This is the third in a seven-part series chronicling a week of life at family diabetes camp.
This morning was emotional.
I woke up at 7:15 a.m. to the sound of our camp bell and then the echo of our morning wake-up music, played to rouse campers and parents alike from their beds. I treated a low-blood sugar with a couple of tins of camp apple juice, quickly got dressed, and headed out into the crisp mountain morning air.
I am always amazed at how energetic our campers and parents are at such an early hour. There were families playing a pre-breakfast game of ping pong, others on the basketball court shooting hoops, and others yet swinging on our camp swings. As they stood waiting for morning insulin consultation, parents began chatting casually about what happened with their children's blood sugars during the night, how the physical activity at camp is affecting the diabetes, and what activities were on the schedule for the day. This morning's conversations still seemed particularly guarded, as if some of the families still had their walls built up around them.
As I watched them converse this morning, I knew they had much more to share. I also know it is just a matter of time. Many of them seem to be wondering and assessing: Is this a safe place to divulge my struggles? What questions are OK to ask? Will I be judged on how I am managing my child's diabetes? How do other families cope?
I could certainly try to convince them that camp is one of the few places in the world where it is OK to "lay it all out on the table" without fearing judgment, that here at camp they can sit back and relax, but I also know that this is futile. Families need to experience it first-hand to believe it.
I know that in just a few hours, their walls will begin to crumble, and questions and stories will emerge. During insulin line the doctors proposed doses, counselors helped campers draw up and give insulin alongside their parents, buttons on insulin pumps were pushed, and the breakfast bell rang.
After our burrito breakfast, morning activity started. Campers met their counselors and went off to their various activities organized activities including: swimming; arts & crafts; nature; diabetes education; and archery. Meanwhile, parents all gathered in our upper open-air craft hall to experience their first activity, Opening Circle.
Our returning families guided the new ones, and as we sat in a circle of 71 adults in rickety old wooden chairs facing each other eye to eye, our medical director began. With microphone in hand, and a roll of toilet paper, she started to share her diabetes journey, one of many we would hear and share this morning.
"As I said last night, my name is Dr. Mary. I started at this camp over 20 years ago as a medical staff. I have diabetes. I believe that all of us are on a diabetes journey...I would like each of you today to share where your family is at with your diabetes journey. What are your struggles and your challenges, and what you are hoping to get out of camp?"
