I was recently in the market for a new purse. This new purse had a few qualifications. It had to hold the normal stuff like my wallet, sunglasses, keys, coupon pouch, etc.

It also had to hold my Erin Condren planner. (Shameless plug… $10 off if you use my link and buy one for yourself!)

And it had to hold a {very manly} bag of emergency supplies for Luke.

You see, the past couple of weeks have been a bit crazy for Luke and his pump. Up until then, we have been very fortunate with a cooperative pump. Our biggest “emergencies” have been when his site accidentally gets pulled out. Our luck changed about two weeks ago when we experienced one of the worst Mondays in the history of Mondays. Three mornings later, it was deja vu all over again when he went to bolus for breakfast before school. (But this time, we had already set the house alarm, locked the door, and gotten in the car to go.)

Three days later, which happened to be a Sunday, we were ahead of the game and made sure his pump had insulin and battery life before heading to church. He was fine the whole ride to church. He was fine all through the worship time. He was fine at the start of the sermon. It was then I realized that he didn’t have breakfast. So, I pulled out a pack of peanut butter crackers that he could eat during church. He bolused for them. He ate two of them. And all of a sudden his pump starts beeping- REALLY loudly- and it wouldn’t stop until he logged into the screen and turned it off, which only made additional beeping sounds. Once in, his pump said, “Battery life low. All insulin has been stopped.”

We planned for this- just in case. Luke kept back up insulin pens in his bag. “Just give yourself a shot,” I tell him. He pulls out his pen. Ummmm… he doesn’t have any pen needles! Long story short, Joel left the sermon and headed to CVS where he bought two syringes (Did you know you could buy them at a drug store for around 15 cents each? While I’m grateful for this, I do find it odd and maybe even a bit disturbing.) and a portable battery charger.

We were able to charge up his pump pretty quickly. Then, we used the syringes to draw insulin out of the pens and into the cartridge, which was already in his pump. (It had plenty of insulin in it still, but it wouldn’t accept it as a “new” cartridge until we put more in.)

And what was my take-away from this whole situation? I need to always carry an emergency bag of pump supplies. I now carry in one of my little ipsy bags a pump cartridge, infusion set, & a couple of syringes with a needle. Oh and pen needles. Lots and lots of pen needles.

Yes, my new bag holds all of this and more. That said, I think I need to start lifting weights to carry it around.

Oh and guess what else? Luke got a brand new pump yesterday. Apparently there have been several with the same issue. Whew! We are glad that chapter is over!