Gallivanting Around Germany Part 1

Sooo as I write this there is a thunderstorm going on outside and I finally found wifi. I've only been away a week and it's been mental. We traveled down to Munich from the South of England a week ago where we were staying with friends for a few days. My sugar levels were pretty OK and my control of my diabetes was fine until I came to do my set change. I realised I had left my reservoirs at home. Now this is not an uncommon problem of mine, when I was 8 i left my needles for my injections at home and my dad had to go tramping around the English countryside to a hospital to get some for me. This time though there was a language barrier and trying to get hold of extra supplies in your own country is hard enough.

Anyway we went to the nearest chemist with one of the friends we were staying with and I showed them my pump and the bit that was missing and they immediately knew what I needed. OK so it took a long time to ring up Accu Chek and get them to send it and then there was the postage and packing to pay for but it arrived the next morning ready for use. That night my pump finally ran out of insulin, having been stretched out two days longer than normal, and the alarms went off all through the night. I have no idea how to turn them off I tried stopping the pump completely and rewinding it ready for the full insulin cartridge but no it beeped all night long. Coupled with the very hot nights here in Germany I didn't sleep well. But I guess I deserved it for forgetting something important yet again.

What surprised me most  was that the Germans knew on sight what my pump was and that i was diabetic and it made me realise how little people in the UK know about diabetes. This could potentially be quite dangerous and the focus on many peoples minds seems to be finding a cure but personally I don't feel that's the best route, I reckon that the general public who don't come into contact with diabetes need to be educates on it. Even if it was just making sure people knew the difference between type 1 and 2.

Rhona