Imagine. You’re a volunteer on a night shift at a diabetes camp, on a shift with a nurse, and an alarm goes off. There is a corridor full of children with type 1 diabetes, all with sensors and many with Insulin Pumps. You have a debate about whether it is Dexcom or Medtronic. You complain that all Dexcom alarms can be different and it makes it confusing. You decide you need to check all the devices. You finally find the culprit in the last room. You find a Medtronic pump alarming and vibrating that says ‘sensor updating’. No further action needed. Until the next alarm…
This past week I have been volunteering at a Diabetes UK Type 1 Event, a camp held near Perth, Scotland. 36 children and young people attended, age 11-15, all with type 1 diabetes. As a general volunteer, I have to do 1 night shift at the camp, accompanying a nurse, to ensure that all children are okay during the night, after a day full of activities, different foods and general excitement. Doing the night shift is a hard slog, it feels like an alarm goes off every 2 minutes, and you have to figure out: 1. Which type of device was it, 2. Which room it came from, 3. Do we have to wake up the child to treat the problem. As a general volunteer, my job is not to treat any medical problems, so instead I support the nurses by listening intently for signs of life and alarms, giving them hypo treatments and finger prickers where needed. It may not sound hard but trying to ensure that 36 diabetic children make it through the night can be a stressful job!
I think that one thing never discussed about diabetes is the interruption that it can have on your sleep. Someone without diabetes can go to bed, sleep all night and feel refreshed in the morning. Someone living with type 1 diabetes can go to sleep, have a low or high blood sugar alarm, have a signal loss alarm, even have a failed sensor, and have to fully wake up after an insistent alarms to deal with the problem. That’s not even taking into account the physical effects on your body that having low or high blood sugar causes.
Night shift on a camp is a very humbling experience. Seeing children being woken up, and whilst they are half asleep they are forced to eat sugar to treat a low blood sugar, give some insulin or drink water for a high blood sugar. And none of them complain. They all accept that it is something they need to do, then just roll over and go straight back to sleep. I think it is a hard concept to conceptualise, as someone without diabetes who is woken up multiple times in the night would be harping on about how tired they are the night morning, but someone with diabetes often just gets on with it.
Diabetes camp is such an amazing opportunity for the children. Although they get woken up by the night nurses, it is a shared experience that everyone has to endure. They get to bond with peers who understand what it is like. It is amazing to watch and be a part of an often life changing moment for them, who leave with more knowledge of diabetes, a feeling of normalcy and friends for life.
Until next time,
Alyssa x
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