When was the last time you sat down to a meal and everyone at the table began adding the carbs on their plates, using a calculator to determine their insulin dose and pulled an insulin pen or pump out of their pockets?

Diabetes Camp.

When was the last time you climbed into your bunk bed and said, "One of my least favorite things about diabetes is that I just can't control it perfectly no matter what I do," and everyone else in the room nodded their heads and immediately agreed with you?

Diabetes Camp.

When was the last time you and your friends were getting ready to go sledding for a couple of hours, and all of you either ate extra carbs or set a temporary basal rate on your pump?

Ahem....Diabetes Camp!

Okay, so you get my point. I just spent the weekend at a three-day camp for teens with Diabetes in New England. I was a counselor, but I learned a lot, too. Right away, it's obvious that some of the campers are pretty sure they don't want to be there. Their parents made it happen, though, and within just a few hours, it seems like the campers have changed their minds. For the first time, for many of them, they are sitting in a room with 40 other people their age who live with diabetes.

It's a kind of feeling a doctor or your brother might not understand. All of the kids in this room not only have to check their blood sugars and take shots, but they just know how it feels. They know that even though their doctor says to do this and this and this for perfect blood sugars, there are other parts of life that get in the way that they don't have control over. They also know what it feels like to be so clearly different in school, at lunch time, at recess, during a low blood sugar.

They know exactly how it feels to be wondering what life would be like without diabetes.

You don't have to explain yourself to anybody at Diabetes Camp. We already get it.

For some campers, they learned how to handle their blood sugars better during a lot of exercise if they aren't very active at home. Others  learned how to give themselves their Lantus injection, and many campers got to see what it's like to have an insulin pump.

We counted carbs. We talked about insulin to carb ratios. We played games to help us learn carbohydrates in different foods. We talked about how to handle different situations in life because of diabetes. We even talked about how poorly managed diabetes can impact a person's sex life.

Diabetes Camp is really worth a try for anyone with the disease. It doesn't matter how long you've had it, there is always more for you to learn. And it never hurts to meet more people with diabetes -- in fact, you might make a few life-long friends.

If you haven't been to camp yet, check out the American Diabetes Assosciation for camp listings in your are for the summer, and go!