Happy Camper

Every weekday afternoon, I end up with a pile of dried grass all over the kitchen or laundry room floor. It's such a pain to clean. Some days, I sweep it. Other days, I wipe it with a wet paper towel. Most days, I suck it up with my Dust Buster. No matter what I do, I always have a few pieces of grass that I miss and see later on. Really, it seems I'm always picking up a few blades here and a few blades there.

But that pain in the ass grass, I'm happy to have it, as it enters the house from Jack's back pack.

His camp back pack, that is.

Yep, Jack attends summer camp, and I'm so incredibly grateful that he has this experience.

He goes off in the mornings with Madeline and Max and spends his day with good friends doing all sorts of fun activities. Here's some of what a typical week includes: swimming, art, drama, music, games, sports, cooking and a field trip. The field trips are to cool places like the local water park and the Arizona Science Center and events like a Diamondbacks game and the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus.

Jack's favorite camp activity is swimming. All three of my kids love pool time at camp. They swim in the morning and in the afternoon. They often have water play, too. I need to send them with plenty of towels and bathing suits every day. That leads to a lot of laundry for me. I'm talking load after load. But, really, I don't mind. I'm happy to do it.

So far this summer, Jack has lost two swim towels (and Max has lost a number of socks). But I don't care...well, I do...I really wish he would keep better track of his belongings...but in the grand scheme of things, I really don't care. I've learned to send him with old towels that we can afford to lose, and I'm happy that he can attend this amazing program at which he loses towels.

This is Jack's third summer with diabetes and his third summer at camp. Each year, he has been blessed with amazing counselors, who take incredibly good care of him. In fact, I feel safer with him at camp than I do with him at school. There is always at least one counselor keeping an eye on him at all times, and as in summers past, there's always one counselor, who goes above and beyond, never leaving his side, carrying his diabetes kit all day long, asking questions, looking up information, really trying to understand the disease and its effects on Jack. It's as if he has a personal aide without being "the kid with the aide."

Jack's counselors call me all day long with his blood sugar numbers. If they can't reach me, they call Gregg. They enable us to decide how to treat highs and lows, how many carbs to feed Jack before swimming or sports, how much insulin the nurse should administer for lunch and snacks, etc.

Yes, there's a registered nurse, too. (Actually, there are two, who share the job.)

The camp director and assistant director have been so accomodating. They've allowed us to give all personnel, who will come into contact with Jack (counselors, CITs, unit heads, etc.) lanyard tags to wear with their ID badges. I like to think of those tags as "cheat sheets," because they contain vital information, such as symptoms and treatment of highs and lows, signs of DKA, glucagon directions and phone numbers for Gregg and me. They've set aside time for us to train personnel on diabetes. They posted flyers with Jack's photo and diabetes information on office walls. They've dedicated space in the refrigerator for juice boxes and in the freezer for sugar-free popsicles.

We are so blessed, and we know it. This camp is a special place, and Jack is fortunate to go there.

So many of Jack's school friends spend their summers attending a variety of specialized camps. They go to science camp for a week and/or to vacation bible school for a week and/or to soccer camp for another week, for example. Or they head off to sleep-away camp. Jack doesn't have that luxury. He needs to be under the care of someone trained in diabetes management at all times, and it's not realistic to expect every camp to have a nurse and/or assign a counselor to meet his needs. Besides it takes more than a week to really "get" diabetes and get to know Jack.  And it wouldn't be safe to send him off alone. Of course, Gregg or I could go with him, but with three children, that's probably not going to happen.

And it doesn't need to happen, because we are lucky to have this wonderful summer-long day camp program with the most caring, accomodating staff around.

So when I open Jack's back pack at the end of a camp day, and I find there's a towel missing, or I spill dried grass all over the floor, or I need to run yet another load of towels through the wash, I don't mind. I'm thankful. My boy is a happy camper, and that's all that matters.

(P.S. In case you're wondering, the grass comes from Jack tossing his wet swim towels on the ground. I often shake out the towels outside, before bringing them into the house, but even when I do that, I still end up with grass on the floor. Yes, there's that  much grass on his towels! Lucky for me, however, my other two kids don't like to get their towels dirty.)