Every Child Matters - Children with Diabetes

♦I dropped my 12 year old son off at school early this morning as he's off on ahistory trip and went to check with one of the teachers if anyone had thoughtto get Danny’s hypo kit from the office. He has glucose on him but I like the kitto go as extra everything is in it if needed. Not really surprised that nobodyhad got it but was so cross when this teacher the head of history who taughthim last school year when diagnosed asked me to point him out and then saidthere was no point him going to the office to get it as the office was locked andhe wouldn’t know where it was anyway! Well good job it wasn’t ever needed inhis lesson last year! I assumed all teachers knew where the kits are kept as thesecretary surely isn’t in the office all day even if she’s only let out for the loo!The bus was leaving at 0815 and apparently the secretary arrives at 0830!Luckily I found a lady in school who had a spare key to the office, didn’t knoweither where to find the kit, but luckily it was in the first drawer she opened. Ithen ran with it to the bus as I'd been told they were leaving 0815 prompt andcouldn’t wait!!! This same teacher made a comment that there’s "another boysomewhere says he needs to inject at dinner too" (there is another type 1 inDanny’s year) but is that how he sees it, they just need to inject and everythingis then tickerty boo!! He didn’t seem interested or aware of his responsibility. Iwas trying to explain to him just so he was aware that Danny had given moreinsulin than usual before breakfast as he was high 9.9 this morning post lastnights meal out but he walked off as I was telling him! Danny should be ok aswe checked it again in the car one hour after and it was still 8.2 and he hadone and a half hours sitting on the bus to come. I'm just trying to calm downbefore I ring the school to politely point out that I feel it is essential that allstaff members know where the hypo kits are and that some teachers seemunaware of the implications of intensive insulin therapy.♦Just to relate a sad tale of what happened to Philip this week.I arranged to go in and see the 3 teachers who were accompanying the 30children to the Pyrenees leaving a week today last Tuesday morning, withthe two D nurse. Just so that they were clear on what help Philip mightneed. Nothing basic about diabetes I assumed they were clued up on that,Philip having a care plan in school etc. etc. I wrote out four things towatch out for that would indicate the need for help i.e. unable to treat ahypo, (how to identify and what to give) - seizure, what to do - hypersand when help is needed (i.e. he is so sick he cannot treat himself) andif there is a bug going round the group so he gets too ill to look afterhimself. The final suggestion in all cases was of course that they shouldcall an ambulance as you would in the UK or at school if Philip was tocollapse with a hypo or seizure, or instead of being sent home if veryhigh and sick.Anyway, they asked us to come back yesterday, I thought to show them howto do a blood glucose test again (which I had with me and demonstratedfirst time, which we were suggesting they do, if Philip was low/high andcould not manage himself) This time they also had the guy who does healthand safety risk assessments for school trips. Apparently they had doneone 6 months ago on the trip but had not identified any problems.43