Basketball

Special Olympics basketball practice starts tonight. This is a rotten time of the year for me to be transporting Daughter to practice every Wednesday evening. The practice runs from 4:30 to 6:00, which is a terrible time for us. She gets off the bus at 4:00 and it takes us 15 minutes to get to Town for practice. We normally eat around 5:30, so it's right in the middle of the supper hour. She doesn't have time to eat supper and change and get ready for practice. There isn't anyplace to drive through for a sandwich on the way to practice, and I really don't want the rush of having her eat something from home in the car, because she would feel stressed and get all worked up, resulting in tics, high blood sugar, and who knows what else.

We had a terrible time managing her blood sugars last year during basketball, and she finally dropped out because of it (with blessings and a huge sense of relief from me). Her blood sugars would go way high during the games and practices (adrenaline) and then crash later. There were times she'd come over to me at the sidelines and she was shaking so much she couldn't check her own blood sugar. This year her blood sugars aren't stable going into it, so I can't imagine what impact the stress/exercise will have on them. On the other hand, the activity and socialization are good for her. I don't want to give her the message there are things she can't do because of her diabetes.

So I find myself torn. The first practice is tonight, and I still haven't made a final decision on what to do. I haven't made the time to really sit down and talk to her about it, and there probably won't be time to do it this evening. So I'll take her to practice, we'll see what happens with her blood sugar and how she feels, and then make our decisions about her ongoing participation.