April | 2014 | Type ONEderful

“What is it?”

The devices gathered around, peering inquisitively at the band that lay in the middle of the circle.

“I don’t know,” B.G. Meter replied, inching closer.

“Don’t touch it! We don’t know what it does! It might be dangerous!”

Meter gently tapped on the black surface and a series of bright white circles bounced across a mini screen.

“Look it lights up!” Gigi exclaimed.

“Why hello there,” the band stretched out, springing to life. My name is Fitbit Flex. And who are all of you?”

“Oh um, hi. My name is B.G. Meter and these are my friends Insul N. Pump and Gigi CGM. We didn’t mean to bother you, but we noticed that the Human started wearing you and we were curious what you were doing.”

“Oh how lovely! It’s always a pleasure to meet new devices. I’m a tracker. When the Human puts me on her wrist I can tell her how many steps she takes each day, how many calories she’s burned and even how well she slept!”

“Oh wow. You must take a lot of blood to figure out all that information. Where is your lancet hidden? Not that I was checking you out or anything, but you have a rather sleek design.”

“You’re making me blush, Meter. I actually don’t need to take any blood to figure out those numbers.”

“Whattt!? No blood? But you’re still under the Human’s skin right, like Gigi or Insul?”

“Nope. I prefer to stay away from bodily fluids and functions.”

“Crazy! How come you can’t do that, Gigi? So how does the Human know how many steps she’s taken? I noticed you don’t have a very big screen.”

“Yes, bigger is not always better, Insul. When the human lightly taps on me, my dots show what percentage of her goal she has completed. One dot is 20%, two is 40%, etc. But more importantly, if the Human takes out her phone and opens my app, she can see all these numbers and graphs right on her phone.”

“Wait, let me get this straight. You send your information right to the Phone, the thing that the Human always has with her?! And she doesn’t have to type anything in? We’ve been trying to get our numbers on the Phone for ages, but it will never take it from us!”

“Well that seems rather silly to me. The app also lets the Human keep track of other things too like her weight, calories eaten, and how much water she drinks. She can even cheer on or taunt her friends to reach their goals.”

“How can we get our numbers on there?? I know that the Human can manually type in that kind of information, but she’s kind of lazy. It would be perfect if her blood sugars and units of insulin delivered was wireless sent and synced right in your app. With your information about steps and activity and food logging and our information about glucose numbers and insulin, we could really help the Human understand the big picture!”

“You know what, Gigi, that’s a great idea. Hopefully someone smart is working on figuring that out right now.”

I sure hope so.

“Hello?”

My voice sounded strange as I answered my phone. It was 10 pm. I realized that I had not spoken out loud since leaving work 5 hours earlier. Since moving into my own apartment, I’ve been getting used to living alone. The solitude, the freedom, and the silence. Without any immediate person or animal to talk to, I realized that I could now go hours without hearing my own voice. It’s still a strange concept.

But the lack of chatter is just one aspect of living on your own. And while I admit that there are moments when I miss human interaction, I know that this is a time of immense learning and growing for me. Every problem, big or small, becomes my responsibility. Whether that means calling a friend or parent for advice, calling a repair person, or problem solving a solution myself, it’s up to me to fix my own issues.

But fixing a leaking sink or figuring out how to set up my cable are not quite the same as problem solving health obstacles on your own. And while obviously I have concerns about my diabetes, these instances are not always related to that. But I have also found that when I do have these moments of “panic”, my mind goes straight to the most obscure details. Allow me to demonstrate:

I was sitting in front of the TV eating nachos. Immersed in the TV show I was watching, I took a collection of gooey chips from the bowl without looking down and put it in my mouth, swallowing with minimal chewing. But rather than going down smoothly, I could feel the lump get stuck in my throat. I wasn’t choking, I could still breathe, but the lump had become rather painful. I coughed, hoping that it would help the food move down my throat, but it only made it hurt more. I took a sip of water. No luck. Now I was starting to get worried. I’m not really sure what the normal thought process would be, but I started thinking about what I would do if the food remained lodged in my throat. I thought about who I would call. Should I go next door and see if someone is home? Since recently moving, I’ve only met one of my neighbors one time. But realistically what would she do? And what would I say? Should I call my parents? “Hi dad, so I’m not reallllly choking, but there’s this lump of nacho painfully lodged in my throat. Suggestions?” Which piece of furniture would be best to throw myself over if I needed to do the Heimlich maneuver on myself? Would that even work? Wouldn’t that be funny marketing if a furniture advertised, “Great for if you ever find yourself choking and alone in your apartment!” I sat there considering my options when the food finally dislodged and the pain disappeared. Phew, crisis averted.

A few nights earlier, I had another obscure train of thought while contemplating my predicament. My blood sugar had somehow skyrocketed, I mean wayyyy out into space. It was the middle of the night and I felt soooo sick. My stomach was killing me, I kept switching from being hot to cold and back again, I was thirsty, and just overall in pain. I had given insulin hours before, but my blood sugar had only continued to climb. I decided to give a shot in addition to the insulin that my pump may have delivered. Watching my blood sugar continue to climb as I laid in excruciating pain, I started thinking what I would do if I couldn’t get it to come back down. My first thought though was if the emergency room has valet parking. What do I do with my car? If I drive myself to the hospital, do I go park in the structure then walk to the emergency room? Having only ever gone with my parents, these logistical details seemed extra important in the moment. Then do I email my work that night or wait until the morning to tell them that I may not be in? What the heck, why am I thinking about parking and emails right now?! I continued to lay there for another hour before I saw the encouraging downward arrows on my CGM. I finally drifted back to sleep and awoke to a beautiful line of blood sugars hovering around 100.

The mind truly works in random, mysterious, and clearly entertaining ways. I’m just glad that I didn’t have to act on any of my obscure thoughts!