Diabetes threw a tantrum

We began to prepare for our weekend away...

Clothes?

Check.

Spare clothes for when the first set gets wet in the snow?

Check.

Glucometer?
Check.

Spare glucometer?

Check.

Test strips, ketone strips, alcohol swabs, spare pump, batteries, and infusion sets for every day we will be gone?

Check.

Insulin and cartridges? Oops, insulin is old and the other bottle is empty.  Make sure to grab a new bottle.  Actually grab two.

Why two?
One could freeze. Get two.

Soon we hopped in the truck and did the head count--two adults? Yep.  Two kids? Yep.  Three dogs? Yep and we were off! A weekend of snowmobiling, relaxing, some snowboarding, and possibly a drink or two.

Saturday morning Larry and I were up before the boys and headed out for a day on the powder.  He found us a great trail and the first cabin we found housed old friends of his.  We soon kicked them all out of bed and went off to enjoy four feet of powder, some packed snow, frozen ponds, and sunny skies. 

Half way through our day my cell phone rang. We were in the middle of nowhere. Service was poor so I had to wait to call my son back.  A text got through while I was trying to get a call out. 

"Where did you put the insulin?"  Where did I put the insulin??  What the heck was he talking about? I threw out the insulin and told him to get a couple new vials.

I sent him a message back saying just that. The insulin was whereever he packed it.  The text back left me on the verge of tears.  He didn't pack any. Why did we have to bring diabetes along? Isn't life enough to deal with? Why did we have to deal with remembering all of this extra stuff?  I was doing my best not to panic or be overwhelmed. Insulin could be purchased in the nearest town.  It would cost me out of pocket but the weekend would be saved. 

Larry had a better idea. His cousin had a son with Type 1.  He would call them and see if he used the same insulin.  He maded the call. The son used a different type but it was still fast-acting. What do we do? I knew that Larry would be upset to have his day ruined and I didn't blame him. I knew that changing insulin was not going to kill my son but it would work differently and require some serious testing.  Larry asked me what to do. I said, he could use the other type of insulin.  He told them to bring the insulin over to my son.

We gave them a half hour and then we called to see what had happened.  My son was outside playing in the snow. His pump was filled and all was okay. I reminded him to test a lot and all was okay. 

We continued our day and my son continued his.  We got back in the early evening and found everyone alive and content.  We promised the boys that they would be able to ride around the next day but they seemed to have had a great time amusing themselves in the snow.  As the evening wore on, my son sang the praises of the new insulin. He was running lower than he had in ages and he was happy about it.  I reminded him that he was also more active than he had been in a long time.  I checked how much insulin he had in the cartridge and tried to decided if I needed to buy more or if we could make it until we got home. We were good but I needed to top up the cartridge he had. When I asked for a new cartridge my son said, we forgot that too.

What???? Again, I was surprisingly calm. I asked how he filled the cartridge. He said he should be a doctor! He used a syringe and filled away.  Forgetting the cartridges was my fault. I was sure there were some in the bag but didn't look.  I was glad he had figured out how to make things work on his own. We refilled the cartridge he had out and all was okay.

That night I reduced his basal rate in fear of the different insulin and the higher activity.  He remained okay. He lost a site during the night that Mom didn't find out about until the next day so he was a little high. The next day was equally as active and that night diabetes continued its weekend long tantrum. It had interupted a couple's day.  It had messed up a "guys' day".  The last straw was it messed up another night sleep--for four of us.

At 3 am I woke up.  I stumbled across the hall and tried to test my son.  I couldn't see. I couldn't find a light.  I had him wake up to test.  He couldn't get blood in the strip either.  We turned on a light, no longer worried about waking his bunk mate.  Thankfully the other child continued to sleep while we waited to see what the meter would say.  He was low.  Crap! I had brought a box of juice packs so I headed over to my room to get one. Of course my book fell and things began to crash in the tiny room.  So much for being quiet!

He drank the juice. I turned on my light to read knowing that I would most likely wake Larry but hoping he would sleep.  No such luck. "He's low?" Yes. He tried to go back to sleep.  

I read for 15 minutes and headed back into my son's room. Test. Going up but still low.  Crap! More juice. Box is now harder to get into. More banging. Will anyone sleep through this?? Drink. Read. Wait. Hear more people waking. Lovely.  I suck at being quiet at three in the morning in someone else's house. Diabetes should learn to be quiet. I wait. Retest. Yes! I can sleep!! Well for another couple of hours because we were leaving first thing in the morning.  It would have been so much nicer if diabetes had have stayed home or at least learned how to behave in public.