The First Overnighter . . .

Here’s our family’s motto regarding diabetes:

Ryan is a kid first and diabetes has to come second.

We let him have candy, eat cake, fill a large cup of the non-sugarfree slurpee, eat an enormous amount of carbs for a special occasion, etc.  He does the things that we would let him do if diabetes was not a part of our family.  Why?  Because we do have insulin that allows him to do such.  We watch his weight, make sure he is active and make wise food/snack/meal choices most of the time.  But he is an 8-year-old boy and I am determined to let him live the life of one – as carefree as possible.

But one thing that has been a very scary thing for me to think about is that all-nighter away from family, away from me.

I don’t check his blood sugar every night.  I just don’t.  We use wisdom and do what we need to, what we must.  We do basal testing whenever necessary to try to get that full night’s sleep more times than we don’t.  But there’s never a guaranty that six hours or so of uninterrupted sleep will happen.

BUT … the idea of him being away from me where I can’t check if I have that uneasy feeling or if something goes amuck has been very difficult to swallow.

I figured my first time to cross that bridge was going to be this summer when he asked to go to junior camp at church.  But I solved that problem.  I’m going as a counselor.  LOL.  But seriously, I am.

But his best buddie in school, Z, just had his 9th birthday.  These two buddies are inseparable.  They are both middle children of all boys (but Z has twin brothers who are in 6th grade and a younger brother in 1st grade).  They both wear glasses.  Both love football.  Both LOVE to read.  Two pease in a pod.

So his mom, Ryan’s art teacher (so she is familiar with Ryan’s d regimen), Mrs. B, asked if Ryan could spend the night on a Friday for Z’s birthday.

Deep breath.

I knew I had to let him do it.  Diabetes will not dictate what he can and cannot do, right?

Here’s how the fb message invite went:

So we exchange a little information and then this … the awesome part is her LAST SENTENCE!

Well, needless to say, lots of happy tears.

But still a bit of anxiety.

Friday rolls around.  She’s so relaxed, so good.  Asked a few questions.  Then I gave a little instruction.

And I left.

The texts that I received that night and in the morning were amazing!  They included:

• A picture of Ryan’s dinner plate out to eat with his sugar so I could give the carb count.
• A pic of the size of his piece of birthday cake along with pics of the nutrition labels of the cake mix, the icing mix and the sprinkles.
• An 11pm text with Ryan’s blood sugar followed up with “Enjoy the rest of your evening off, Mom, we’ve got it covered.”

And then early in the morning, I got this fb message:

“Boys are still sleeping, but I went ahead and put a yogurt and a cup of milk next to Ryan’s kit in case he feels bad when he wakes up. I was worried he wouldn’t be comfortable waking up anyone or rummaging through the fridge to help himself.”

Yeah, that made me cry and made my heart happy.

He woke up with just as perfect blood sugar numbers as he went to bed with!

I’m just wondering … could it be any easier on us d-moms?

When I went to pick him up that morning, she said they had figured his breakfast carbs together as a family at the breakfast table, figuring eggs, bacon, milk & biscuits.

And boy did it do wonders for Ryan’s confidence and FREEDOM.

I couldn’t be happier.  And I couldn’t be more grateful to Z’s family.  They were all amazing.

We are so blessed!

Just one of the pictures I recieved that night!