Spinning round

I happened to see one of my independent diabetics while helping my newly diagnosed Type I 8th grader. He wasn't sure what to do, because he thought that they got out early today (they do get out an hour early due to state testing, but definitely after lunch), so he had left his backpack at home. His backpack with his glucose meter, insulin, etc. Frustrated, I helped him get an emergency lunch from the cafeteria and told him to test when he got home; I'd rather him run high than run low. I told the attendance clerk his situation, and told her to call me if he came back feeling funny, and specifically told her I didn't want to hear from her. Not forty minutes later, just as I was re-settling into my original school, she called. I answered the phone; it was my new diabetic in the office feeling sick. She had taken 14 units of Novalog insulin to accommodate her blood sugar and 75 g carb lunch...and then didn't eat lunch. That's right, she took a whole bunch of insulin and then failed to eat. I barely contained my "WTF" reaction and told her I'd be right over, and to check her blood sugar and give her something to eat in the meantime. Eventually, her sister picked her up, but in the 15 minutes I was there with her, her blood sugar plummeted by 50 (to 140), even having eaten Jell-o in that time span. Needless to say, I racked up the mileage reimbursement sheet today: first, my original elementary school, then to my extra school that I just cover the diabetic at, then my other elementary school to pick up something from Rietta (lunch), then to my middle school to help my new diabetic with the insulin, then back to my original elementary school, then back to my middle school to lecture the diabetic about the importance of eating after taking insulin, then finally back to my original elementary school.

Also, I failed to mention that the grandma who picked up the kid who had stuck a pencil in an ear insisted on reaching into the trash can where I had disposed of it, in all it's wax covered glory, without gloves. Yum.