that time my pump broke in another country

on the second full day - friday - of our recent eight day vacation, my pump screen went out while at the pool. i trekked to our room (the resort was NOT small) and called my endo. then i called animas and talked to a lovely lady who tried to help me get it fixed over the phone, to no avail. she said i'd have to talk to someone in the international department to figure out shipping me a replacement ...to dominican republic. she talked to someone else while i was on hold then told me someone would call me back in the next 30 minutes.

...they didn't.

do pretty pictures make this story seem less crappy?

in the meantime, i had talked to my nurse practitioner at dr. awesome's office, because, of course, like a good diabetic travelling out of the country, i didn't have back-up insulin. stellar. it was a proud moment. my lame defense was this has never happened in the 14 years i've had diabetes (even in tahiti!). so i went to the 24-hour doctor on the resort - who was very nice, helpful and understanding - and he said he could get lantus delivered from the pharmacy. i had to pay with cash. (also, getting medications in other countries is weird. no prescription needed. just a phone call telling them how much was needed and it was there in about an hour.) it was a pricey mistake, but i had no choice. he also threw in syringes for my humalog at no charge, which was a nice touch.

oh - did i mention i've never used an insulin pen, and that's how i received my lantus? good thing i'm smart enough to read instructions. so simple!

i called animas again the next morning. the person working in the international department wasn't working on saturday, so i'd have to wait til sunday. what a lovely surprise!

in the meantime, the lantus and humalog injections were working out just fine.

sunday morning i talked to the person in the international department. after two days of being told she would set everything up to have it shipped to my resort, she told me they couldn't ship to dominican republic.

big. fat. SIGH. there was nothing i could do except have the replacement shipped to my parents house and get it when we got back home.

my vacation had a double meaning. time away from home and work, and a pump vacation. i hadn't been sans pump for a full week EVER since i started using one. two days, tops, while replacement pumps were shipped. i hadn't worn a bathing suit, in the ocean, by the pool, worn sundresses or sat out in the heat without a pump AT ALL for 14 years. it was somewhat freeing!

when i got home, lesson learned, my replacement pump awaited me.

and at my regularly scheduled appointment with dr. awesome last week, he reminded me to always take lantus with me. and he said it will probably never ever happen again, but it's of course safer to have it there than to go through that mess again. i agree.

learn from me, people.