Diabetes at Camp Bearskin Part IV: Camp Firsts

This is the fourth in a seven-part series chronicling a week of life at family diabetes camp.

This morning at breakfast in a packed dining hall we celebrated "Camp Firsts." Camp Firsts are a big deal here at Bearskin Meadow, as they symbolize reaching a diabetes milestone. If your name ends up on the "First List," perhaps you have poked your finger for the first time without any help, or maybe you have given yourself your first shot without mom or dad, or you have tried a new type of insulin set, or have eaten glucose tabs or sugar cubes for the first time. If you are a sibling of a child with diabetes, maybe you took a saline injection, drew up insulin for your brother or sister, or checked your blood sugar for the first time.

The list goes on and on.

The "First List" is a giant piece of butcher paper that sits up on our gargantuan fire place for all to see. When a first is achieved, campers and parents love to run up to the list and add their names and their achievements using a big thick marker. Every day we put up a new list after breakfast, and each day by the end of the day the list is inevitably longer than the last.

The positive peer pressure at camp results in a lot of firsts. Campers and parents who were on the list today were called to the front of the dining hall one by one to rousing applause and cheers. When all our first participants were gathered together up front and standing in front of the rest of camp, they proceeded to do the traditional "First Parade" by taking a victory lap around the inside perimeter of the dining hall, slapping high fives to all of us cheering them on.

The moment of celebrating firsts is just one of the aspects that amazes me about diabetes camp. Here we were 240 people -- participants, staff and volunteers -- celebrating diabetes achievements, cheering as loud as we could, and rhythmically clapping as our "firsts" received high fives. The feeling in the dining hall was that of support, encouragement, and acknowledgement. We were all here celebrating what is rarely celebrated in "real life": diabetes milestones that we know have now changed lives forever. Where else real life would this happen?

This morning's education for parents was led by a camp dad who also happens to be a psychiatrist specializing in addiction counseling. Parents once again gathered in the upper craft hall. They trickled in after the bell rung dropping their kids of in their groups. Once all of the parents were seated surrounded by a view of the treetops and decks, the dad began his presentation.

"The fact that we expect ourselves as parents, with a few shots of insulin or pressing buttons on a pump, to replicate what billions of cells do every minute of every day inside the pancreas is unrealistic".

Pause.

"We have to take pressure off of ourselves to be perfect all of the time".