Diabetes, You cannot go on vacation with us again!

I have been thinking about it and have decided that on my next long weekend trip diabetes will not be allowed to come with us.  My son will of course be there, but I think we should make diabetes stay at home.  It was very annoying this weekend and a proper punishment would only be right. We have been putting up with its inconvenience for ten years now and it should know better than to have pulled the stunts that it did this past weekend. I would not put up with such pesky behavoir from anyone else so why do we have to put up with it just because its "diabetes"?

We had a five day long weekend and took full advantage. I packed up my car with kids, dogs, suitcases, boxes, and (this time) all of the required diabetes supplies.  We had insulin, cartridges, strips, sites and more.  There would not be a problem this time around. After nine hours of driving, diabetes was behaving quite well.  My son's readings were in pretty good range and we were all happy. 

By the time we arrived at our destination and unpacked I was pretty wiped out.  My kids did their thing--unwinding, playing games, and Mom did her thing...going to bed! Of course after a few hours I was up and testing.  I was not sure when the last test was done but I believe that you can never accumulate enough data so another test was done.  As I was lancing and waiting for the "beep", I heard another "beep" coming from his pump.  What the heck? We do not have any alerts set for 2am.  That is unless you count the one that says he has NO insulin left in his pump.  Why me? Why at 2am? I flashed back to Christmas but this time I knew that there were cartridges and insulin in his bag.  Grumbling and cursing diabetes, I filled the cartridge and stumbled back to bed.

It did not come as any surprise when my son announced the next morning that he was high.  I am sure that there were air issues and delivery issues before I put in the new insulin cartridge.  We also rarely bring a scale on our vacations so carb counting was a hit and miss (more often miss) situation. Thankfully he came down and we enjoyed a busy day of shopping and preparing to head to the great outdoors for a few days.

Of course my children's idea of enjoying nature includes watching it from the inside of a cabin or fifth wheel while playing a video game but they are a product of their times.  In all fairness, they had also brought in water, lugged in firewood and prepared an outdoor campfire.  We enjoyed some roasted weiners and hotdog buns for our first feast of the summer season.

A little bit of fresh air, the chirping of birds and our first night's sleep went well.  Even diabetes decided to behave.  Readings stayed around 6 (108) all evening and I was happy.

The next day was much more active and much poorer carb counting.  An outdoormen's breakfast of breads, eggs, bacon and leftover weiners was a much appreciated feast!  After breakfast it was time to haul on the rubber boots, grab the fishing rod and head off on a quad ride to the lake. It was time to see if the fish could ignore the lure of the rods.  Sadly the ideal fishing spot was not to be found so they settled for a morning of cruising around on quad and exploring the area instead.

A day of outdoor activity resulted in a day of grazing and readings all over the spectrum.  Lots of fresh air and some night time cold medicine meant that my son was down for the count ten seconds after he put in the movie that he planned to watch.  When questioned the next morning his response was "What did you expect? I was high and had had two pills!"  Thankfully we all knew that he was not discussing any illegal drug use at the time.

All of the fresh air got to me too and I was tucked in with everyone else by 10pm. After a few hours, I got up and tested my son. The reading was beautiful.  The pump was again beeping but there was a lot of insulin left.  No worries! I tested a few more times during the night and decided that I needed to remove some of the alarms. They were getting on my nerves and my child was sleeping through them all!

After hearing a few alarms over the early morning birds, and irritated that it kept interupting my peaceful morning coffee, I decided to see what could be so important.  It seems that we had gone through all of the insulin again! I had to fill and load another cartridge. Wow! Who knew he would go through so much so quickly these days.

We finally packed up ourselves up and headed back to civilization.  As I wandered through the house figuring what needed to be packed and what could stay for our return, I noticed test strips in my room, test strips in my son's room, and a dead infusion set sitting near but not in the garbage can.  Oy! Diabetes cannot be invisible. It leaves a trail of used supplies everywhere it goes.

Since it cannot behave I truly believe that it should not be allowed to go anywhere with us again.  It should have learned to be on its best behavoir by now!

If only it was that easy....