I have been at camp for the past week. Diabetes camp, specifically. What does that mean? What makes diabetes camp different from a normal camp? A lot. Being at diabetes camp means that having a faulty pancreas makes you the same man in rather than the odd man out. It means that blood sugar competitions are not unheard of. ("You're 6.4? Well I'm 4.3! I won!") It means that all the cabin understands you. ("You're low? Have a juice box. Stay sitting - I'll get it.") It means that doctors are there every step of the way, should they be needed. It means that the whole cabin wakes up at midnight to test their blood sugars. It means that when someone is low in the night, everybody else sends them sugary thoughts. (We were tired. Don't judge. =D) It means that we all test at the same time and that everybody cares about everybody else's blood sugars. It means that for a sweet week, I did not have to carry my glucometer with me wherever I went. (All the counselors had testing kits.) Speaking of my glucometer, it also means that I almost kissed my OneTouch Delica when I got it back. (Those camp pokers hurt! They even poke when you hold your finger away from it!) What else does camp mean? It means that for a week, I didn't have to worry about myself. It means that me and a friend made up a song about going to testing and nobody judged us for it. (Well, the daycampers did. But they aren't diabetics. How would they know, anyways? :P) It also means that we got to eat earlier and eat snacks. Yay peanut butter! You know what camp means? It means that for one week, my life was full of laughter and understanding friends, and free of worries.
I was asked a lot what my favourite part of camp was. Every time, I almost said the peanut butter. (It was so good! It was in little sample packages with no oil and it was really creamy...) But that wasn't really the best part. (Pretty close, though.) The best part was not being different. Being the same as everyone else, walking around with Little Buddies on our hips.
Thank you to everyone who helped provide this amazing camp experience. The CDA, for creating it. M and E, for being awesome counselors. Z,S,K,K,C,H and L for being awesome cabin mates. And everybody else that was there, for creating and upholding an awesome week.
