When your child is in a show, concert, or parade, diabetes won’t take an intermission.
Your child will be on stage perhaps separated from an adult who can help them if he or she is having a low blood sugar. Will the excitement, stress or extra activity required for the performance cause the blood sugar to go up or down? Beats me. And you can bet the show will be during dinnertime, further complicating the routine.
Who will carry the diabetes supplies, or where will they be if needed? Will there be medical supervision backstage for the duration of the show? And how do you keep the stress from all the issues above from ruining your ability to enjoy your child’s show, while trying not to wonder the whole time whether your child is having a low blood sugar and is about to collapse on stage?
For a Memorial Day parade in which my 6-year-old daughter rode her decorated scooter, I walked along side of her. No worries, and I got some exercise, too.
For a dance show, I kept my daughters, ages 4 and 7, in the audience with me, their costumes hidden under their clothes, until it was time for their dance number. This required an assertive conversation with the dance director who didn’t understand that supervision backstage didn’t equal medical supervision.
For a concert where my eight-year-old daughter’s diabetes supply bag stayed backstage with her violin case, I felt better knowing she had a pack of smarties hidden in her pump belt.
And when my daughter, who was 6 years old at the time, was in her first tumbling show, I watched her perform log rolls across the stage, grateful for a pump that could tolerate all that rolling without incident, and for a daughter who didn’t let her diabetes keep her from rolling with the punches.
