In Which Kittygirl Goes to Camp

It's been over three months, so I suppose it's time for a new post if I'm not going to admit I've entirely abandoned this blog, isn't it? As I write this, summer vacation is about 2/3 over. It's July 15, and the kids go back to school on August 10. Which is a travesty. Summer should not be over on August 10. But I digress.

Kittygirl has done day camps many summers, though not in 2020 or 2021 thanks to Covid, but this summer she had her first sleepaway camp experience. At the end of June she spent a week at Camp Hendon, a diabetes camp. And as I write this she's enjoying her last night at Camp Crooked Creek with her Scouts BSA troop.

In case you aren't aware, diabetes camps have been in existence for many decades. Actually, nearly a century according to the quick google search I did just now (as you see, I believe in thoroughly researching things before I write a blog post about them). The first diabetes camp was started by a doctor in Michigan in 1925, just a few years after the discovery of insulin. The longest running diabetes camp is Camp Ho Mita Koda in Newbury, Ohio, which was established in 1929.

Some camps, like Ho Mita Koda in Ohio, Camp Sweeney in Texas, and Camps Clara Barton (for girls) and Joslin (for boys) in Massachusetts, have their own property and run sessions all summer long. Many more, like Camp Hendon, are mostly volunteer run operations that borrow another camp facility for a week or two at a time. Some camps welcome friends or siblings of kids with type 1 diabetes for one or more sessions during the summer, but my impression is that the majority of diabetes camps are just for kids with diabetes.

Camp Hendon is hosted at two different camps in Kentucky, both of which are owned by the United Methodist Church. Our family is United Methodist, and we've been to events at both camp facilities. In fact, Mr. Engineer and I actually met at a Sunday School retreat at Camp Loucon, where Kittygirl attended Camp Hendon this year. It was a fun bonus to revisit the place where I met my husband when I dropped off Kittygirl. Though I regret to say that, 24 years on, I didn't really recognize the place. 

Some kids are nervous when they go away to sleepaway camp for the first time, no matter what type of camp it is. Kittygirl was not one of those kids. She was so excited for camp to start she barely had time to hug me goodbye.

At Camp Hendon, and most diabetes camps as I understand it, the medical staff will ask if you have a diabetes goal you'd like your child to try to accomplish during their camp session. This might be testing their blood sugar on their own, counting carbs, or learning to change their diabetes tech. I told the nurse I'd love to have Kittygirl learn to change her pump site. Five years on, she still has a lot of anxiety around site changes. In fact, she was on the verge of signing up for diabetes camp last summer but decided she couldn't handle having anyone other than me or Mr. Engineer change her sites. She's had so much anxiety around pump site changes I doubted she'd actually achieve it.

Not only did she achieve her goal, she totally rocked it. She has wanted to help with every site change since. She hasn't actually put a site on at home, but she's filled the cartridge and the tubing, something she was never the least bit interested in learning how to do before camp.

A lot of campers have reportedly never met another kid with diabetes before they go to a diabetes camp. That was, of course, not the case for Kittygirl. To begin with, we knew another local family with two type 1 kids before she was diagnosed. But, more importantly, as I've posted about before, we've found an amazing diabetes community at the Friends for Life conference. However, even with her FFL experience, Kittygirl thought diabetes camp was special. The first thing she said to me when I picked her up from camp was "I'm definitely going back next year".

I have no problem sending her back. Her self care skills have continued to increase as time has gone on, and diabetes camp pushed her over one big hurdle. She'd really like to be able to attend a regular sleepaway camp next summer in addition to diabetes camp (scout camp is in a different category because Mr. Engineer is a leader in the troop so he'll always be on site if she needs him), but in order to do so she'll have to be entirely independent in her diabetes care. We'll make sure the staff is able to respond in an emergency if and when she goes to a regular camp, of course, but day to day diabetes tasks will be up to her.

Because of the push and the boost of confidence her week at Camp Hendon gave her, I think there's a very real possibility she'll be able to do it.

If you're reading this and your kid doesn't have diabetes but does have some other type of disability or chronic medical condition, I highly recommend searching for a camp for that condition. There's a good chance there is one. Out of curiosity, because Kittygirl has a good friend with life-threatening food allergies, I searched and confirmed that there are summer camps for kids with food allergies.

Spending time with people who understand what you're going through is incredible. That's why our whole family loves Friends for Life (Which Scout Camp overlapped with this year. Boo!) and why Kittygirl and so many other kids love diabetes camp.