My flexible schedule comes at a price. If I had a job with set hours, rather than a substitute-teaching job, I’d risk getting fired every time I had a day like today.

5 minutes after I walked in the door after Mass, my cell phone rang. It was the school nurse, calling to tell me that Little Brother had felt woozy during Mass and needed to be taken home.

I made it to school in 8 minutes. I’d have gotten there faster, but cars in front of me insisted on observing the speed limit.

If I’d remembered that the school kids were going to Mass today, I’d have gone there–and been there when the principal rushed him out of church and, in Little Brother’s words, “power-walked” him to the nurse’s office.

His continuous glucose monitor showed a blood-glucose level in the mid-120s, which the nurse wisely confirmed with a blood test. But since he was “white as a sheet” and really feeling awful, she gave him 4 ounces of apple juice anyway. That’s a quick hit of about 15 carbs.

When I got there, 8 minutes after she called me, he’d dropped another 20 points. While he was lying down in the nurse’s office, I ran upstairs to his classroom to get his backpack and lunchbox.

Getting into the car, he told me, “When I get home, I’m putting on my pajamas and lying down.” But by the time we got home, his blood sugar had stopped plummeting, bottoming out at 102 and leveling off.

102 is a healthy blood sugar. He’d spiked after breakfast (something we’re trying to figure out how to prevent) and during Mass his sugar began a free-fall.

Thanks to the principal and nurse’s quick actions, he stayed within a safe range, though the rapid drop made him feel (and look) as though he wasn’t.

And he’s been fine all day. He did have one workbook home (because he didn’t pack it yesterday) and he did have homework tonight in that workbook, so I made him do that, but otherwise he’s just been hanging out.

He apologized a few minutes ago for making me come and get him. I’m just sorry I hadn’t been at church when it happened. And I’m sorry he has to go through this at all. But I’m glad I was available to get him when needed–that all that was interrupted was cleaning the bathroom.

I may daydream about having a day job, but right now it’s all about the flexibility.