Hello friends,
I have been out of the blogging loop since well before Thanksgiving, due to wonderful adventures and holiday celebrations and winter break, and a broken computer, and the list goes on and on. So I have no idea how you all have been for the last couple of months, but I hope this finds you well.
And I realize it is poor form to post asking for advice when I've been MIA for weeks upon weeks but that is just what I am here to do. I hope to catch up with your lives as soon as I can, but I have a rather pressing question in the meantime.
L is going on a school ski trip next weekend. John and I volunteered to be chaperons, but there are no parents allowed, so as to foster independence and responsibility amongst the 5th graders. Which is awesome. Except for the fact that the ski lodge is 6 hours away from here. And she will be skiing all day Saturday and Sunday, AND going to an indoor water park on Saturday night, not to mention the 7 meals she'll have while she's away.
So, the ski trip organizers have bent the rules and graciously allowed us to come along to serve as a safety net, tucked away in case of emergency. L and the chaperons know we'll be there, but her classmates do not. And if all goes well, we will not see her at all over the weekend. But if something does happen that requires our immediate attention, we will be nearby and not 6 hours away. This is a tremendous relief to us, as you can imagine.
So what I'd like to know from you guys is, have you ever sent your kid away on a trip like this? A couple of days and nights away from home with a very intense amount of physical activity occurring for much of that time? If so, do you have any helpful hints?
We plan to tell her to program a temp basal while she's on the slopes. But we're wondering if it should be 20%? 25%? 50%? (I realize this is a very personalized decision and of course we're consulting her endo as well.) The school nurse suggested that she carry her glucagon on her person, but we're not sold on the idea. What if she falls on top of it and crushes it/it bruises her (she's never skied before). Also, even if she has it in her pocket if she passes out, will a ski resort medic know what to do? There will be a chaperon acting as a nurse on the trip who is trained in glucagon administration, but she will not be by L's side every moment of every day, nor do we want her to be.
Basically, I'm interested in hearing if your child has done anything similar and if so, what precautions you took or what you learned from the experience that you may not have thought about beforehand.
Thanks for taking the time to read all of this. I hope to get back to posting and reading regularly sooner rather than later. And as I said, I hope the new year is treating you well. :)
