At last!!!

Daniel got his braces off today. Phew! Poor kid has had an appliance of one sort or another in his mouth for the past nine years -- longer than he's been alive! Of course, he still has to wear retainers, but still -- what a relief. At least those can come off!

I told Daniel my retainer story. I had mine in junior high. I took it out to eat, and put it on a napkin on my tray. When lunch was over, I forgot about the retainer, and dumped it into the trash everything else. A class period or so later, I got that "UH OH" feeling... and not too long after that I was digging through enormous trash cans looking for my retainer. I found it. I boiled it...

Today when I was at work, I saw another teacher walking in front of me. She had pump tubing coiling out of her back pocket and then going under her clothes. The coils were sticking out quite a bit, so I tapped her on the arm as I was walking by and said, "hey, your tubing is sticking out." She said thanks, and tucked it in. I walked back to my classroom, sat down, and thought, wait... maybe that wasn't the right thing to do! It's something I do automatically when I see Daniel's spilling out of his clothes, because he tends to catch it on door knobs or drawer handles. He's ripped a couple of sites out that way, ouch! Anyway, I'm his mom! But until the moment this afternoon when I saw the other teacher's tubing, I didn't even know she was diabetic. Should I have said anything?

Speaking of pumping, Daniel has really taken over his diabetes management over this past 6 months or so. I used to tell him when it was a site change day. Now he tells me. He mostly does that himself as well, unless he's inserting into a place that's difficult for him to reach. I wonder how diabetics who live on their own reach the back of their arms, or other difficult spots, for that matter. I'm sure some have partners, roommates, moms, or other friends who help them out with the "ka-chunker" (as we call it) to insert the infusion set. But what if you live on your own? Daniel can twist around and get his hips pretty well, although he has to look in a mirror. The arms are practically impossible for him.

In any case, it's been wonderful for Daniel to take charge of his care. It makes me feel better about the looming college separation. Now if he would only take on gluten free cooking...

I guess I'll search youtube for how to self administer infusion sets in difficult places -- you can find almost anything on that site.

Keep smiling!!