Middle is in his happy place right now. In fact, he will come home, begrudgingly, later on today. He's been at ASTROCAMP for the last 2 weeks and has been having a marvelous time. Because of his age, he was not able to do the "full two week" camp, so instead he is doing two-1-week camps, back to back. This means that he had to leave camp last Friday morning and come back Saturday afternoon. This meant, a weekend in Idyllwild for momma and boys!!
Camp is about a 5 hour drive from home. It is sort of perfect - close enough that I can drive him for drop off but he can fly home. He loves that part; flying home! This year, with it being back to back, I agreed I would drop him off, then go back for the between-camp time. I was NOT going to make that drive three times in 2 weeks.. Oh, the best laid plans.
There has been much discussion on some of the Diabetic Community boards about letting your CWD (Child With Diabetes) go to camp. Many go to Diabetes camp, and I hope Middle will do that, too, some day. Few, if any, were allowing their CWD to go to a "regular" sleep away camp. Middle went last year, all was OK, and I do NOT want this disease to rob him of something he loves so much.
As I did last year, I packed Middle's supply kit with everything he would need to manage his diabetes, plus LOTS of extras that I hoped he would NEVER need, like his Glucagon pen. I met with the nurse and his counselors and gave them clear directions while trying to not overwhelm them with the enormity of caring for a kid with diabetes. I adjusted his PDM for his insulin delivery to be sure he was not dropping too low *he responds to insulin far differently at 5200ft than he does at sea level.
Then the call came.
Wednesday night, around 10pm, the phone rings and it is Middle. This can't be good. He was out of pumps and had no way to get insulin. WHAT??
I sent him with a back up of no fewer than 3 Pods - what happened??
Well, the last one was ripped off during some activity. I anticipated this and made sure he had a reserve of 2 additional Pods.
Both of which failed. That's right - his last TWO Pods were both duds. Alarmed before they were even put on him. So not only was he getting no insulin, we also lost 300 units of insulin (the nurse did what she was supposed to, because you are NOT supposed to go get that extra insulin, no matter that most PARENTS go get that liquid gold no matter what).
10:30 at night. A 5 hour drive ahead of us. No insulin going into my kid. A BG reading of 377. CRAP.
The Camp folks did the brilliant thing of calling the fire department so at least they had some needles (Because really, who needs to send needles when you have SO MANY extra Pods!!??) He was able to get insulin before bed, and then again when he woke up, but that would not sustain him until he came home on Friday. So, up to camp (and back again) I went at 5:45 AM yesterday morning, getting back to Chez Jensen around 6:30 pm.
Yes, it was good to see him when I wasn't expecting to.
Yes, using Audiobooks when you drive makes the time FLY by.
Yes, I would drive to the ends of the earth if it meant my son was safe.
BUT REALLY INSULET Corp?? 2 dud OmniPods in ONE group??? Seriously??? I know I will be able to get those Pods replaced but who is going to reimburse me for my gas?? 700 unnecessary miles on my car and in my tank ain't cheap, you know??!!
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