Day 5 of #HAWCMC: Aspiration:

Just what are you Hopin’ to Accomplish Missy?

So today’s challenge is, well, simply put, challenging for me.  We were tasked with writing, for your reading pleasure, what, as an advocate for our specific cause, we would hope to accomplish – thinking big picture.  Pie in the sky big.  Capital B, I, G, big.  Now the part of me that Alison calls a “poopy head” would say “Great!  Easy!  I am going to cure Diabetes in 5 years – 10 at worst” realizes that this is too short a blog post so here goes.  Something hard, but realistic:

Here in the Province of Ontario Canada, where we live, quite happily, there is no real protection for diabetic students who are too young to manage their own care.  I am talking about the children like mine who are in the Junior kindergarten to early school years and not the kids who can test their blood sugar, test,  treat and bolus (if pumping) on their own except in the case of great emergency.  Alison is currently five.  She started school at four and while she can test her blood glucose levels and type in her bolus and press ok, she’s still too young to calculate the actual amount of insulin her body needs or how to treat a case of hypoglycemia.

Until 2010, Kids in Ontario were not able to test their BGLs in classrooms.  They had to leave the class and go to a designated area to test.  Sometimes, due to low blood glucose levels, they may not have made it to where they were going before losing consciousness or before falling very ill.  This is where MPP Dave Levac comes in.  He was instrumental in bringing into law Bill 5, Bill of Rights for Pupils with Diabetes, 2010 which ensures that children in Ontario schools can not only test themselves, but can also treat both low and high blood sugar episodes in their classrooms.

The work of Mr. Levac and his staff is amazing, but more needs to be done.  I personally would like to see legislation that makes it so that there are rules in place that standardize how children find treatment within our schools.  Currently, the schools themselves can deny to test and treat the child.  We’re very lucky in that our school principle has bent over backwards to ensure that Alison gets tested and treated before meals and snacks.  If this was something she and the teachers didn’t want to do, either my husband or I would have to visit the school at every snack and meal to ensure that Alison was getting her treatments.  Many parents across Canada do this on a daily basis.  Many parents cannot work 9-5 jobs because of this.

Another issue that is faced by children with Type 1 Diabetes (and children with Allergies as well) is that the bus companies refuse, and it is within their legal rights, to provide life saving treatment to a child like Alison should she start slipping into a coma due to hypoglycemia.  They will call 911 and pull the bus over, but even though we can walk the driver through the delivery of the meds she has readily on her person, as can a 911 operator, the company does not want to take responsibility for any liability charges that could ensue.

Both of these issues are of great concern to me.  My child has had many, many challenges already in life, more than I have ever faced and she is at the start of her journey.  If I could change something to make her school years, which will be hard all on their own, just a bit safer and easier, that’s what I would do.