A little something in the news the other day caught my eye: schools in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area of North Carolina have organized an informational meeting especially for families of diabetic pupils. The meeting was titled "Diabetes: Back to School Basics." Reports The Charlotte Observer, the idea is to prepare parents and children for the school-year, looking specifically at how diabetic kids should expect to deal with their condition during school hours, what parents can and cannot expect of school staff and so on.

Also included on the agenda was a chance for parents and kids to work on personalized care plans for while they're at school. The meeting is also a chance for everyone to meet the diabetes nurse who has just joined the Charlotte-Mecklenburg district. The nurse is trained in diabetes management and will be available to help kids and parents with educational materials and resources.

Here's to the powers-that-be at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. You can see there is a problem with so many diabetic kids in your schools, (The Observer says around four hundred kids in that school district are diabetic), and you are tackling it head-on. What I'm not clear on is what the schools' policy is on insulin-dependent type 1 kids who need shots during school hours. This has become so problematic of late, with schools concerned about liability issues in having staff assist with supervising/administering shots. But, nevertheless, this is a sign of the times and a good one. In fact, this is so good I'm wondering...why don't all schools do this?

A teenager helped effect a law change in Indiana aimed at improving care in schools for kids with diabetes. This news comes courtesy of a report in The Indianapolis Star this week, which describes how high school student Alex Sandberg testified in favor of the law at the Indiana Statehouse.

Alex, who is fourteen years old, told lawmakers it's essential that insulin-dependent kids like herself be able to do blood sugar checks and adjustments while in the classroom. Previously, kids were required to troop off to the nurse's office (if the school even has one) multiple times a day to do blood checks. Also, the students were made to stay with the nurse until their blood sugars had normalized. Over time, this meant a lot of missed class time.

The new regulations became law as of July 1. From now on, schools have some work to do. First, they must recruit and train volunteer aides from existing staffs and train them to assist diabetic students as needed, while the students remain in class. Second, all new teachers entering the system must be certified in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the Heimlich maneuver, and other emergency procedures.

Says Alex of her testimony, "I wanted to testify to help out the other kids [with diabetes]. I did it for them." She also told The Star that she hopes the law will help demystify the condition: "One of my best friends told me she thought the school used to make me leave the classroom so the other kids wouldn't catch diabetes. She didn't know that it's not a contagious disease."

Gastric bypass surgery was originally devised to cause weight loss in cases of extreme obesity. However, it has recently come to be known as a last resort measure for controlling Type 2 diabetes in obese patients. To read up on this phenomenon, you need look no further than this very site. Here's a previous blog on this topic by yours truly, one that touches on the horrible complications that some have to endure after the surgery. Then here's a more recent one about a Welsh study on the incredible efficacy of the surgery, this time courtesy of Bev.

Now I see a new report circulating in the news. This one focuses on some doctors and their patients who have experienced first-hand how well the gastric bypass can work at making Type 2 diabetes disappear. The piece profiles (among others) truck parts salesman and Type 2 diabetic Adrian Scolari, who weighed 360 pounds and became an insulin-dependent diabetic. Upon having the surgery, says Scolari, his blood sugar levels immediately returned to normal. "I'd have to say it's like a miracle," Scolari exclaims. Bariatric surgeon Nestor De La Cruz Munoz says a gastric bypass can completely rid patients of Type 2 diabetes in a majority of cases. Munoz says, (and Bev talked about this in her blog on this topic too), it appears to be successful because shrinking the stomach's size and rerouting the small intestine affects the production of GLP1 hormone. Result? Instantly normalized blood sugar levels. Obvious next question: can this technique be applied to non-obese patients with Type 2 diabetes? I will look forward to hearing more about this.

Should you want to read more about gastric bypass surgery, WebMD has a good summary of what the procedure involves.