Lessons Learned (again)

Lessons I learned (yet again) this weekend:

Lesson #1: Try to leave some bumper time between when you need to arrive and when you actually will arrive. That way when it takes you forty-seven minutes to drive six miles, you don't have to cancel lunch plans with a friend you haven't seen in a month and a half.

Lesson #2: Bringing a blood glucose meter is important no matter how long you plan to be away from your house. It's especially important if you plan to be away from your house for 48 hours. (Luckily I had my Ultra in my purse from awhile ago, so I stopped by Albertsons to buy 25 test strips for $26.99). And in the process of learning this lesson, I learned:

Lesson #3: Do not lock your keys in your car. Always check to make sure they are in your purse and not: on the seat, in the ignition, lying on the floor.

Lesson #4: Roadside assistance is worth the money.

Lesson #5: Don't wait six months to drive to your old house, ask a nice girl to let you inside to pick up your ballot and then get spooked when you hear footsteps, run outside and then realize you've left your keys on the table, which is inside the now locked house.

Lesson #6: Make sure that when you sleep, your pump is near your infusion set (unless you have a massively long pump cord). That way you won't wake up at 7:45 a.m. with the pump cord wrapped around your neck, the infusion set is ripped halfway off your stomach and your blood sugar is at 408 mg/dl.

Lesson #7: Don't think that by pressing really hard on the halfway-off infusion set that you can somehow magically get the cannula back into your skin. It won't work and you'll wake up four hours later at 446 mg/dl.

Lesson #8: Always pack an extra infusion set. In the event you do wake up with your pump trying to choke you and nauseatingly high blood sugars, you can do something besides immediately get dressed and drive two hours back home to put in a new one.

Don't worry, I didn't actually drive on a rising 446 mg/dl. I also - for whatever reason - had a bottle of insulin in my purse, along with a very much used syringe (what do you think I was using to poke my finger all day?).

And just in case there was any doubt, these lessons prove that I have indeed two chronic diseases: diabetes and absentmindedness.