Travel Light

Packing for a carefree quick trip to visit my parents in AZ, it's 90 and sunny so my bag is fairly light when it comes to clothing and the daily requirement necessary to lounge in the sun, hang out, and basically just chill for four solid days. Just me. So, yes, my bag to be checked is packed light for the journey.

My carry on however, has a whole lot of necessary possibilities and every other what if option packed  heavy with the weight of what it takes to live in tight control of my diabetes. The basic daily items I carry with me always, my little pack that holds my OmniPod device, Dexcom sensor, bottle of strips and my dandy pricker that I carry with me from room to room at home, so much so that I consider this little pack a part of me. That's the easy usual part. Next comes the burden of what if my pump fails or I lose my device? What if the two extra pods I have for site changes don't work for some reason? What are the odds? Maybe pack two extra? And an extra site change for my sensor as I just put a new one on and I always get over a week or two with each but what if it fails? This is a vacation, I might be a bit off of routine and need that sensor the next four days more than ever! So maybe two extra? And if the pump fails I'd better bring an insulin pen and a pack of needles. But if it fails like soon, maybe on my flight even, I'd better pack a few extra bags of needles for my insulin pen. And just in case I'm that much off, and all else fails, I'd better pack glucagon, which I've used only once in my 35 years of diabetes but you just never know. Okay, I've thought through the what ifs, got my two daily oral meds filled two days ago and my vial of insulin, plus an extra, just in case that one falls on the tile floor in the kitchen and shatters...or do my parents have linoleum? Just in case I'll pack one extra vial. And of course, this is in my carry on because if it were in my checked luggage it could be in the heat too long or lost...

So I am all set with my light travel checked and my heavy bag with me (the actual weight of all these glorious goods really isn't much, it's more the stress of the what ifs, forgetting, remembering, the emotional burden of it all on me and my poor husband who hears me go over it all every time I travel, that is heavy). I don't consider my Canon lens part of my diabetes pack but sure hope I remembered to pack that in my bag now that I uploaded the above photo! :) What if I could check my diabetes, or even the bag that carries it all, for my two hour flight? Now that sounds light! I'm on my way to vacation, a girl can dream can't she? :)