Yesterday I asked a complete stranger to pull something out of the front pocket of my jeans.

As strange as that sounds, I’m surprised it hasn’t happened sooner. It started when I pulled into the parking lot on my way to get a manicure. I checked my blood sugar. It was around 110 with an arrow pointing downward. I should have taken that arrow as a warning, but with very little active insulin, I figured it would even out and all would be fine.

It was about half way into the manicure when my pocket started to vibrate. It was my CGM alerting me to a low blood sugar. It vibrated 3 times and stopped. I sat there thinking what to do. The thing with this pump, it does not like to be ignored. It will give you three rounds of vibrating before then making an audible noise, a few short musical notes. The audible notes are a more polite way to say, please acknowledge me, you’re low. But if it continues to be ignored, as in you don’t click the appropriate buttons to clear the warning, it will go into a full blown loud alarm sound. Don’t get me wrong, this is a useful feature, especially in the middle of the night when you may sleep through the vibrating and the notes, but it is a little bit obnoxious and embarrassing when you’re in a small, quiet nail salon.

I was on to the audible notes now, knowing quite well what was coming next. I debated waiting it out, or playing it off like “yea I don’t know what that sound is” but it was clear that my nails were not close to being done and it would be pretty obvious that the loud noise was coming from me.

So at the next sound of my pump, I looked awkwardly at the nail technician and said, “Do you mind getting something out of my pocket? It’s going to start making a lot of noise.” The woman didn’t even hesitate, just leaned over and pulled it right out, which made me wonder if this type of thing happens more often than I thought, retrieving items from customers’ pockets who have wet nails. Either way, my pump was safely out of my pocket and I was able to silence the alarms. My pump said my blood sugar was 78, low enough to alarm, but knowing myself and the fact that I didn’t feel low, I knew I could wait the 10 minutes to treat it. The woman finished my manicure and I put my pump back into my pocket.

I think next manicure, I’ll keep my pump out of my pocket and on my lap…just in case.