Some of you may not know this, but this summer would have been my 6th year working at the camp I also attended as a kiddo, where I learned to give injections and that I could grow up and be "normal". Anyone that knows me knows my love for camp, and I speak of it often...to friends, patients and colleagues.
So consider me flabbergasted to find out that said camp doesn't want me back this year. They don't want my expertise (there are usually only 1-2 diabetes educators, 1 Endo, and many MANY trainees that know NOTHING about type 1 or pumps) or experience. They don't want the relationships I have formed with campers or families, or the med staff volunteers I recruit. All because of this. My blog. My outlet. My huge branch into the diabetes world. They don't want parents associating me or my views with their camp.
I was heart broken, it was handled piss poor, and I'm also effing pissed. I speak for local clubs to recruit donations for said camp. I hang posters and fill out applications for campers to go. Shit...I had already allotted a percentage of my book deal as a donation for a new infirmary on camp grounds. So. Very. Sad. And the uneducated individuals responsible for these decisions have no idea about me. No one cared to give me explanations , no one went to bat for me, or cared to challenge these decisions, despite positions of power. My heart has a hole the size of Kerrville because of it, and I have truly learned who I can, and can't ever, trust.
The diabetes Gods look out for those who represent, though. Without my blog, I never would have met Cassie Giesberg or been invited to speak at Camp BlueBonnet, near Austin. It was love at first sight, and I can NOT wait to go back next summer to offer my services, expertise and donations. The sugar Gods smiled upon me when they sent me to Camp BlueBonnet!
This brings up another question. Those of us that blog, and dare to say the un-sayable, are we just sitting ducks? Waiting to get shat upon, just for our beliefs and vocabulary? When I worked for Company X (Schmomni Plod, for new readers) I was straight up told that if I posted 1 word on this blog, I could face instant termination and legal implications. WhatThaFructose. Just for preaching the good word?? That was one of the MANY reasons I left Company X, and haven't regretted my departure for one, single, Medtronic loving day.
Why do we put ourselves out here? These are my inner thoughts...these are things I implement in my practice...why do I share them with you? Because...it's the right thing to do, and if I can make one diabetic person laugh on a shitty sugar day, my job is done.
I truly love what I do, and do what I love. I will not quit until everyone knows my name, the true definition of type 1 diabetes, and until we are all walking around with new artificial pancreases, that are covered 100% by insurance. I won't quit until kids and adults stop receiving quack-ass diagnosis and treatment plans, and I definitely won't quit until everyone is an ambassador for their disease state. I want to advocate for those that can't, and educate for those who aren't as fortunate as I have been in the diabetes world.
Ok.
Good talk.
Now...go change someone's life..or recycle or something.
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