A Battle Worth Fighting

As many people say, I have to decide which battles are worth fighting and which ones I need to walk away from. This year, I've been having trouble with the school nurse. I know I am incredibly lucky to even have a school nurse, and even more lucky to have one that likes her job and cares about us kids.

It's nothing against her personally, but I don't feel, especially after my last endo appointment going so well, that I need to see her every single day. Before now, I've been going to her everyday after lunch to tell her my blood sugar, how many carbs I ate, and how much insulin I gave. I mean, really? I'm 16. I'm in great control. I have had 1 low this whole school year and no highs.

Now, yes, it only took a few minutes out of my day, but try to see it from my perspective. I'm late to the same class everyday, and get weird looks from my classmates everyday. I'm just tired of it. Earlier in the year I had other problems with the school nurse, but those were resolved rather quickly.

So I went to my endo a couple weeks ago and brought up this subject. Her reply? "You STILL go to the nurse EVERY day?!" Yep, yep I do. She was shocked. She said something I've been saying for months, "What, is she going to go to college with you too?" SHE GETS IT. (Now would be a good time to say, I LOVE my doctor!) She wrote me a letter, printed out some info form the ADA website, and basically told me it's my right to put in my 504 plan that I don't have to see the school nurse everyday. Music to my ears.

Her nurse emailed me the school forms, my mom signed them, and because I'm afraid of confrontation and of hurting people's feelings, I had my mom take them into the nurse at the end of the school day today. I got a text from my mom saying "Come to the nurse before you leave." I was thinking, ohhhh no. But when I got there, all she had to say was that I had to come to her if I was under 70 or so high that I was feeling sick. Okay, I can handle that!

Later, I found out the nurse was, in fact, not very happy when my mom first came in to talk to her. She had to call her supervisor, who wasn't happy either, to see what to do. In the end, since I had a note from my doctor, they couldn't really do anything. My mom said that the nurse said over and over again "I just get nervous..." To which my mom responded, "Me too, but she has to grow up sometime."

To me, this was a battle worth fighting. It may not seem like a big deal to you, but to me, it was huge. To any D-parents out there, be warned, once your kids get a little older, they will want their freedom. And you should fight for it for them. They need to spread their wings and fly, and that's okay. How else will we learn?