At our last appointment with our diabetic educator, we went through the ins and outs of a sick day. Sick days look completely different when you are a Type 1. There are many precautions we have to take and things we have to keep a close eye on.

Sugars can go crazy high or crazy low. Ketones can appear at any time while he’s sick. And things can take a turn for the worst in a heartbeat.

Luke has been feeling a cold coming on for the past week or so. This morning when he woke up, he felt like he was hit by a truck. We gave him the option to stay home. Here’s where I had to cut another mom string- if he stayed home, he had to stay home alone. Joel and I are both teachers and the 2nd to last day of school before Christmas is a really busy time. We made sure he was ketone-free and his sugar was steady before we decided to let him stay home alone. We told him to have his phone by his side all day long. We’d be checking in several times all day long. And, most importantly, if he felt weird or had ketones at ANY time, he needed to tell us immediately. I am only a 5-ish minute drive away, so I could easily up and leave in an emergency.

Fortunately, he has been fine- sugar-wise and ketone-wise- all day. I am so proud of that boy. He kept us in the loop. He answered our texts all day long. He checked ketones and his temperature. He fed himself lunch (at 10:45 a.m.- ha ha!). He worked on his assignments, which were emailed to him by his teachers. He is an amazing kid. We asked him if he felt like a man. “Kind of,” he said. “But it’s pretty boring to be home all day by yourself.”

He’s feeling a lot better tonight. It looks promising that he’ll get to join in the Christmas festivities tomorrow at school, too!