be put in place, the better.

 

[SB2015]

Well done @Charle2911 One cannula done.
I hope you have a fantastic trip.

Well done @Sally71 . Excellent team work.
I am with @Bronco Billy . I would bet you will be redundant on cannula changes after this.
I also suggest that you arrange a separate meeting with the staff going,or at least meet them before the main meeting. They will take a lot more in then rather than at the end of a long day and an after school meeting.
As a member of staff it would be good for them to have:

A clear understanding of the need to stop to manage hypos if needed, whatever the schedule.
We simply allow more time for things just in case and they may need to do the same.
Hence back to an early meeting with the staff

A copy of sick day rules

A bag of JBs each or whatever Charlie’s hypo treatment is.
Just in case her bag is in the wrong place, although I suspect that
@Charle2911 a lot more organised than me.

Well done to you both.

 

[Sally71]

Thank you all

I have emailed my daughter's form tutor yesterday to request a meeting with at least some of the staff who are going on the trip, so am waiting on tenterhooks now for a reply! Don't know if the form tutor is actually going, but he's supposed to be my first point of contact. They don't actually know when the main parent meeting will be, talk about leaving it until the last minute, I sort of had it in mind that if I hadn't heard anything by the beginning of March then I'd have to start making a fuss!

I keep thinking of things to talk to them about, will have to start writing it all down I think. As well as time to do pump cartridge and cannula changes, daughter will also need somewhere private to do them, she certainly won't want a load of people walking past and staring at her, even her friends!

I'm up for a bet on whether she continues to do it all by herself after her return!

 

[PhoebeC]

She should be proud.
It’s not in most people’s nature to do anything that hurts or could hurt to themselves.
I remember that first injection.
It’s the thought of it that’s worse than the action itself.
Well done both!
Also I’d i had the option for someone to take a day of my care off me I would do it, so I don’t blame her asking you to carry on doing it for her when she’s back.

 

[Sally71]

Well she's there! Left school at 5.50 am yesterday, arrived at hotel on the coast near Caen just after 6pm UK time, I can track her phone on Google Maps so it was interesting to see where she was. They had a meal when they got there, quiche Lorraine followed by meatballs and cold pasta followed by chocolate mousse, of which according to her only the mousse was edible! (The rest sounds fine to me...). This morning she had "weird cereal" and brioche for breakfast, I wonder how she managed to count the weird cereal then?! She should have been due a pump refill last night, or at the latest this morning, I presume that went without problem as I have heard nothing about it!

Had a fantastic meeting with school staff, the first directly after the main parent meeting, I think they thought it would only need a few minutes but then realised it was a bit more complicated than that! They have had diabetic students before but I think my daughter might be the first one on a pump. So I emailed them a copy of the care plan, updated with some extra stuff especially for residential trips, and waited. Eventually got a request to go in after school one day last week and meet the form tutor (yes he is on the trip) and a PE teacher who is also going as he's a trained first aider (and he only looks about 22, I'm probably old enough to be his mum!). They were so nice, had obviously read the care plan carefully and understood it, the PE teacher had his highlighter pen out, and all the questions they asked were sensible ones. They "get it" which is fantastic for me, I now have no problems with them taking my daughter away, I know she will be looked after 🙂

We suspect that this PE teacher might be going just to look after my daughter, there are 50 students on the trip, which at a ratio of 1:15 should need four members of staff. But there are five going, two (male) history teachers, two (male) PE teachers who are also first aiders, and one female science teacher, presumably only going because they need a female in case any of the girls have feminine problems or need help at night! We were discussing what should happen if my daughter has any medical issues at night, and they said men can't go the girls' bedrooms, in an emergency the female teacher would have to act as a chaperone so that the male first aider could attend to her!

It sounds like they've got it all covered though, she went off really happily yesterday without even looking back, and yes of course I miss her a bit but not half as much as I thought I would. Hubby is also away this week so I've got the house to myself for three days, which I'm also enjoying more than I thought I would 😛

Success then, hopefully! (And I'm also very glad Brexit has been delayed, that's one less thing to worry about )

Oh and daughter did start to write a reply to this thread, then remembered she'd got homework so abandoned it and never came back to it. She read all your comments though, thank you all very much 🙂

 

[merrymunky]

Fantastic. It sounds like the school are completely ‘on it’ and supportive. I hope she had a fantastic time.

 

[SueEK]

That’s great and so glad everyone is aware. I’m sure your daughter will have a wonderful time, I remember my trip to France at her age and it was such fun. Let us know how she got on when she returns x

 

[Bronco Billy]

That's excellent news! It sounds like the school are taking their responsibility seriously. Now relax and enjoy the peace and quiet. Is there a bottle of wine in the fridge?

 

[Lucy Honeychurch]

Hope she has a fantastic time and you a well deserved rest and glass of vino