Bringing Extra Supplies On Trips

March Break is behind us now (*sighs*. It was great while it lasted, wasn't it?). I thought I would share my hectic, but amazing March Break experience with the Type 1 world this week, because there is a very important lesson to be learned from it!

Anne's School is officially in session! (*rings handheld school bell*)

🔔

I spent March Break at my grandma's house in the countryside with my little brother, Christopher. Don't get me wrong, we had a really great time! We learned how to tie a lot of different knots, sang songs, played ping pong, leaned piano duets, and watched movies. It's the diabetes part of the week that was hectic.

Always Bring Extra Pump Sites, and Extra Extra Pump Sites

Our second day at Grandma's house, the Sunday of March Break, was Daylight Savings Time. All the clocks were supposed to move an hour back, which meant that I had to adjust the time on my Omnipod PDM (click here to learn more about what that is). Coincidentally, my PDM's batteries were also running low, so they had to be changed. I planned to do both those things on that Sunday,

When I change my PDM's batteries, it kind of reboots the whole machine and I have to reset the date and time. This worked out well, because I had to change the time anyways.

Turns out changing the time and batteries also deactivates the current pump sensor, or pod for Omnipods, and you have to put on a new one.

This was annoying because I had just put on that pod the night before, and had only gotten one day of use out of a product that is supposed to last three days. Blech. 

But I changed it anyway, and it was okay. The time on my PDM was fixed, and I was all set to put my new pod on my stomach. 

The Daylight Savings Time Pod was the first pod I went through on this trip.

I put my new pod on my stomach and the needle inserted - baddabing baddaboom. Within ten seconds I knew something was wrong. The insertion had stung, and a blinding pain shot through me when I breathed. I assumed that the needle had hit a muscle or something, and it hurt so much that I had to take it off.

I ripped off my Stomach Pod: the second pod I went through on this trip.

I put a new pod on my arm and that was that.

The next day, or should I say: the next night (I stay up reading pretty late... *sheepishly grins*), I looked at my Arm Pod and rolled my eyes. Of course something else had to go wrong. I could see red bubbles of blood through a small see-through part of my Arm Pod. 

I called my mom (who was with my dad and brother on a homeschooling group trip to Ottawa at the time) and we decided that if the blood in the pod clotted, it might have prevented me from getting my insulin, so I had to change it. Again.

Off came the Arm Pod (that's it in the picture up there), the third pod I went through on this trip.

I hadn't planned for any of these extra pod changes when I packed for my grandma's house, which meant that I didn't bring as many extra pods as I might have. Bad mistake. By the end of this whole ordeal, I only had two pods left. I had two more pod changes scheduled for that week. Leaving me with no extras whatsoever. (Cue the horror music!)

The result of that whole fiasco was that my mom had to spend two or three hours on the phone with Omnipod to get more pods shipped via Purolator to my grandma's house (my poor mother! She was just trying to enjoy a little vacation. What'd she ever do to you, diabetes? Huh? *squints eyes accusingly*)

Then, just when it seemed that nothing else could go wrong, Omnipod accidentally sent my two new pods to Toronto, two hours away from my grandma's house. I had to shake my head and ask myself, "How the actual heck did that happen??", but whatever. Too late to get upset now.

My replacement pods were then sent to my grandma's house and all was well. 

I restate the lesson of the story:

ALWAYS BRING EXTRA PODS AND EXTRA PODS FOR THE EXTRA PODS!!!

You have absolutely NO CLUE the number of things that can go wrong! Especially with medical supplies, it's always better to be safe than sorry. Bring extras.

Also, big shout-out to my grandma! She's pretty awesome, what with letting two adolescents being loud and active stay in her home for a whole week, especially with one of them having Type 1. Thanks, Grandma! (*blows kisses*)

Thanks for reading this post of That Stupid Pancreas!

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Till next time, Type 1 Warriors!