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American Diabetes Month 2015: Day 17 - Daily Supplies

Day 17 and I kind of wanted to continue from yesterday's post.  I talked about the type of gear that I travel with on a regular basis, and the amount of things that I keep in places, but when I'm going for a normal day, I still have to be prepared for anything that may come my way.

As I said yesterday, my normal usage of supplies (and pills, etc) is as follows:

  • 4-6 Test Strips
  • 1-2 Lancets (I'm a bad diabetic from what I've been told since I only change the lancet twice a day at most)
  • 230-300 Units of Insulin
  • 0 or 1 infusion set and reservoir
On top of what I use to maintain, I also have a set of emergency supplies that I have in various locations, mostly my desk at work, backpack, car, and home which includes:
  • Glucose Tablets (to increase blood sugars if it becomes too low)
  • 1-2 Extra Infusion Sets (because you never know when you might need them)
  • Extra Insulin (have a bottle at work and home, not in car or backpack because of temperature)
  • Extra vials of Test Strips (work and home again, because of temperature)
  • Glucagon Shot (only at work, as I live alone)
Why does this matter? Because no matter where I go, I have the privilege of thinking of the "worst case scenario" all of the time, because you never know what might happen.  You could have an Infusion set yanked out at any point during the day, you could have an unexplained high blood sugar, heck you could even have your insulin pump fail for no apparent reason.  Unfortunately air travel with a "back up insulin pump" is not super fun as you have one attached to your body, and the other free floating since it can't be connected to you, and it can't go through the scanners.  So, if I'm leaving the city, I bring my backup pump if I'm driving, but not if I'm flying, which also means for me a set of backup insulin pump supplies because I have a different pump as back than my daily pump.  
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