Mark was telling me a story about a fifth-grade girl at school. He said her name a couple times, but I finally had to admit I didn't know who he was talking about.
"The girl who just got diagnosed with diabetes," he said, exasperated with me.
"Sorry," I answered. "I didn't know her name."
"ANYWAY..." he started his story over again. It began with her smacking Mark in the head with her lunchbox, and him retaliating by taking her lunch.
Now, most moms would be upset by the smacking and stealing parts, but I'm the parent of a child with diabetes. I was more worried about the lunch part.
"You took her lunch?" I asked. "Did she already take her insulin?"
"Yes," he answered. "Besides, she took my lunch, too."
"Did you already get your insulin?" I asked. I was beginning to panic. Taking each other's lunches is a time-honored tradition on the playground, but for kids with diabetes -- who've already taken their insulin according to very specific lunch carb counts -- the results can be disastrous.
"She took your lunch --but you needed to eat!" I said.
"Don't worry," Mark chided. "She needed to eat her lunch, too. So we just gave them back."
And then I laughed. Partly from relief, and partly because it was funny in a sad kind of way. I could see them both stealing lunches and teasing each other, then suddenly realizing they had to stop playing around and eat. I was mad at Mark for stealing the girl's lunch, and proud of him for realizing it might be kind of dangerous to play around like that.
Sometimes diabetes complicates even the simplest interactions...
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