What I mean is that because of my diabetes, I never really had the chance to have sleepover at friends' houses, attend overnight summer camps, or go to really far places independently. The reason is because my parents always worried that something would happen in terms of my diabetes, for example I might faint, or the chaperones wouldn't know what to do, that I'd be stranded without insulin, or they couldn't reach me.
Don't get me wrong - I haven't been shielded my whole life! I was able to have sleepover (but they had to be at MY house), I got to go to DIABETIC summer camp (where there were endless nurses and doctors walking around), and I was able to go on a week-long field trip to Sly Park back in sixth grade (where my dad chaperoned everyday, and a nurse checked in with my every night!!).
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| Sly Park! 2012. |
But you get it... I've never really been on my own.
Until this past summer (2017) back in July!
My cross country team went up to Tahoe for "team bonding" (aka just more training/running), and my parents actually agreed to let me go! I was truly shocked. However, my dad brought up some things for me to think about --- it would be my first time really being away from them and it was in the mountains, which one, often makes my blood sugars unpredictable and uncontrollable, and two, it may be difficult for them to communicate with me because of lack of cell phone reception.
Honestly, I started to freak out a little. I mean, did I really want to go on this trip so badly? Then I started to try to convince to cancel. I told myself that it wasn't worth it, and since I'm a home body, I would enjoy spending the weekend at home more anyway, rather than driving two hours to a cabin in the woods to run!
Luckily, however, I didn't talk myself out of the trip. Instead, I put all that stress into packing and making sure I had all of my supplies and be prepared.
Suddenly, the day was here... July 21, 2017. The day I would head down to Tahoe with a sleeping bag, my diabetic supplies, teammates, and no parents.
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| First day in Tahoe! Went on a short run (4.5 miles if I remember correctly!) Before the run, my blood sugar was at 170 and I ate 40 grams. Dexcom showed that it was going straight up. However, after the run I was 145 flat! |
Throughout the daytime, I was able to easily manage my blood sugar levels, no problemo! I had Dexcom. It was the nighttime I was worried about. While the girls I was bunking with knew I had diabetes and to wake me if anything went wrong, and even though I had Dexcom to alert me if anything went wrong, I wanted to be extra careful and check my blood sugar on my own at night just incase. I wanted to set an alarm for myself to wake every 2-3 hours.
The thing was, I didn't want to set my alarm and wake the other girls. To make a long story short, I ended up not setting my alarm.
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| Bottom row - girls I shared a room with! |
However, that's when the odd thing happened. On July 21 (Friday night), I went to sleep at 12:30 am, but automatically woke up at 2:30 and 4:30 am, at which point I checked my Dexcom. Of course, I thought it was just a lucky accident.
But that's when the story gets even weirder, because on the next night, July 22 (Saturday), I went to sleep at 1:00 am and accidently automatically woke up at 3:00 and at 5:00 am!
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| I'm glad I went on the trip! |
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