I went out to brunch with Aaron and another friend Flash yesterday. My husband was looking after the baby, so I left him with the nappy bag and all the other baby paraphernalia, and packed myself a separate bag (normally I keep all my stuff in the nappy bag too to save taking more than one bag). Unfortunately, I also left my BG tester in the nappy bag.
I remember times long ago when I would regularly go out without my tester, but since all this pregnancy malarky I guess I’ve gone a bit OCD with the need to know my BG, so not having my tester was playing on my mind a little (and I was planning to be out for a few hours after brunch due to a few other chores and activities).
I arrived in Kingsland, and walked up to the cafe. On my way, I spotted a pharmacy, and made a split second decision to go in and find out how much a new tester would be (given that they come with ten strips to start you off anyway). Two minutes later I walked out, $30 poorer, with another meter to add to my collection!
I feel simultaneously a bit guilty and not so guilty about this. Guilty, because it’s this sort of disposable society which is leading our landfills to be piling up (I’m already rocking a pretty big carbon footprint with the disposable nappies we’re getting through). Guilty, because we’re on one income and $30 is $30. Not so guilty, because I had a lancet break on me recently and this meter came with a good, brand new one. Not so guilty, because I now keep this new meter in my car and should be covered for any other times that I rush out of the house with mountains of baby stuff and no tester. Meh.
But crikey – meters are so cheap these days!
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Tagged as BG
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Saffy wrote
I think it’s great you have a back up. I had TWO meters die on me one weekend night – imagine how OCD I felt then
Great idea keeping it in the car. Imagine if you thought you might be hypoing and went to test and your meter was busted? That scenario would be uber stressful. And agreed, $30 is cheap – maybe a big thank you to the ever growing diabetic community, along with a big thanks for the increase in sugar free drinks available perhaps?. I see your point about the landfills but this isn’t an example unnecessary consumerism – this is you keeping yourself safe.
Hope lunch was lovely
Nic wrote
Ahhh, thanks for the vote of confidence, Saffy. It is amazing how cheap meters are these days, but I suppose the revenue model with these is similar to cellphones – subsidise the hardware heavily (tester/phone) and make the $$ on the consumption (calls/strips).
In my time in the UK I did looooads of travelling and never bothered to take more than one tester, but I think nowadays if I was going away for a decent length of time I’d be packing two in case one died on me.