The day after I was released from the hospital after my diagnosis of being a [Type 1 Diabetic][type1], I looked over my syringes, vials, test strips, lancets, logbook and other such supplies and decided I needed some sort of carrying case. However, in being either vain or private, I wanted it to be discrete. Thankfully, this was before the age of smartphones, and toting around a day planner wasnāt all that uncommon. I wound up using my diagnosis as an excuse to buy a [Palm Vx][vx] to eliminate the logbook and my paper sliding scale and then I picked up a day planner from Franklin Covey. I wound up emptying it of everything except the zip-lock pouch inside, and thatās where I stored my supplies. It had a nice little pocket inside for PDAs, which fit my [Palm Vx][vx] nicely, and when it was obsolete, thatās where my glucometer and lancing device went. I had this day planner so long that it even got nicknames, it was known as āThe Diabetes.ā
Iāve always been afraid of losing āThe Diabetes.ā It had its own place everywhere that Iāve lived, and the minute it is moved from that place, chaos and anarchy began to take over my life. 999 times out of 1000, āThe Diabetesā just wound up getting pushed out of the way, relocated over to my computer desk, left in [my laptop bag][bag] or scooped up by my loving wife and tucked away because she takes such good care of me. I remember scolding her a little bit and telling her that I loved how much she helped out but that one day Iād take it for granted and weād both forget āThe Diabetesā and weād wind up somewhere and needing it, or worse, forgetting it somewhere. We tackled that challenge and it just became part of our routine, she grabbed it and packed it in her purse and then I asked her before we left to make sure she had it. Every time that I thought I lost āThe Diabetes,ā it was sitting somewhere right where I left it and thatās how things worked for over a decade.
But then while [on my fantastic trip to Spring Training][sprtrn], disaster struck. My Dad and I went off to dinner. I hadnāt been feeling well, so I tested my blood sugar before we left the hotel. Then we headed down to the lobby, looked at their smart display near the front desk, and then asked for some suggestions before heading out in the rental car. There was no parking near the restaurant, so we parked in a nearby garage. About halfway between the garage and the restaurant, I realized Iād forgotten my kit. I grabbed the keys from my Dad and told him to have a beer waiting for me when I got back. I went back to the rental car expecting to find it right where I had been keeping it the whole trip, except it wasnāt there. I did a pretty thorough search of the entire car, even finding an empty beer bottle from a previous renter, but did not find my Diabetes kit. Assuming this was like the million other times I misplaced it, I figured it was sitting right on the hotel bed where I left it after testing it last. Because I was using my [continuous glucose monitoring][cgm] and I had measured before leaving the hotel, I was pretty confident I could give myself the right amount of insulin.
Things got tricky, we had zero-dark-thirty flights out of Phoenix the next morning and rental cars in the Phoenix area are ridiculously expensive. To save time, stress, and money our plan was to return the car the night before, catch the hotel shuttle back, and just worry about waking up on time. We executed this plan with incredible precision and got back to the hotel when I realized The Diabetes wasnāt there. Panic, frustration and inward fury set in. Here I was, on vacation, with no transportation, and Iād lost just about the only thing that Iād owned for the previous decade. We turned the hotel room upside down, we paced the route that we took when we left the hotel, we scoured the lobby, and interrogated the front-desk employees but The Diabetes could not be found. I called the folks at [SIXT Car Rental][sixt] and at least two or three of their kind employees searched the car without any luck. After a couple hours of searching and calling myself every name in the book, we gave up. It was getting late and we had to spring into action still. A 24-hour pharmacy that had a 24-hour pharmacist was located because the test strips are expensive and frequently found behind counters, a cab was summoned, and I bought new supplies.
Thankfully, some of the urgency was mitigated by the fact that I always travel with almost double of my supplies. I pack twice as many test strips, insulin, insulin pump infusion sets and CGM sensors than I actually need. But I donāt pack an extra glucometer, lancing device or an extra version of my trusty old day planner.
One of the first things I did upon getting home was start searching for a replacement carrying case for my Diabetic supplies. I actually started again looking at day planners even though Iāve been teased by people the past few years for actually carrying around a day planner to stay organized instead of using my smart phone. I searched for [Diabetic Carrying Cases on Amazon.com][amz_dc] and dug through numerous products. Unfortunately for those products, Iām still pretty vain. I just donāt want it to be obvious that Iām carrying around some sort of medical supplies. Further complicating matters, I wanted something smaller, and I wanted it to be a bit sturdy to protect the contents. Just about every one of the Diabetic carrying cases I saw were big, soft, and (to me) screamed āHey! Look at me! Iām a diabetic!ā
Iām not sure what happened to steer me that way, but I wandered out of the Health and Beauty section in Amazon and wound up looking at some random electronics repair tool kit, which came in what looked to be a pretty nice case that met my needs. It was an inexpensive kit, and at its price, I was tempted to buy it just to empty out the tools and use the case for my Diabetic supplies. That inspired to [search all of Amazon for āsmall electronics caseā][amz_case], which had a plethora of interesting little cases for me to consider. Two items jumped out at me immediately:
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AmazonBasics Universal Travel Case |
Grid-It Organizer 7" x 5" </td> </tr> |
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