Author: westofpecos

Camp Minikani: the pinnacle of 5th grade. A 5 day trip to a summer camp in the Wisconsin wilderness. Our final field trip had been hyped up to the whole class all year, and some of our classmates weren’t even allowed to go because they broke the rules too severely. Unfortunately for me and my… Continue reading My first camp after diagnosis

In the first week after K got back from the hospital, the annual school overnight trip to Camp Minikani was happening. This entailed 3 days in shared dorm style cabins at a really nice YMCA camp in rural Wisconsin with lots of carb dense food, camp fires, and smores and all. We were still a… Continue reading Camp Minikani: my mom

Kaelan went back to school on a Tuesday. The very next week started Camp Minikani, the big 6th-grade camp that Kaelan had looked forward to for months: 4 days and 3 nights out at camp. Mary Pat and I were still shell-shocked about Kaelan’s diagnosis. We weren’t excited about Kaelan going to an overnight camp… Continue reading Camp Minikani: my dad

Diagnosis wasn’t fun. The months after diagnosis were not fun. Life was hard to adjust to. At home, I felt like a new set of chores were loaded on to me and I didn’t really understand why. They told me, “high blood sugars can damage your body permanently”, but I didn’t feel damaged.    I couldn’t… Continue reading Thinking back: the psychology of the diagnosis

Looking back, I was very lucky to get diagnosed when I did. I was still in middle school, and although my family’s first priority has always been education, my classes weren’t all that important yet, and I could take some time to learn the ropes. More pertinently, summer came soon after my diagnosis, and I… Continue reading A summer of classes

Summer arrived very soon after K’s diagnosis and we signed up for a whole series of classes (OK they were mandatory) that are designed to take you from Diabetes 101 to more challenging control techniques. We learned about different types of food and how they are absorbed by the body, about insulin to carb ratios,… Continue reading A summer of classes: my mom

At the end of my first summer post-diagnosis, I went to an overnight summer camp called Camp Lakota. Camp Lakota, directed by the American Diabetes Association, was a  camp exclusively for Type 1 Diabetics. Needless to say, it was a great opportunity, especially since I had little to no experience as to how other people… Continue reading My first diabetes camp

For the first few months with diabetes, I was testing what felt like very often, and still what seemed like not often enough. I was getting better at understanding when I was low or high, but sometimes I would test and be super high or super low having no idea beforehand. Testing didn’t feel as… Continue reading I get a Continuous Glucose Monitor

4 pods, 3 more for redundancy…check. 1 sensor, 2 more for redundancy…check. Ketostix, test strips, lancets, alcohol wipes, good lord I really do use a lot of things don’t I? I hope I got everything…oh goodness I forgot the insulin. How could I forget the insulin?!? I ran up to the fridge to grab all… Continue reading My first misadventure away from home

We had all decided, from the weekend following Kaelan’s diagnosis, that diabetes would never limit him.  Later this summer, we had our first practical test for this decision. Kaelan had already spent a week at overnight coding camp the year before. Months before his diagnosis, at his request, we had booked him another week of… Continue reading My first misadventure away from home: my dad