(It’s weird starting something in parentheses, but I feel that this pseudo disclaimer needs to be at the beginning of this post.  The past few month’s I’ve considered rebranding my blog, but that takes way too much effort for me to do. Well not so much as too much effort, but I am just lazy. That being said, I am also sarcastic, hence my desire to change things around to something that is a little more sarcasm based. I had a great title, came up with the idea in the middle of the night, I woke up said “that’s genius” promptly fell back asleep and forgot the title. It’ll come back to me eventually.)

Anyway, on to my post for today. Today’s suggested writing post from Karen. We like Karen, so I’ll listen to her, I guess. (See, there’s that sarcasm.)

Diabetes can sometimes seem to play by a rulebook that makes no sense, tossing out unexpected challenges at random.  What are your best tips for being prepared when the unexpected happens?  Or, take this topic another way and tell us about some good things diabetes has brought into your, or your loved one’s, life that you never could have expected?

I wasn’t planning on writing anything this year.  I haven’t felt the desire to write for some time. Well that’s not completely true, I haven’t had the ideas to write for some time. But my friend Tina guilted me into it. I guess one can argue that is one of the unexpected things that has occurred. The various friends that are out there that I’ve met because of my diagnosis. But that isn’t my plan for today either.

I’m going with the reality of the unexpected hiccups that type-1 throws into your life. I always start mentally writing in my head before I just start writing. So I’m sitting in my room reading and thinking about what to write and my Kindle pings saying “low battery”. As I am about to plug that sucker in, I realized something a little more pressing. I forgot to charge my pump this weekend.

So once again my writing process was delayed. It’s funny, I have chargers all over my bedroom for iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch, Kindle, Bluetooth Speaker, and other things, yet where my “office” is nothing. So I once again had to wait.

I think that this unexpected thing is really the biggest issue. High/Low blood sugar’s I can normally handle. Random foods I swag like a champ(bullshit). Exercise and being active I have a plan. The one thing I don’t have an instant answer and solution to is technology. I seriously feel as things become more advanced, we need to be prepared for any and all eventualities. CGM goes wonky, what’s the backup plan? Pulled infusion set, where are the backup’s? Phone battery is low, do I stop all activity to prolong battery since phone is CGM? Or, what’s the plan if my pump battery is low or I got distracted and didn’t follow the normal routine?

I think for each of us if you are tech reliant, that can be the biggest challenge or unexpected thing. Having a 21 year old chronic illness is something you adjust to and can be “prepared” for. Yet, I think as we become more reliant on our technology to control our diabetes, we need to really have contingency plans for all of the things that can wrong. I’m assuming that some of you already have these plans in place. I obviously need to work on this a little more.

That being said, I have run out of words.

(P.S. Karen, I didn’t sign up and you can’t make me, I don’t have time. Soap dishes to clean and shit like that.)