Who went to diabetes camp?

vickicutshall

Hey all,
I'm both T1 and also a diabetes camp nurse. I'm curious who went/goes to diabetes camp, and what your favorite (and maybe not so favorite) memories are?
It's pretty hard to study, but I just wonder if those of us who were blessed to go to a camp with other kids and adults with diabetes, have benefited later in life by skills and confidence gained in that environment.
I started as a 23 year old counselor and went on to become a nurse--and am still going to camp at 55 years old.
Favorite memory: We still go out in the meadow at night and watch shooting stars.
Least favorite--definitely night time lows, especially if there's barf involved!

Thoughts?

tmlandgraf

I went to diabetes camp once and that was enough for me. I had only been diagnosed a year and it was my first time away from home - I was 11 years old. I don't know if I just didn't make friends easily when I was a kid or what, but I didn't really make any friends and I was beyond ready to go home when my parents picked me up. I do remember they had horses at the camp and I was very excited to ride them only to find out I was too young, so that didn't help. It wasn't a horrible experience, but I really had no desire to return. It did help me realize that I wasn't the only one with this weird disease that I still didn't full understand. I've heard many good things about diabetes camps and I think it is a useful tool to help kids, and people in general, understand more about this "thing" that will be with them for the rest of their lives.

I did go to church camp a few times after diabetes camp. I enjoyed church camp a lot more, but I was also a few years older and went to camp with friends from my church youth group, so it helped to already know people versus going to diabetes camp all by myself. After 22 years, I'm still friends with one of the guy's I met at church camp.

On a side note, I was going through some things not too long ago and I found a letter my grandmother sent me while I was at diabetes camp. It was fun to read her letter after all these years - I'm 35 now.

T1DCarnivoreRunner

I went once when I was 13. There isn't anything I can say I learned. In fact, I felt like it was too much structure created around diabetes. It just was more reminder that I was different.

The camp I went to had a major river going through it, so I thought I would go fishing. I was terrible at fishing in rivers (still am, but at least I know a lot more now). There were no activities set up for people who wanted to go fishing. I brought my own pole and such, and went off on my own to fish while everyone else participated in the established activities. I never really fit in with other kids, diabetic or not. I still don't... I'm much more comfortable being alone than with a group.

This camp was in a rural wooded area along a river, with a gravel road leading to it. They had the older kids there for the whole week while the younger kids were split up into 2 camps, each lasting half of the week. On Wed., the first group of younger kids left and the next group came in.

This young kid (5 years old? I don't remember if he was 5 or 8) wandered off into the woods right away as soon as he arrived on Wed. around noon. So throughout the afternoon, they kept paging him on the loudspeaker system to return to his cabin. They sent search parties out into the woods throughout the afternoon and evening. They even brought in divers to search the river, but no dice. Finally at night, the young kids are all asleep already and us older kids had our night time gathering and snack and such. They told us about what was going on, that one of the buildings was being used as a base of operations for all the searchers, and said they would use infrared, so everyone had to be sure to stay inside once we got back to our cabins (otherwise they would think you are the missing kid). As I was heading back to my cabin, this kid comes up behind me... missing a shirt, muddy. He asked me if I could show him where the camp was. So I told him to come with me to the lodge building where all the emergency people were at, and he was 'found.'

abatonfan

I haven't attended one -I was diagnosed at 18, so I would have been considered to be too old for most of the camps.

I know my university offers a day camp for T1s that one of the other nursing programs does for part of their clinical rotation. They were looking for more nursing students to help with the camp, but I didn't qualify for it this summer (I haven't gone through the required background and drug screenings and CPR certification for clinicals). I'm hoping that I might qualify for it next summer, should they be in the same position and need some traditional nursing undergrads to help out.

okulyd

I went to camp only a month after being diagnosed. This majorly impacted me in a positive way for the rest of my life. I was diagnosed at age 6 over the summer. They kept me in the hospital for a full week and wouldn't let me go home until I could do my shots on my own. I remember then being home and crying because I didn't want to give myself the shots. Anyway a month later I was sent to camp and met a lot of kids my age with the same problem and I learned how to do all sorts of things such as tie dye t-shirts and how much to eat. I felt like a normal kid again and I think the stuff I learned at camp made it much easier for me to transition back to school in September where I was the only kid with diabetes. I learned how to manage my diabetes on my own largely at camp. I didn't keep in touch with anyone but I remember I really liked camp and went back for the next 8 summers. I eventually worked at camp when I was in college. The best part of camp was the night time activities. I loved capture the flag. We also did a Rambo hike and mock rock. The best thing I learned was how to give shots in my arm myself (hard to do when you are an akward little kid aged 8?).

JoeyFisher2015

I went to diabetes camp and am a camp counselor every year! I was always down about having T1 until I went to diabetes camp. Best thing that has ever happened to me!