Sal-ad Days - Jenny's Story
Sal-ad days……The period of a person’s life when he or she is young, innocent, carefree, naïve, and inexperienced
My daughter has just turned five. She’s had diabetes for 3 ½ years.
We live in a countrified part of New England and very much enjoy how the local recreation 
facilities embrace family, and cater to children’s activities especially. So I thought a healthy week at an all-day summer camp at our local rec center would be a great experience for Clare since the information booklet glamorized all the outdoor activities and fun the kids would be having – tennis, swimming, ball games, crafts, entertainment. What better fun for five year olds could there be? I was careful to pick a week with no scheduled field trips, and I was deliberate when I explained that I would be handling all the diabetes-related management as we signed up. I have not ever had to entrust Clare to anyone’s care for more than 2 hours who is not directly competent with diabetes management. That’s a fact of our life. One of the biggest parts of this job for me – taking care of a young child with diabetes – is making sure the child has a close to a normal life experience as the other kids in the group. And I’ll gladly pound anyone into the ground who singles out my daughter or discriminates against her in anyway.
I packed up the backpack, my gym bag, and a bag of supplies each morning and headed out for the 9am start. While other mothers would slide open their SUV doors and wave a cheery “see you 4”, I would be accompanying Clare to the wooded lot and doing a quick visual – any dark rings, excessive whining, pallor? At 9:30 I would head back into the woods to track her group down before snack – test, bolus. At 10:30 I would be at one of the pools for a test (and a bit ‘o sugar sometimes) and to take off her pump. At 11:15 I’d reattach her pump and test. At noon, I bounced over to the picnic area for a test and lunch bolus and a firm directive to the youthful counselors to make sure she ate EVERYTHING in front of her. At 2 I’d be back at the pool for the swim routine again, and at 3:45 I’d stop by the front desk to find out where the ice cream snack was taking place. And each time I would loiter behind a tree or wall until the time was right to make a “casual” appearance. And each time I caught the look from the counselor who was concerned for the interested kids gathered around for the blood-letting, but I turned a shoulder. And each time I saw the other kids being completely free to be wet, to be running, to be tired, to eat whatever they wanted, and do whatever they felt like doing, and go wherever they felt like going and I realized that Clare will not live that life. An impromptu field trip was scheduled for the Tuesday, she had to stay behind and join another group, unaware that it was all because of diabetes that she couldn’t go. I was very sad for her.
On the other hand, how on earth am I going to feel about her going off all day to be wild and reckless when she’s at the point of handling all her own management….maybe I’ll still be lurking in the bushes.
But I try to think of the day in the future when all of us reading this page will be the happiest people on the planet.
Jenny W - Parent
Comments
Thank you, Jenny, for your post. It is both sad and inspiring all you do for your little girl. Life with type 1 isn't always easy, but most days I feel pretty normal and happy and grateful. Thanks for sharing your story.
Posted by: Amylia | September 5, 2007 02:10 PM