A Diabetes Angel

As this school year was approaching, I revisited my post from last year, Back to School with my Smarties!.

I thought that I was going to read it and see how far we've come since then. I thought that the back to school preparation for Ally would be a piece of cake this year. After all, it is our 3rd school year that we have started with D.

Not.so.much.

Instead, I realized that "Back to School" will always mean something different for us than simply buying new school clothes and school supplies. Sure, the preparation that we did last year and the year before have paid off. I know the school routines.  I have some great organizational tools and educational materials for sharing with the school staff.  But some things will just have to be part of the back to school routine every year. I had to prepare for a new bus driver, a new classroom teacher, a new PE teacher, a new art teacher and a new music teacher! (By new, I mean new to us and new to D.)  Geesh! You'd think that at least one of these could have remained the same from 2nd to 3rd grade!! Oh well, that just makes 4 more bodies in the school that will be educated about type 1 diabetes.

Something else was different too. For as much work as had to be done educating school staff this year, I kept feeling like I had someone looking out for us through this process.

Ally likes to refer to her Great-Grandpa, who passed away in 2008 a few months before her dx, as her "Diabetes Angel." He had type 2 diabetes, but she remembered seeing him check his blood sugar and when she was diagnosed she said that she wished he were here because he would understand what she has to do every day.

As I began the sometimes grueling process of teaching Ally's new teachers, coaches and caregivers all about D, I found several things that eased my mind.

~  We would have the same school nurse as last year!
~  The new bus driver actually has a son with type 1 diabetes.
~  Ally's religious education teacher is a RN.
~  Her cheerleading and soccer coaches were both familiar with type 1, as they had each had a T1
     child on their team the previous year.

I love the idea that Ally has a very special "Diabetes Angel" looking out for her and I'd love to think that he did just that as we started this school year!