My two cents on Diabetes Camp

To piggyback on Laurie and Cassie (I'll keep it brief!) we had a great week at Diabetes Camp! I learned a whole lot about Diabetes, and also got the opportunity to learn a lot about Celiac's disease and the Gluten free diet (THANK YOU DIANE!!!!!). 11 campers/counselors had Celiac's on top of Diabetes and there are some thoughts about why this correlation may be- it could be that they are both considered autoimmune diseases, or some clinicians believe that persons with Celiac's are more likely to develop diabetes, its just that the celiac's diagnosis comes after the diabetes diagnosis. I think that I like to believe the third theory, which explains why it is important that it is really important that it is properly managed- this theory is that children/adults with diabetes and Celiac's dont actually often have intestinal problems, but more so it is difficult for them to manage their diabetes (they eat a 15 gram CHO slice of wheat bread, but because of Celiac's they dont digest all of the 15 Gm, so they bolus for it and then their BG gets all out of whack). So the kids with it that I talked to seemed to tell me that for the most part they dont have intestinal problems, they were diagnosed with Celiac's because of blood glucose irregularities. Except one girl who told me she gets a pain in her foot when she eats gluten (apparently this is not completely random...)

I really enjoyed the time that I just got to spend with the campers. My age group was middle schoolers, and I tried to mostly stick with them so I could establish some relationships. I hung out mostly with this one group who was going into 8th grade, and I spent some time in their cabin at night and at rest time and so I got to listen in on their conversations. It was really cool to hear them share with one another their struggles with diabetes, with their friends, with boys... and just watch them be middle school girls. One girl explained to me that when she eats pizza she boluses insulin on her pump in a "four square bolus" which means that the insulin is released over an hour rather than immediately because pizza "hits her later" so we talked about why that might be (ie cheese/fat slowing digestion) and what other foods might do that. I appreciated just being around to get to have the chance to have those kinds of discussions.

I expected to leave thinking "kids with diabetes are just normal kids" and while I still think they're normal, I have a newfound respect for these kids and its amazing all that they have to deal with and to watch them manage their diabetes. We should all be so grateful for our working pancreases! I also hope to go back next year, and I would love to stay in a cabin with kids to have more of the opportunity to watch them interact and learn from them teaching one another!

Happy Week 7 everybody!
Elizabeth