It’s been a little quiet over here at the blog. It’s been so for a few reasons… life has gotten busy. Luke has decided he wants to now approve what I put on the blog (and I don’t blame him). And I really haven’t had much to say. T1 has officially become a norm here, so I often don’t even think about daily things that happen being a new blog post.

That said, we planned this blog post a year ago. Starting on January 1, 2016, Luke collected all of his “diabetes mess” in a box in the closet. We were curious to see all of the supplies in one pile at the end of one year.

And without further ado, I present to you, Diabetes Mess 2016 (give or take a handful of each item because it was accidentally thrown away).

107 pump infusion sets, including insets, canulas, and reservoirs. 2,507 inches of tubing. 17 Dexcom inserts & sensors. 13 insulin pens. 5 empty insulin bottles. 5 empty test strip containers. And lots and lots of needles and syringes- we didn’t want to count.

(Side note: He went through way more insulin and test strips than pictured, but apparently most of those bottles and containers were trashed. He’s gone through at least 15 containers of test strips just since he went Dexless in October!)

Type 1 Diabetes is not very friendly to Mother Earth now is it?

I made a visit to our friendly pharmacy yesterday. (I really do mean friendly. We’re on a first name basis there.) A new year means we get to start over on our deductible. We got our first round of insulin & test strips, as well as a glucagon, for the low, low price of… well, several hundreds of dollars. Like three times our car payment hundreds.

Luke informed us on Thursday night that his pump supplies are getting low. So, Monday we will be calling Tandem to order another shipment of pump supplies. I don’t even remember how much that costs. I’m actually not even sure we’ve paid for it in the past. There’s a good chance our deductibles had been met by the time we got around to needing more pump supplies.

Thinking about these things makes me so thankful for God’s provision. We have never had to worry about whether or not we can afford Luke’s life-sustaining medications and supplies. We have never had to choose between food and insulin, paying our mortgage or pump supplies. We are incredibly fortunate.

Looking ahead a new year, I’m excited to watch Luke continue to live life to the fullest. He is an amazing kid & I’m proud that he’s mine!