Diabetes at Camp Bearskin Part IV: Camp Firsts

Counselors did blood checks on campers all afternoon, removed insulin pumps and put them back on, treated lows, treated highs, all while leading activities, and supporting their campers, as is the norm for camp.

I spent the later part of the afternoon helping a great-grandmother figure out how to draw up insulin. All she wanted, she told me, was to be able to help her 8- year old great-grand daughter who she was living with, along with the child's grandmother, better.

She told me she was deathly afraid of doing something wrong, and was paralyzed by fear. We took giant bottles of saline and practiced drawing up five units, and then 10. Once she got the hang of it, we proceeded to use real insulin, mixing the cloudy and the clear until she understood.

She then asked me to give her a shot. For as many years as I have been giving shots to myself and to campers, there is something that is a little more harrowing giving shots to an adult. I didn't react, suppressing my own anxiety, and told her sure.

I had her draw up ten units of saline. I asked her why she wanted me to inject her and she said so that she could understand what her great-grand daughter goes through each day. I counted to three and inserted the needle under the skin in her arm. I pressed the plunger down, let go of the pinch, and took the needle out.

She looked at me, I at her.

Then she said, "that didn't hurt."

I explained to her that for us diabetics typically the shots don't hurt (except occasionally when they really hurt). It was more the anxiety for kids than anything else. We hugged and I told her we would practice later on until she got the hang of it. Great-Grandma's name went on the first list.

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Dance night. We have been doing Folk Dances at Bearskin Meadow Camp for the past 70 summers. You would think that kids and parents would get tired of the hokey poke, the pada pada, and the cotton eyed Joe and that somehow Folk Dances would go out of style. If you asked any one out on the street if they think kids would be in to Folk Dancing the reply would surely be "kids these days? No way!".

Well, not at camp.

The campers, parents and staff love our Folk Dances, especially when we bring out the sugar free snow cones for which no insulin is required. The dance was on the basketball court under the open sky, next to the pool, and it was packed. It started after dinner, progressed through the most amazing orange and purple sunset, and went well into dark and ended with cheers from our participants "one more song....one more song".

Tonight's dance theme was Disco and some of the parents truly got down along side staff and campers. There is nothing better than ending a long day of education, and blowing off some steam, with a little dancing especially to cheesy favorites like YMCA, We are Family, and Shout followed by an evening snack of ice-cream.