30-hour fast begins

[Hollyb]

Well I just sent Aaron off to school with juice but no breakfast. To be followed by lunch, dinner, overnight. EEK!

He's doing the "30 Hour Famine," a school fundraiser for World Vision. From late afternoon on he'll be in a gym with a bunch of other kids, basically for a big (non) sleepover. The deal is juice, water, and a bit of white rice if you feel unwell -- no food till 6 a.m. tomorrow.

Wish us both luck. I know he's smart and will stay on top of things, he has emergency food in his backpack, and we're a ten-minute drive away if he gets into trouble. His diabetes educator gave it her blessing. But jeez...

I will definitely be sticking close to the phone tonight!!

[miss_behave]

Good luck! I was told diabetics were only allowed to do an "8 hour famine" if you did it at my school :rolleyes: Here we have a 40 hour famine, not 30.

[frizzyrazzy]

I've never heard of that - but good for him giving it a try!!!

[Caydens_Mommy]

Good Luck with this.. I hope that it works out well for you guys.. I'm sure that you will be a nervous wreck till it is over. I sure it will be fun for him.. I would think they would make special circumstance for diabetic kids, but I am sure he wouldn't want to be treated any differently then the other kids.

[Hollyb]

You're right -- I'm sure they would make special circumstances, but he wants to see if he can do it. He's under strict order to bail if he gets more than minor ketones or feels like crap.

My anxiety right now is the teacher in charge of his school's participation hasn't called me, despite a note on the permission for and a phone call asking him to contact me yesterday. But I'll have a chance to chat with him when we drive him to the sleepover school I guess. I just want one adult who knows to give him juice rather than accuse him of being stoned if he has a bad low ... ya know?

[czardoust]

Your a braver mom than me, Holly. I will be praying for him.

[Hollyb]

Thanks. Right about now I'm not sure if I'm brave or an idiot -- let's face it, it's one of those things that if all goes well (most likely scenario) you think you did the right thing, and if not, it's "how could I be such an idiot!"

I dropped him off about an hour ago. He had a couple of lows today at school -- he dropped down his basal rate around noon and we just lowered them again. Zero ketones.

I'm mostly worried about him dropping in his sleep. Hopefully they won't actually sleep much.

[shekov]

I doubt there will be any sleep so not to worry! Congrats to you for letting him be a normal kid. I would definitly feel better having an adult there who knows him and shat is his mormal behavior. Good luck!

[Emma'sDad]

Wow, I'd be scared too. I see this was on Friday, how did you guys make out? I'm really curious to know.

[Hollyb]

He did fine, but man was he tired! We opened the cottage the next day and I think that's the first time I've ever seen him go to bed at 9 p.m. on a Saturday since he was about 7!

He definitely ran on the low side. They gave the kids muffins and ice cream (???) at 6 am for breakfast and after 3 big muffins he still went low midmorning (safe at home by then). But he did great, kept everything together, no ketones, had fun.

Now for the bad part. I never got a call back from the teacher, didn't find anyone to touch base with when I dropped him off (teachers weren't there yet, just student organizers and a couple of 'security' guys) , and (of course!) he never gave my "cheat note" to a teacher. (He did have friends with him who knew about his diabetes.) AND -- although the info sheet said clearly that juice and water would be freely provided, and in previous 30-hour famines this has been the case, apparently this year there were budget cutbacks and kids were expected to provide their own. Which we didn't know. So I sent him with a couple of juice boxes so he could have one right beside him if he slept at all, (and emergency food), but that's all. He had to buy juice out of the school vending machine ... and what if it had run out?? I mean he could have just called home for a bail-out, but still that kind of misinformation makes me crazy.

[OSUMom]

Thanks for the update, Holly. I went searching for it in the posts. :D So happy everything went well except for the aggravation on juice availability - they don't understand what that can mean to some of us! :rolleyes: Isn't it funny to see them go to bed so early on a Saturday night!!! ;)