The Kit

I thought I'd share this tonight in the hopes that someone finds it useful.

I am many things, it's a long list - and I chuckle now because as I break out into making my point about being lazy, I don't really feel like typing that whole list.  In fact, sometimes I am so adverse to doing things that are complicated or time consuming that I will take what ends up being the longer way around in a futile attempt to avoid the right way.

I like making everything as easy as possible.  Now, I'm not saying that everyone that simplifies and organizes is lazy, that's just me.  Nevertheless, one of the benefits of me trying to find the easy way out, is that I tend to compartmentalize things into groups or categories.  Believe it or not, after spending more than three decades trying to avoid putting the effort into staying on top of things, I ended up doing it anyways because it's just easier.

I know a lot of people have there own variation of this, but here's mine:

"The Kit"

The plastic box (manufactured by Plano U.S.A., model 3650), holds enough supplies for about a week.

The only modification I had to make, other than placing the movable partitions, was to the fixed partition between his NovoRapid pen and the tube of cake decorating paste - I had to cut a notch for that narrow part at the top of the cap.

The black case in the large spot on the right is the pouch holding his Aviva Nano meter, test strips and lancet pen from Accu-Check (the case comes with it).  I added to the case a pen, piece of paper, and some alcohol wipes.  If we're just running to the corner store, or to the park down the street for a quick play time I only take that black pouch with the icing gel stuffed into it (it's a tight squeeze, but it does fit).  There's a 15g-carb bag of Skittles underneath that gel too - it's been there since day one, but now I have candy stashed all over God's green earth.

On the left side at the top are his 30 unit syringes (graduated in 1/2 units) for his Lantus (the lavender topped vial just beside the syringes) and next to the Lantus are the pen tips for his NovoRapid Pen (bottom left).  In between the needles and insulins are some alcohol wipes, BD lancets (in case his Accu-Check lancet get jammed, which hasn't happened yet) and some Accu-Check lancet drums.  This complete kit comes with us when we're out for a longer trip and/or a meal of easily calculated carbs.

For more complicated meals, or longer trips, we bring along his Salter Nutri-weigh scale, the universal power adapter we picked up at Best Buy, more alcohol wipes in that little baggie, 4 "AA" batteries (in the round container on the top-right) in case we can't find an outlet, and a little container for sharps.  The black laptop case, like the power adapter, was purchased separately, on the cheap, in the office supply aisle at, of all places, the grocery store.

There's a handy pocket on the inside of the lid of the case that hold the 8 1/2 x 11" booklet I record all his data in.

"The Kit" slides perfectly into the outer pocket with just enough space to actually close that flap.

To anyone else, it would just seem that I am some geek that can't bear to part with his trusty little net-book, but inside I have pretty much everything I need for an average day (or week) with Jonathan.

I also have a larger back-pack that this case can fit into and also carry his binders with the first Diabetes books we got, symptom cheat sheets, Keto-sticks, and pretty much everything else, short of an endocrinologist.

In under two minutes I can have what I need, in my hands, ready to fly out the door, easy peasy lemon squeezy as someone once said.  I like easy.  I would have married easy.  Easy is my kind of way!

One more thing: I openly and honestly admit that all of this is because we have not yet chosen to go to a pump.  I know the pump will obsolete much of "the kit", but until that day comes....