Diabetes Camp

My 9 year old daughter Aly leaves for a week long diabetes camp in a mere 5 days. This is only the 2nd time that she has gone to a camp without a family member going with her. This summer we braved sending her to church camp that was 2 hours away .. no nursing staff .. only a college age staffer and the knowledge that I taught her. I will say this that it truly was one of the hardest times since diagnosis for me, I generally am not an emotional person but when she left my care on that Sunday night I was an emotional wreck. I just wanted to cry, I was going through all the what if scenarios in my head, and thinking the worst! They did AMAZING, did a site change, had some lows but all were resolved, and Aly had a FABULOUS time and is ready to go again next year.

Now I know with diabetes camp she is going to be under great care ... endo's ... nurses ... other kids with t1d ... she will be in great medical hands, now I have to say that I am still freaking inside. She will not be around me, her mom, who takes care of her T1D 99% of the time and rarely asks for help. I am sure that I will try to go check her sugar when I go to bed only to find her bed empty, I will go check on her in the morning only to find her bed still empty, but I will remember that my daughter is having an amazing time. I hope that with this experience she becomes even better with changing her own infusion sites and carb counting. She will be able to have the experience again this year like she did at diabetes day camp last year where EVERYONE is checking their sugars for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, and before exercise ... They will check ketones if needed ... They will ALL be counting the carbohydrates that they will be consuming with each meal and snack ... and they will ALL know what it feels like when their blood sugars are out of whack either high or low.

For this week I will keep my feelings to myself and let my child have an amazing life experience and feel like the "norm" instead of different.

Time to start packing my princess for diabetes camp.