It had to happen. Three weeks on the road, or more apt, in the mountains of Queenstown, New Zealand and the harbor of Sydney, my lack of being able to control my blood sugar as well as I’d like is driving me mad. Translation: being out of my routine, not taking my daily hour walk due to San Francisco-like hills, and finding constant surprises at lunch like a chicken and avocado sandwich that comes on doubly thick slabs of sourdough bread with mayo or a  thimble-full of quiche that comes in a carb-laden pastry shell is wearing me down. 

Then foolish me, I underpacked my Lantus SoloStar insulin pen needles. I had several sample packs of “click-on” needles and misread the 8 mm size as 8 needles in a pack. Unfortunately I have discovered there are only 3 needles in  a pack. So now I have five more needles to get me through 20 more days on the road. Now, tis true, I don’t change the needle every single day, but every two to three days and this won’t get me through. Luckily, I have experimented and I if I stick a syringe in the rubber stopper of the SoloStar as far as it will go, I can withdraw the Lantus as if from a vial.

I just said to my husband, “I’d like to be home now for one day.” He looked at me as though I were mad, here in the midst of white sandy beaches and honeysuckle. But I’d like to watch the morning news, sit at my computer, poke my nose into my neighborhood shops, and with that put on my sneakers for my walk around the park and reach into my refrigerator and cupboard for my usual foods. I don’t really think I’m yearning for snow and frigid temperatures but the comfort that my routine gives me managing my blood sugar. While my crankiness will lift, right now as the Brits would say, diabetes is just “a little up my arse” after 17 days on the road.