I'll explain. I had a meeting on the other side of the country last week that I planned as a same day out and return flight. Of course, this required getting up at 0-dark-thirty to make my outbound flight.
I was quite pleased with how quickly I was able to change out my Omnipod as part of my morning routine despite my bleary-eyed state and make my flight in the nick of time.
Once on the plane I was surprised by my CGM alerting me to rapidly rising BG. I did not have time for breakfast and this was a much faster rise than any DP I've occasionally experienced.
Then I realized that in my rush to get out the door, I had stuck the pod on properly, but I never bothered to activate it. To make matters worse, I learned the hard way that if you leave it too long, it won't let you, and you have to use a new pod, which, of course, I did not have since I was not flying with any carry-on luggage since this was a one-day trip.
Fortunately, I always carry a Levimir and Humalog pen in a small case with a day's worth of pen needles in my computer bag. Had I not, I would have been in serious trouble.
I felt pretty stupid, however.
The silver lining - it started as a bit of an unintended pump vacation. I've thoroughly enjoyed not having that "barnacle" stuck to me for the last week while being at home. I'm not suggesting one is better than the other, just that it is good to mix it up sometimes. I know I'll be using my pods again soon on my next international trip due to the huge variability of my basal requirements when I experience dramatic time zone changes, but for now I'm enjoying my freedom from pump gadgetry.
The lesson I was reminded of - always carry backups when traveling. Phew!
You would have only taken the diabetic dimwit award had you decided that there was no need to carry back-ups on a one day trip. It sounds like you're merely in the running for the "we're only human" award.
Wow, a scary event- I'm glad you had your back up, so in that event I think you did good! I think we all need to carry a back up. I have a back up meter and strips, pen needles/syringes etc., but I only carry 2 pens, 1 of basal and 1 fast acting. But I'm always close to home. I would always have a carry on with extra supplies when you travel. That is odd the pod won't let you start it after not starting it?
Yikes that could of been really bad, but I agree with the others, that's a very human mistake and it happens!
I always bring back up pens if I'm going anywhere that requires an overnight stay. I don't know how far in dire straits I'd be compared to if I was pumping and forgot something but yeah.
Spock - I've been careless like that on one day trips although never when taking the plane. I've been lucky which of course is better than being smart.
Even though I'm a major Barnacle Booster, I took a vacation a few weeks ago and did MDI for a week. Started out with a pod going screech owl on me at work, and I forgot that I hadn't replaced my "emergency pods" in my laptop bag from the last "emergency" (read: laziness). No matter, had my backup Humalog pen, so...
Didn't get back around to putting a pod on for an entire week. Don't know why, mostly just lazy. Each time I needed to bolus, it was just easy to inject. When it was easy to put a pod on (morning before work, evening after dinner / before bed) I was just too lazy to do it.
