These days, travelling light is only asking for trouble. The few times I have gone out without my portable pancreas (my handbag) are the same few days that Murphy's Law has reminded me of its existence. "You are diabetic," Murphy says, "and stuff WILL go wrong if you tempt fate!"
Murphy's first reminder was a scooter ride around the block with my son. We stopped off to visit a friend in her new house, where I ended up raiding her biscuit tin. No tester to find out just how much I needed to eat, and if I hadn't have stopped at her house, I wouldn't have had munchies to get me out of the low either. Lesson Learnt, right then & there, and I swore I'd never risk going out with my stuff again.
I'm only human, so of course I've left things behind since then - twice now I've gone out fully packed but with no test strips. There was also the empty insulin pen incident. The missing Lancet and the oops-I-forgot-to-top-up-my-lollies incident. As hard as I try, I know some days I'll stuff up. Fixing the problem is usually easy, and I hope it continues to go that way!
Since the news of Doug Burns' public hypo & resulting troubles, some people have commented that he should have been more prepared. Although it's true that he should have had something on hand, we ALL should, and it could happen to any one of us, couldn't it? I'm so well prepared I wont go for a walk around the block without my bag, but I'm no superhuman - I could forget to pack the munchies; my bag could get stolen; I could decide that I want more freedom, test before I leave, and go without it for a change. Diabetes likes to kick us in the teeth once in a while and we can't always be on top of it. (Same goes for Doug and the rest of you!).
I don't like being tied down to my bag. I miss the freedom of going for a walk / drive / bike ride without having to lug stuff around. But I wouldn't be without it!
I'm considering getting a back-pack to keep my collection of bits in. I was asked the other day why I didn't carry a smaller bag with me - yeh right! I wish it was an option... but instead I'll be getting a bigger one. Call me the bag lady if you like, but me and my portable pancreas are inseparable.
My portable pancreas, and some of the bits it contains.
Add a wallet, water bottle, my sons asthma inhaler & pills, my sunglasses, cellphone, etc... oh and take away the cat's tail, I don't take that with me...)
8 comments:
Dude! I just bought a new bag today...had to go slightly bigger to fit all the d-stuff in. I love the "portable pancreas" - that's hilarious!
I think most of us carry a huge "bag" of some sort. It is what it is.
I remember last summer gettng really angry that I couldn't have a chic little evening bag to take to a fancy wedding. I stomped out of the store and was in a fit for the rest of the day.
............I got over it.
Hey...I like the looks of that little dual pen case. Can you tell me more about it? (BTW, I changed my profile name from "my name is leslie" to "Les" - still the same person from the Type-Cast blog!
Nice bag. You may want to post that photo to the Diabetes Made Visible Flickr photo group.
I use something from Eagle Creek. I need to post a picture to Flickr. It's mostly diabetes stuff and a few other things that are useful.
I miss my old internal pancreas. It was a lot easier to carry around!
Les, it came with my pens - just a blue soft-ish wrap-around thing with a little pouch for spare bits. It was a freebie from Novo Nordisk.
Bernard - done! I've belonged to the group for a while but never figured out how to add pics to it... finally sorted it out today :)
The old pancreas sure was easier!
A glass of fresh pineapple juice before you leave and to get you out of your low should help.
Hey Bag Lady - nice bag!
:-)
I promise, I'll get something posted as soon as I can - I've got plenty to talk about!
And I will also take the Diabetes IQ test - I'm just worried that I'll fail...
Take care!
my bag is so big and heavy that it keeps setting off the little guy in the seatbelt light. It wants me to seatbelt it in. Haaaaaaaaaa!!
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