Day 4 ~ What's in You Bag?

For day 4 in the blog post challenge the prompt was "What's in your bag/purse/backpack everyday?".  Well, actually there is a lot of stuff are supposed to carry around every day.  So much that, I found it easier to just pack bags or kits and leave them in certain places, that way either Kortnie or I can carry the minimum amount of stuff in our actual purses.  Here goes....

 

This is the kit that we keep in Kortie's classroom at school.  Her teacher has one drawer in her desk that holds Kortnie's stuff, Kortnie can go in that bottom drawer anytime she needs something.  The juice, smarites, and glucose tabs she uses for low blood sugars.  The batteries are in case her meter/remote needs a battery change (when her pump needs a battery change, I prefer they call me).  The glucagon and gel icing are for low blood sugars when she is unresponsive (never had to use these, knock on wood!).  The alcohol wipes are for cleaning her finger.  The diet root beer, sugar free jello, crystal light packets, and low sugar gum are for treat days.  It's all contained in a little carrying box, when they have a fire drill the teacher brings this box with them.   Most of the time when there is a treat day Kortnie will use the teachers phone and call me and she and I will guestimate together a carb count and plan of action so that she can eat whatever the class is eating.  These are just a few substitutions that I'd rather she have in a treat day situation.  I send in replacements for this kit often.

 

This is the kit we keep in the nurses office.  She could keep these in the classroom, but I prefer to have backups of the backups in the nurses office too.  The Lancets, extra pump supplies, and extra meter, are just that, extras in case the ones she carries on her fail.  More batteries and alcohol wipes.  More low blood sugar treatements, and peanut butter crackers for an extended stubborn low, a little protein and carbs to help her stabalize.

This kit goes in our camping box.  Our camping box is a 30 gallon tub filled with various things we can use for camping.  It also doubles as our 72 hour kit.  We keep all of this in the closet next to the garage, if we ever have to bug out, we'll grab the Camping stuff/72 hour kits, throw them in the truck, grab some insulin out of the fridge in the garage and combined with the stuff I keep in the truck we should be good to go.  In this kit is juice boxes, smarties, glucose tabs, pump supplies, batteries, test strips, flashlight, quarter (for changing the battery on her pump) and lancets. 

 

 

In my car I keep this little blue bag(my dad would call it a spit kit), in it is an extra meter, extra test strips, batteries for meter and pump, juice, smarties, glucose tabs, pixie sticks, gel icing, peanut butter crackers, glucagon, alcohol wipes, first aid kit, pump supplies, syringes, lancets, tampons, some money, a quarter (for changing battery).  I don't have a picture of this one.  This is a grab and go kit, I keep it in my car, but if Kortnie is going with her dad, say fishing or whatever, they grab this out of my car and take it with him.  Or if she's staying a few nights with her Grandma when I drop her off, I'll leave this bag with her and Grandma keeps it in her car. 

 

Kortnie keeps her meter/remote with her at all times.

 

When she goes to school she puts her meter in her backpack, also in one of those small outside pockets on her backpack she keeps smarties and juice boxes for the walk to/from school.

 

Whenever she goes anywhere else, even if she's with me, we've gotten her into the habit of carrying her own purse.  She carries her own meter, 1 juice box, and 1 roll of glucose tabs.  She has quite a few purses, and I think she just keeps a glucose tabs roll and a juice box at all times in about 5 or 6 different purse, that way she only has to transfer her meter around.  I think she also carries her wallet and iPod with her most of the time, except for school.

 

In my purse, I always have my wallet, tampons, medical cards, my phone, my keys, a few rolls of smarties, at least one juice box, a glucagon, and some glucose tabs.  I also always have those red and white starlight mints, because I like them and sometimes Kortnie does too for a little boost.

 

When we go somewhere like hiking or fishing, I carry my blue JDRF backpack, I will usually carry her meter for her so she doesn't have to carry anything.  I keep in my backpack, snacks for all 3 kids and my husband, water bottles, glucagon, juice boxes, first aid kit, camera, extra test strips, alcohol wipes, cell phone, peanut butter crackers, and sometimes a book for me to read while they fish :)  We also keep a roll of smarties and/or a gel icing in our pockets, for easy access.  Can't tell you how many times I've washed pants with smarties in the pockets. 

 

We love to do family bike rides, I have a basket on my bike and there is always a roll of gluc tabs and a juice box in there, even if Kortnie isn't riding with me.

 

This is a lot of stuff to carry around.   I know we have repeats of stuff in a lot of places, say we go to Walmart, she has her purse with a juice, I have my purse with a  juice, and the car has its kit with a juice, and we're in a store with a juice.  I feel more comfortable with all of these possible repeats of stuff, because sometimes we've used a juice earlier in the day and not had time to replace it yet.  I do try to restock everything quite often.  The school kits I go check on about every month, or the teacher or nurse will call and ask me to send in refills.  The car kit I check about once a month when I clean out the car.  I replace the test strips in there a lot, there are tons of times when we'll be out and about and Kork will run out of test strips in her kit so we have to use the extras we keep in the car.  The camping/72 hour kit, I usually go thru that once in Spring at the first camping trip and once in the fall after the last camping trip.  Our purses we just replace the things we use as we use them. 

 

So that's what's in our bags.  I carried around diaper bags with tons of stuff in them for about 6 years non stop, and just when I thought I could go back to a little purse, Kortnie was diagnosed with T1D and now I'm back to carrying around extra stuff again. 

 

Diabetes Fact of the Day:  Diabetes is expensive, not only do we have to buy insulin, test strips, meters, pumps, pump supplies.  We also have to buy multiple juice boxes, glucose tabs, batteries, alcohol wipes, candy, protein/carb snacks, etc, etc, etc.  And when Kortnie has a juice box or candy because she's low, all the kids think they need one too.  It just adds on the costs!