u/Any-Cartographer7531

My nephew started back to school today. He's autistic. I made the decision to put him back in school after homeschooling him last year. For those who don't know I do have custody of him. While he did great with homeschooling academically, he really regressed socially. After I dropped him off at the bus stop this morning I bawled my eyes out. He has a bad history of being bullied relentlessly and I'm worried especially with the cell phone ban in my state that he's going to struggle. Bc he's a type 1 diabetic he does have a medical exemption from the phone ban as he needs it for his blood sugars and that's in his 504 but it's also never stopped some teachers before. I'm not so sure I made the right decision. So far I haven't gotten any calls from the school so I want to say thats a good sign? Im also trying to keep in mind that he does have a support system in place. He has a 1 on 1 aide that can walk with him to his classes and can walk with him to the nurse if he needs. I have spoken with his guidance counselor she says that he can always go to her if he he needs to. He's able to call me from her office if he's feeling uncomfortable or unsafe or having any issues with his teachers not letting him go to the nurse or taking his phone. My daughter is also in the same building he is. I made sure all of that was in place before he started.

Ik he needs to be around people his age and he deserves to go to school with his peers and feel safe. I'm just not sure if it's worth it. I'm hoping he will be okay. This is hard.

This is a long one so brace yourselves...

Let's see we have

1. Cardboard

2. Glue definitely not safe

3. Paper big no no

4. Plastic

5. Your fingers

6. Metal

Ok....i think ya get the point lol.

(This is a joke just to specify for the ones in the back)

So my nephew has had a few scary lows in the 4 years that he's been diagnosed. 2 of which I had to use his glucagon pen. Thankfully only twice so far. But it's left behind some... trauma...

Usually when he gets below 60 (3.3 mmol) we do the 15 rule where he eats 15 carbs and waits 15 minutes then recheck. However, when he's suddenly below 50 (2.8 mmol) we panic the whole 15 rule just goes out the window and I just allow him to eat fruit snacks juice gummies whatever is available to get his sugars up. Last night he was 54 double arrows down and he ate half a bag of gummies downed a juice and a glass of chocolate milk and I let him do it bc...i get scared too. We both definitely have a huge fear of lows in this house so we really try to avoid it at all cost.. I'm just realizing that it might not be so healthy long term.

Have any of you (or your children) ever been through this? If so how did you get past it? Lmk.

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For starters I DID NOT actually say this to her.... but I wanted to.. here's the full story.

My nephew is a type 1 diabetic and wears an insulin pump.

We were in a Walmart last night to get a few things for a pool party coming up soon. My nephew needed some new trunks bc the ones from last year were too small and had holes in them. Across from the aisle we were in there was a lady in the shoe dept who was obviously feeding her baby. Nothing wrong with that by itself right? So we just minded our business, and continued shopping for what we were there for.

A few minutes later I started smelling insulin. I look down at my nephew and he had insulin dripping from under his shirt (where his site was) I sat him down on a bench near the shoes and was checking his site and it was halfway out. The cannula wasn't even in his skin anymore and the whole site was drenched. Without really thinking I checked his blood sugar with a finger stick and it was high. Finger stick read 438 dexcom read 384 double arrows up. He told me his tubing got caught on something and didn't realize his site got ripped out. Not sure how much of that I want to believe but anyway. Not knowing how long his site had been leaking for I instantly decided we needed do an emergency site change and he needed an injection. Again I wasn't thinking about it at all. All I was focused on was getting him taken care of.

As I was setting up his pump supplies and getting his pen out and ready to give him a shot I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked up, it was this same lady. She had this dirty look on her face and made the comment "do you really have to do all that right here?" "People don't need to see that" "You should do that in the bathroom"

What I actually told her was to mind her damn business. She scoffed and walked away. What I wanted to say to her was that it was no different than her feeling her baby in the shoe aisle and ask how she'd like it if I told her to feed her kid in the bathroom.

Would I have been out of line? Or nah?

I've had this happen to me a few times. I've gotten orders in the middle of the night before and then I see that my dash is running after I decline it and I'll end it. Not even sure how long it's been running for but it's happened. I'm not sure if it's an app bug that turned itself on or maybe I accidentally turned it on in my sleep or maybe forgot to end it. I'm just wondering if this has happened to anyone else before? Nah? Just me? Alr. 🤣

Not really diabetes related but diabetes is a background reason for my concern so ig that works.

My nephew is almost 15 he's autistic/ADHD and one of his worst habits is skin picking and chewing. Mainly on his fingers near his finger nails sometimes until they bleed. We have been trying for years to break this habit tried gloves, bandaids I even tried buying him a chew necklace but he got made fun of for it so he stopped using it.

It's getting especially concerning now since he's a diabetic. I'm worried about infections slower healing etc. Which is obviously not good for him.

I do think it's a self regulation thing for him I just worry it's at the cost of tearing up and destroying his fingers.