Infirmary business at the Texas Lions Camp comes in three general categories.

First, there are the usual bumps and bruises found in a camp setting. Every now and then, there’s an occasional need to send a camper to the local emergency room for X-rays of a wrist or ankle. We’ve been fortunate in not having to deal with diabetic ketoacidosis, which is now pretty rare in our camp setting. That didn’t used to be the case. In my first few years here (the early 1980’s), campers would be streaming in with either 1) severe hypoglycemia or 2) vomiting with high urine sugar and ketones. We didn’t have blood testing for sugar when I first started coming to diabetes camp. Back then, we handed out Clinitest urine test kits to check for sugar spilled into the urine. We still use urine to check ketones today, but we have been switching to blood ketone checks over the past few years using the Precision Xtra meter.

The second form of business in the infirmary these days stems from insulin pump site changes, both scheduled and emergent. We don’t have these site change materials stationed in the cabins, but here in the infirmary where they can be tracked and schedules made for routine site changes.

Still, about 25% of the site changes are for accidental pull outs from vigorous activities or as a result of tape separation in the swimming pool. For site changes, we assign an experienced insulin pump trainer who can operate any of the available pumps we support here (Minimed, Animas, Deltec, Roche and Omnipod). Often, there is a crush of campers in for site changes several times each day. This week, 95 out of 208 campers use some form of insulin pump. Last week it was 101 out of 203 campers.

The third form of infirmary business is for the large number of medications (prescription and non-prescription) dispensed during the day. Anything from ADHD to asthma meds to thyroid pills. The campers are brought in by their program staff counselors and lined up to get their meds as needed before meals and at bedtime as prescribed by their doctor at home.

Finally, the infirmary is the hub for the medical staff. All our charts and most of our equipment are stored here. Team meetings often happen here as well. We’re hoping the Lions will build an expansion to the infirmary soon since our present storage area is in a separate location which we have to routinely transport items to and from across camp as our stocks become depleted over the course of the week.

Last 5 posts by Steve

• Day 15 - Sixtieth Camp Blog Entry - August 3rd, 2008
• Day 13 - Fifty-Ninth Camp Blog Entry - August 1st, 2008
• Day 12 - Fifty-Eighth Camp Blog Entry - July 31st, 2008
• Day 11 - Fifty-Seventh Camp Blog Entry - July 30th, 2008
• Day 11 - Fifty-Fifth Camp Blog Entry - July 30th, 2008

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 at 3:12 pm and is filed under Camp. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.