Diabetes Boot Camp

One thing about Ellie’s diagnosis is that in some ways she is less independent.  Before on a Saturday morning, she and Madison would get up, play, eventually make breakfast, and eat.  That can pretty much be the same, but either Jeremy or I help with the carb counting and insulin shot.  So, she needs us again.  While that it okay and understandable, it has been a little bit of a transition I wasn’t ready for.  It also means that going overnight to her cousin’s or grandparent’s house becomes a little trickier. 

Enter “Diabetes Boot Camp”.  No, it wasn’t really called that, but I felt it needed a name. 

Jeremy suggested we take the grandparents away to a cabin for a weekend retreat and learning experience.  it would give us all some time to hang out, get away, and build memories while they practiced counting carbs and administering insulin.  It worked out to go the first weekend of spring break.  Jeremy found a nice Air BnB in Seneca Lake – only 1-1/2 hours from here.  It had a perfect number of bedrooms, good hang out spaces, and a kitchen for meal times.  Oh, and we could take Pepper!

We left around 4:30 on Friday, stopped for supper at Cracker Barrel, and got to the house around 7:30.  We quickly unloaded the vehicles, explored our new place, and prepped for bed.  Grandma Yoh had the first shot of the weekend.  And so the rest of the weekend went – grandparents were assigned meals and insulin shots so everyone knew who did what. 

What I hadn’t really thought about was how stressful this was going to be for Ellie.  That’s a lot of new, inexperienced people giving her shots.  It was also a new environment.  It ended up going okay, but her blood glucose numbers trended high all weekend, probably due to stress. 

Saturday was a beautiful day.  We had a big breakfast then hung around the house in the morning. 

After lunch, we decided to head out to the lake.  Jeremy had brought his kayak, so he took that out. 

    

The rest of us took the path up to the playground area to hang out. 

    

After about an hour, we headed back to meet Jeremy.

           

Then, we went to check out the beach (closed for swimming, but open to look at).  While there, my dad started talking to a couple having lunch at a picnic table.  The wife was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes too!  So, Ellie went and said hello with Grandpa helping her. 

Back at the house, the girls played a fun game that Grandma Yoh had brought along.  It was a paddle and koosh ball type thing.  They had fun. 

    

Jeremy grilled chicken for the Chipotle Chicken and Rice bowls – one of our favorite meals.  We dove into supper, ravenous from our day outside.  We ended with Ellie’s homemade brownies and ice cream. 

We tried to get to bed a little earlier Saturday, but I don’t think we managed.  We were all pretty tired – Pepper included!

    

On Sunday, it was raining as we ate breakfast and packed up.  We were definitely thankful the weather we had on Saturday to enjoy. 

We stopped at Freddy’s Burgers for a light lunch on the way home. 

It was a good weekend – both as a getaway and a training camp.  I think the grandparents are somewhat more confident in hosting Ellie at their house, but I think they will also want us nearby (not out of state) when we leave her the first time. 

Happiness is being with your grandparents….