"Take Your Medicine Before Practice....

So it doesn't interrupt our practice."

Now why the hell didn't I think of that? I usually don't have to deal with stupid, stupid comments from ignorant people, but this comment is from someone who is going to be Morgan's basketball coach.

Basketball tryouts started this past Monday. Morgan came out of it with a glucose of over 400. Not good. He can't function well when over 250 and it showed. When I got there to pick him up he was uncoordinated, breathing hard and just didn't look well. I spoke with the head coach, who has known Morgan since 1st grade and is completely on board with Morgan's diabetes. He wants Morgan safe and wants to know what he needs to do to keep him healthy. Basically, it came down to Morgan being uncomfortable taking care of his diabetes in this new 'high school' arena. He wants to participate 'just like everyone else', not be singled out for being different. His blood sugar had been 95, so he downed a ton of carbs and went back to work. With the adrenaline and carbs, he sky-rocketed to a very unhealthy number.

Pat and I decided that until EVERYONE (Morgan, Coaches, Parents) was comfortable dealing with diabetes, I would just attend tryouts this week and help Morgan manage his blood sugars. This way, he could focus on basketball, I could keep an eye on him for signs of hi's or low's, and he could gain the confidence to walk off the court to take his blood sugar and treat it as necessary. Tuesday and Wednesday were great, he stayed below 250, took insulin as needed and checked his blood sugar about every 45-60 minutes. No problem. Until last night.

Morgan had forgotten his ankle braces so I ran home and got them for him, so he was late getting on the court. A little into practice another coach (Coach B) told Morgan that Coach M wanted to talk to him....in the stairwell. I figured he was being scolded for being late and didn't think anything of it. But over the course of tryouts, I had to call Morgan off the court to have him check his blood sugar. He was 135, too low for comfort, but he ate a little and had some Gatorade, they were just going to be shooting and not running. Well, he did end up running and he would not come off the court when I tried to get his attention. When I did, he was 106, shaking and pretty emotional. I could not figure out why he was so upset. I told him that I was there, I wasn't going to let anything happen, he was okay, just sit out and lets get his blood sugar up. That's when he told me about the stairwell....

Apparently, Coach M told Morgan in the stairwell that he "needs to take his medicine before practice so it doesn't interrupt"! I could have committed homicide or at the very least ripped the skin from that man's back. I spoke with the head coach, told him what was said. He was furious. He said that there is no room for that kind of prejudice and ignorance on his staff and he would take care of it.

This man has no idea of what he has done. Morgan was just starting to feel like he could take care of himself without having to worry about what the coaches would think. Unfortunately, ignorant people say stupid things and have no clue what it is like to deal with this 24/7. I wish we could just deal with it for an hour in the morning and forget about it until tomorrow. Life would definitely be much easier. I don't know what is going to happen. I think an apology to Morgan is in order. AND a very lengthy coarse in diabetes education.