I always carry my diabetes bag (meter, strips, multiclix, mobile phone, novolog pen, levemir pen). I would never leave the house without two packages of DextroEnergy. One package has 8 glucose tabs and one glucose tab has 5g of glucose. Under normal circumstances this would be enough to treat 5 hypos:
I carry meter and glucose tabs.
15 jelly beans
Meter with strips & extra battery, 1 tube glucose tabs, 1 cereal bar. My glucose tabs have 4 gm, not 5 gm.
I never take more than I need of glucose tabs. I take enough to go to 100 & stay there. Test again in 20 min or so. If I eat the cereal bar I need insulin so I don’t go there. It’s for looks.
Wow! You are certainly prepared! That seems a little overkill to me. I have en emergency kit like you describe that I keep at work. I live in the DC suburbs and having to flee is on everyone’s mind. However with the packaging, mine is in a shoebox type thing. Everyone at work knows to send that and the vial of insulin in the frig with me if I ever leave by ambulance. Always thinkin’…
Standard I carry is a small gladware container of Skittles and my meter. I also keep juice boxes in my car and may husband’s car.
I recognize you from the ADA site, and this is exactly the answer I would expect. Rock on, Aciderock23!!
Dee, why do you not believe that any of the sugar you carry will actually work? Is this belief verified by your blood glucose meter?
Another thought - could your dog be trained to detect hypos? That would be rather useful…
I always have glucose tablets no matter where I am. It depends on how far I’m going regarding other supplies I might carry.
Good lord, some of you carry a lot. When I go to work (day is roughly 8:30 am until 8-9:30 pm) I carry … my meter and my lunch. If I’m reffing soccer, I carry my meter and a couple granola bars and water, of course. Anything else … I carry nothing. There are plenty of stories if I need something but after all these years my number rarely stray.
In my meter case I have a spare battery for my pump and a syringe. (My emergency back up plan for pump failure.) I have glucose tabs and some type of snack bar in my purse. I also usually have glucose tabs and granola bars or some such thing in the car too.
It depends on how long I’ll be out for. If, I’ll be working in the back yard I always carry 1 or 2 glucose tabs wrapped in aluminum foil in my pocket. Lesson learned!!!
If, I’ll be out for a COUPLE of hrs. I will always check to see how much insulin I have left in my pump reservoir before leaving. IF, I have enough then the insulin vial and pump supplies stay home. I always carry my glucose meter, syringes (I figure if my pump gives me problems I’ll take insulin from the pump) glucose tabs, peanut butter crackers.
I have mild gastroparesis so about twice a year my stomach doesn’t absorb the food I’ve eaten, and my bg drops despite taking glucose etc.
When ever I go out I always take My meter, extra insulin, an backup infusion set & cartridge, syringes, glucose tablets, extra batter & cap for my pump, and a Granola bar. I have a little sling type bag I through over my shoulder. If I’m off to work, it all goes in my backpack with my lunch.
I carry in my purse at all times glucose tabs, Special K bars and candied orange slices. Never know when you will get stuck in traffic, car break down etc. If I’m walking distance from home I will stick a Special K bar in my back pocket. I also, like you Dee, have a bit of a phobia about lows. Sometimes my BS will drop even more after eating carbs. It’s not a very good feeling. Even though logically I know my sugar will eventually go up, it kind of sends a little panic in my brain when it doesn’t right away.
My kit sounds pretty much like yours. I also have a Precision Xtra meter with ketone strips (along with glucose strips in case I forget my primary meter) and a spare lancing device (one of those tiny ones that comes with the OneTouch meters).
Lately I have switched to a smaller “summer purse” and I’m trying to get my supplies down to a bare minimum so I’m not lugging a ton around (I don’t drive so what I pack is what I carry). For me I think a bare minimum kit for safety would be an insulin pen (with vial of insulin loaded), a few needle tips, a few alcohol swabs, an extra AAA battery, a few Benadryl, and an epi pen. (This is in addition to my meter and also Skittles which I carry separately.)
I was getting kind of annoyed tonight because I’m trying to fit all this into a case that came with my insulin pen (with the interior “needle holder” molded plastic taken out), and it’s still not fitting! Makes me so annoyed sometimes that I have to carry so much crap around. Off to find a slightly bigger case that isn’t too bulky …!
This is an interesting discussion. I’m leaving in not too long for some vacation, in a hot humid climate, probably involving day long treks. I am generally quite well controlled, rarely needing to treat hypos. But I do have two weakness. Errors when eating meals I don’t control and exercise. I’m not going to be eating uncontrolled meals in the jungle, so that is not a worry. But exercise, that is an issue. I’ve had post exercise hypos that at times have required 100g of carbs to deal with. I generally carry a couple of packs of smarties or sweet tarts and a bag of nuts. But all of these could fall short out on a long trek. Does anyone really carry around like 100g of carbs?
ps. And how come nobody has mentioned bringing a glucagon pen for high risk activities.
Wow, 100g of carbs. Your beta cells seem to get motivated by excercise. I carry 80g just in case I have multiple lows or make an epic mistake with my dosage. For a long trek I would add chocolate to have a basement.
I used the “Pumping Insulin” charts to calculate my ExCarbs for the last race I did and it seemed to be suggesting that I should be having around 100G of carbs but I think that I consumed around 30-50G (2x gatorades…) and ended up a shade high. I had had water the 3 mile mark and then was a shade low @ 7 miles and they had another stop around 9 miles and the sugar hadn’t quite hit so the CGM was still running low and I had another swill of gatorade and was up to 150 or so by the end of the race. Part of my interest in consuming less carbs is lugging less carbs along on the road, stuffed into pockets and clipped to my belt, for the longer runs I’m working on.
I got a really cute Vera Bradley makeup case that I always throw in my backpack or purse when I’m out. It contains an extra infusion set, extra batteries (AA lithium and AAA), alcohol swabs, a tube of glucose tabs, my meter, test strips, lancing device, extra lancets, a humalog pen, and pen needles. So far, this has worked well for me. Usually I am somewhere around food and can easily get better tasting carbs to treat a low. I often have juice boxes handy too in my purse or car.
Does anyone carry a glucagon kit? I don’t have one at the moment, but my last doctor insisted upon me having one handy at all times. My current doctor is less alarmed at this, but I think I will ask her about it when I see her tomorrow.
If I am going on a long hike or something active, I usually will have some goldfish or a granola bar handy too. The last long hike I kept getting low low low until I came up with the bright idea that maybe I should set a temp basal. duh!
‘can easily get better tasting carbs to treat a low’
Yeah! I like that idea!
I am sugar phobic and prior to dx, had not touched sugary stuff since the early 1990s. One of the major changes in my life is having to carry around sugar. Some days I really resent having to pour sugar down my throat.