Back Up's Back Up Fail

Using back-up tester and back-up-back-up strips
for ridiculously large pizza that will screw
with bg numbers all day

One of the first five things we learned after Riley was diagnosed was to over estimate everything you think you need for diabetic supplies when you travel. If we are travelling for a week, take two weeks worth of supplies. Three days, take 6 days of stuff. We have pretty much stuck to this rule. However, many of our trips in the last two years still have failures like having all the supplies in a separate bag for a day trip, but leaving the regular kit at a restaurant along the way. This scenario should work out except that for a day trip, I didn't pack extra insulin pens. So, the only insulin is in the regular kit at the restaurant 40 miles back. That is just one story off the top of my head.

This trip was no different. The iBGStar stopped working right before the lunch check on Tuesday. No problem (except, why is this the second time the iBGStar has crapped out in a year?) we have a back up. Riley's old One Touch glucometer is packed with all the supplies. Wait, Houston-we do have a problem. There are only 2 test strips left in this initial bottle that only comes with 10 test strips. No problem. In the supply bag, we have more test strips....for the iBGStar! ugh Foiled Again.

Solution: #1 Call Rite Aid Pharmacy back home and have them call a pharmacy at the beach to refill original prescription from diagnosis day? No. That prescription would be expired so the pharmacy would a. call me back to contact my doctor for a new one or b. call my doctor for a new one. We use mail order pharmacy now (up to date prescription) and I was not going to choose the option of contacting them. #2 Call Pediatric Endocrinology doctor offices - they probably get calls like mine all the time from people who go on vacation and smugly think they are prepared. Pick this option! They returned my call within an hour to double check the phone number for the beach pharmacy (she couldn't hear the number clearly though I left it with my message while looking up the number on my phone while leaving the message with my phone) Maybe use two phones, one to look stuff up and one to speak into?

New plan (because everything follows my plan): Use one of the 2 last test strips to test for a low before dinner and then the last strip for the dinner test. Perfect.  Go to the pharmacy and pick up the new test strips prescription for a total of $285.34. Whaaaat? Wait, I only need enough to get him home to vast supplies of One Touch meter strips. You don't sell test strips by the day, you say? Ok, how about just one box? Technically, we need 6 - 8 strips a day for 4 more days (barring a catastrophe that keeps us "stuck" at the beach for longer), that is one bottle, plus one more to be prepared. Oh, one box of test strips has four bottles in it, how much will that be? Hey look over here, we could buy three Mini One Touches at the special price of $9.99. That's only $30! Too late, the kind pharmacist has already fixed my prescription to one box and it's only $135. Ugh...we should have bought 3 more Minis and called it a day.