Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Avoiding Motion Sickness at 35,000 Ft & Pump Alarms That Go BOO!

I've been avoiding the whole, "meal on a plane thing," ever since 2007, when I literally turned green and had to use vomit bag for the first time ever, (but sadly, not the last) and on a flight that was 12 minutes from landing in beautiful Colorado Springs, Colorado. 
I kid you not, it’s true. The lady sitting next to me on said flight told me that I actually turned green & and that until she’d watched me in action, she’d never in her entire  life actually seen someone turn green before they puked. 
So... YAY ME?    
Since then, I've reached for "the bag" 2 other times and I don’t eay anything but light snacks on or before I board a plane.  I usually stick to a Lara or Kind bar during the flight. If there's Starbucks in my terminal,I might get a turkey sammi if I really feel the need to pick at something more substantial. 
In order not to go low during the duration of the flight, I test my blood sugar like a mofo and set my temporary basal rate accordingly - And it works, for me.
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I’d actually fallen asleep on the plane, until turbulence woke me up with all subtlety of riding a wild bucking bull instead of sitting in row 9, seat C on an airplane bound for San Francisco.  
I kept my eyes closed, knowing that opening them wouldn’t be the best thing for motion/air sickness,that was this close to making its presence known.  
I drifted back to sleep and I wasn’t sure if the continual rocking had something to do with it or the fact that I got up at 3: 45 am. Probably a bit of both.
About an hour later I woke up to the sound of my pump alarm going off and the woman next to me gently shaking my arm.
Woman: Excuse me, but some sort of alarm going off on your body. I think it’s your beeper. 
I’d been in actual REM sleep, so I was like: Whaaaat? 
Woman: You’re like.... beeping.
Still sporting my groggy, spacey, sleep voice, I think I mumbled: Ohhhhh, yeeeeeah, that's my insulin pump, thank you. 
And she was right, it was beeping, letting me know that my 4.5 hour temporary basal rate was kaput. 
Woman: Are you OK? 
 Me: Yes, I’m fine. It’s just letting me know things are back to normal. 
She watched me as I reached for my handbag, grabbed my kit and tested: 140, with 0.8 of a unit left of active insulin. I was fine. 
According to time on my pump, it was 1:10, PM, EST and we were were due to land at 10:45 am, San Fran time.
Woman: I thought that thing monitored your blood sugar and gave you insulin without having to test. 
I smiled and said: No, this thing doesn’t do that.... yet. 
The lady went back to her book and I closed my eyes.  
And I was really glad she didn’t ask more questions, not because I didn’t want to answer them,  I have absolutely no problem answering diabetes questions on a plane or off. 

No, I'm glad she didn't ask any more questions because I was trying my damnedest to avoid using the puke bag, so keeping my eyes closed was key. So was finishing me nap. 

And FTR: I didn’t puke. Yep, #IROCK. 

1 comment:

StephenS said...

Way to hold it in. I can't tell you how many times in the past few months people have said they thought my pump could test and deliver insulin too. I think I'll have to start asking where they heard that (just for my own FYI, if nothing else). Glad you got to SFO safe.