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Camp Simcha
http://www.aish.com/sp/pg/Camp_Simcha.html
I arrived at Camp Simcha, a summer program for kids with special needs and severe illnesses, as a counselor. It would be my first time working with kids who have debilitating illnesses, and I was a bit hesitant. Will my camper be in a wheelchair? What kind of sickness does he have? Will I be able to bond with him? At 18 years old, the only person I had ever really paid attention to was none other than me, myself and I. How would I possibly take care of someone else for two weeks and be happy? When my co-counselor and I received our camper’s profile, my jaw dropped. There were pages and pages of medications, machines and information about his illness and disabilities – Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus, to name a few – as well as lengthy instructions for attending to his morning and nighttime routines. He has a trachea?! He cannot speak? I have to give his medications through a g-tube?! What am I, a doctor? Such a fragile child at only 5 years old. A jumble of doubts filled my mind as I pondered what I had gotten myself into. After gathering some additional information, we were ready for our first night routine. It took two hours to set up all his machines and administer his medications, when finally he was ready for a peaceful night’s sleep. Or so we thought. He had only been sleeping for a few hours when the beeping started on his pulsox machine, informing us that his oxygen intake was going down drastically. His first night with us and we already have trouble?!
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