Living in the Chicagoland area, I have experienced the four seasons my entire life. For those of you who do not have the seasons, my question to you is: Are you as excited about summer as I am? After the cold and snow, then the ramping up of our gardens and foliage, summer has always blown my mind. Granted, I do wear shorts in the winter, but it is FOR REAL now! Flip flops, tank tops, shorts . . . and you are not looked at like a crazy person in the summer, at least! Ah—the joys of summer—I can hike with my dog knowing his poor feet won’t freeze, and I can spend hours gardening with the extended daylight hours. That also means we as diabetes care and education specialists have more opportunities to promote our active lifestyles with the people with diabetes we work with—and encourage them to do the same.
Talking to my patients about their summer vacation plans is always a highlight for me. I get to live vicariously by reminiscing on when I was in those locations and adding some trip ideas to my growing lists of “Oh the Places You Will Go!”
These conversations segue into me “doing my day job”—helping them create a plan for travel and activity with diabetes. Every one of my patients knows my spiel: “Bring 2-3 times the amount of supplies you think you need; if flying, carry everything on with you; bring backup to your backup—if needed, rent a secondary pump, bring extra MDI supplies, and for the love of all that is holy, wear medical identification and bring hypoglycemia treatment with you always.”
Just recently, as a patient of mine was going on vacation, we had our usual conversation about supplies, specifically preparing her for the trip to Barcelona and Paris. Everything was going great until she realized she brought the wrong supplies with her. She only had Omnipod pods for the DexCom G6 and not the new DexCom G6/G7 pods that she was using. She immediately reached out to us to problem-solve. Although she had her long-acting insulin, she really wanted to stay on the pump. She was able to connect with the International JDRF/Breakthrough T1D group, located another American using the same G6/G7 pods that she needed near Paris and Voila, and she was off and running again. This was an amazing display of the power of the diabetes community, and it was so fortunate that the stars aligned and there was someone else who had the supplies she needed. That may not always be the case, so preparing for every possibility is ideal but may not be practical. But working with people with diabetes and learning about their vacation successes and misses are important for us to do our jobs better. Ask them what went well, what they would recommend others do in the same situation, and how we can work together to better prepare for next time. I am well aware that my relationship with my patients is mutually beneficial. We can both learn from each other, which is extremely advantageous for me to be able to “pay it forward” and pass it along to others who are in the same situation.
I know that all the people with diabetes I work with do not get a vacation from their diabetes, but if I can help in some way to get them uber prepared, then they can enjoy their time with minimal worry.
I hope your summers are fantastic and you embark on amazing adventures. I am always looking for more cool places to go, so feel free to share your vacation experiences with me and any diabetes-related experiences you may have had during them!
Please be on the lookout for questions throughout the year that will be posted in various locations, such as in the monthly member newsletter and on social media. Thanks to all of you who sent in your insights to our inaugural question: What is your advice to the diabetes care and education specialist early in their career? If you have any other ideas of what you would like to see in AIP, send it my way!
In the immortal words of Earnest Tubbs and Lorreta Lynn (if you don’t know who they are, look them up!), “Keep those cards and letters comin’.” I always look forward to hearing from you!