This post is pretty sad even for me. Well, not the post per se, but more the fact that this post shoulda been done months ago. (Don’t worry I have one that is even worse if I ever choose to write that one down.)

Back in early November I traveled out to San Francisco to visit with some very famous people. Since they all turned me down, I decided to have a run in with local type-1 Dayle, but also our favorite d-mom’s Meri and Tina or Tina and Meri, don’t want them thinking I love one of them over the other. I would say about 85/90% of the trip was pretty great. The rest was interesting to say the least.

This trip had me traveling without my Dexcom, as my system had decided to go to the recycling bin in the sky. Don’t get me wrong, I have gone years without a CGM, but nonetheless I was worried about the multiple things that could and would screw with one as they travel. Needless to say, I gave it my best and hoped for the best. I got in late the first night of my trip and stayed in a hotel. The plan was to see Dayle for food the following day. So I played tourist and did touristy things throughout the morning and got to see Dayle. Which was pretty cool.

(I know that’s a trolley apparently Dayle has the picture we took.)

After that I wandered over to the train system and boarded my train to get in the general vicinity of Tina’s house. I got to stay there, which was a blessing in and of itself. After detraining and a panicked phone call later I found Tina and the adventures began.

In all honesty, this was one of the greatest weeks of my life. I got to sleep, I got to hang out with her and the family. So much fun was going to be had. One of the other things that was great about this visit was Tina had scored me a loaner CGM transmitter that I could use until I made it back to NJ and got the new one up and running. That afternoon, I started the process to use the new to me transmitter. Problem, receiver decided to stop working on me. Seriously?? Long story short after two days of frustration I got the damn thing working again. All’s good?? Nope the “new” transmitter was dead. So I was back to square one again.

After I got over my crushed soul, I continued the fun of this week, not letting anything bother me. It was fun being in a house with kids. Things have been so quiet at my place, I love it, but the noise was nice. It was fun to play with the dogs who adopted, sadly the cats chose not to adopt me or even pretend I existed. The first few days Tina and I did touristy things, had some great food, and fun.

One day Tina, Sugarboy, and myself went hiking at Mount Diablo. He had been having some wonky sugar related issues due to a late night soccer game and stuff so Tina kept him home. Anyway, Mount Diablo was AMAZING!

After our hike we went to both Chic-fil-A and Starbucks. I had a salad and later had a Pepperment Mocha Frapp. The plan after that was to go and plan a trip up to visit Meri and the boys. This is where the story turns slightly. Now I preface this by stating throughout the trip my numbers had been pretty spot on, a few minor drops, but I was testing often to keep an eye on things. Plus I got to sing the “I’m Better Than You Song” a few times as well. On the car ride up to Meri’s I started to feel really nauseous, like I’m gonna vomit any second now nauseous. (Mind you this story plays out differently for Tina, who later admitted she was mad at me, but not because of what happened.) Not sure when it happened, but lets just say most of the 2ish hour trip was not pleasant for me. At one point I started to get really cold. This is where my version and Tina’s will vary because of awareness.

I started to feel low so I went to test. Tina says I pulled my meter out and stared at it for a while but took my time to actually test. I got nothing. I can’t argue that. Anyway, I tested and a number showed up on my meter telling me I had a low blood sugar. I didn’t tell Tina what the number was at that point (35). Normally if I’m low treating is not an issue, but that was not the case due to the other issue on that car ride. (I blame the salad, but I don’t know what caused the nausea.) I knew if Tina was aware of that number she would be SUPER worried about me and try to get me to eat tons of stuff. Anyway, I had a small thing of 6 glucose tabs with me in my bag. So I started to slowly and I mean SLOWLY treat the low.

I was terrified that I wasn’t going to be able to eat them and lose what I was eating all over the pristine interior of Tina’s van. So slowly I treated. One tab at the worlds slowest pace at a time. Eventually, I was done with the tabs. I had to keep assuring Tina I was fine, but honestly I was not in great shape. To make matters worse the road we took to get to Meri’s house had us traveling through the middle of nowhere, basically like we were traveling through the Swamp of Sadness.

So Tina is now all calmly out of sorts since if anything happens there is no civilization nearby. I tested again. (34) Seriously. Apparently I had really miscalculated for the Peppermint Mocha. Eventually we made it to Meri’s house. In spite of my bodies many attempts to lose all the things. Gave Meri a big hug. Was given a nice warm blanket and curled up in Meri’s spot in front of fireplace on her couch. That was the first hour or so. I tired to eat the world’s greatest cookies ever and only managed a few bites before my stomach once again rebelled. So I hid under the blanket trying to stay warm. Tina had to get gas for the van and needed to make a phone call to her beloved to see what was going on with him, but I asked her for some alka seltzer to settle my stomach.

By the time Tina had returned I had made the effort to try to unsettle my stomach with limited success and downed the magic fizzy drink. At this point the story takes a turn towards the positive. My BG numbers were finally on the uphill swing and my stomach was more settled. So I missed one of the greatest smelling meals ever, since I was incapacitated at that point. I was able to enjoy that cookie and another one as well. Plus I had some seltzer water as well, did you know that it is really hard to find that stuff in California apparently?

The adults talked, the kids played, it was a pretty great time. We ended the night playing headbands. In the last round I can honestly say, I trounced the entire room with how many I guesses I got right in such a short period of time. The car ride home was relatively uneventful as well. I mean, I still wasn’t at 100%, but I was way better than I was on the way up.

Friday we went to the aquarium and saw the ocean. That was pretty cool. 

The trip to the aquarium was more or less uneventful. My stomach still wasn’t great. This time the issues were with the plumbing on the other side. So I borrowed different drugs from Tina this time round. Well I didn’t borrow them I took them and chewed the little pink things and hoped for the best. Thankfully by the time we had left, things has settled down enough for the car ride. On the way we stopped and got some awesome fruit that was CHEAP. We played tourist and had some decent food, I had sourdough bread and 10 spoonfuls of soup, apparently I wasn’t as good off as I thought I was. Sigh.

Than we went to aquarium and I saw penguins, otters, jelly fish, and this creepy guy:

The aquarium and beach day were awesome. Getting to hang out with Tina and her crew was pretty spot on. That night I got to chat with Chad for a bit, he was MIA most of the week for work stuff. Saturday morning we did some errands, Chad was picking up his PS4 and needed to take his car in for service, so I followed him in the van to allow the errands to happen. He almost killed me by stopping short, thankfully my reflexes were good…

That afternoon after I packed and said good bye to Chad and middles Tina, Sweet Stuff, Sugar Boy, random friend of Sweet Stuff, and I headed back into the city for some last minute fun. We met up with Christel who was in town for something else. We had so much fun, it was great to see her. I had some scarey garlic Parmesan fries. I MEAN SCAREY. I can’t seem to find the picture though. Than we saw the sea lions and Alcatraz.

After that, we did some touristy stuff and eventually I made it to the airport said my goodbyes without really tearing up and headed back to the East Coast.

The travel was fine, the security was fine. I’m used to the screenings at this point. They no longer argue with me when I ask for a pat down. I just do it and they except it.

Other than the one issue on Thursday, truly everything was fine diabetes wise. I think I went through more test strips that week than I have in the past three months. I truly HATE not knowing what my numbers are. It freaks me out a little as to how attached I am to my CGM.

I had an amazing time on the trip. I just wish Tina and crew lived a lot closer to me. It would make things so much easier and less costly when I wanted to go visit them. Which is something I want to keep doing. Although, next year I’ve decided they are coming to me and I am showing them the wonders of living in the middle of nowhere.