For some reason people often comment (or even gasp) when they see my pantry for the first time. *Shrug. Ok, so maybe I’m a little overly organized sometimes, but this particular characteristic of mine sure does come in handy for wrangling all my diabetes data and decisions.
This post is one in a series for the National Diabetes Month of November. Kerri from sixuntilme.com initiated the Photo-a-Day idea and prompts and lots of other diabetes bloggers have chosen to follow suite.
I know that the blue circle signifies diabetes and diabetes advocacy and I’m a big fan, yet for some reason when I read that Day 7’s word was “blue” all I could think of was that song “Blue Christmas” and then I remembered that 2 Christmases ago, I was on vacation when my pump (Omnipod PDM technically) crapped out…just like that! So, it did end up being a “blue” Christmas without my pump indeed.
Fortunately, I was rushed a new PDM and back in business 24 hours later. I also was so lucky that I had my insulin dosing regimes, basal rates, and pump parameters written down with me to re-enter into the new pump. I only had them because I was pregnant and was being hyper-vigilant about logging. Which prompted me to begin consideration of an online EMIR, where I could store all my detailed medication dosages (that I or others could access in an emergency). Read my recent post about why I went with MedibandPlus.
This post is one in a series for the National Diabetes Month of November. Kerri from sixuntilme.com initiated the Photo-a-Day idea and prompts and lots of other diabetes bloggers have chosen to follow suite.
Several months ago I wrote I Heart Silicone Medical ID Bracelets ♥ , covering the list of reasons why I wear a medical ID bracelet and choose to go silicone (on the wrist!). Also, I plugged my favorite place to order individual bracelets with customizable text (inside and outside.) Today, I’m plugging a newly discovered favorite, Mediband!
While, I do still love my old silicone bracelet, 4 years is a long time to wear the same one…and I think our relationship was due for a little “space,” so I’ve been on the lookout for new diabetes wrist bling. Criteria: Silicone, customizable inside/outside, and hopefully something with a little character that isn’t too child-like.
I’ve also have been considering finding a place online to store all my medication/dosing info…and it turns out Mediband fits the bill there as well. Previously, I had all this information at home and in an emergency my husband would probably be able to find it. However, with everything else in my life stored and easily accessible “on the cloud,” why not this too? Why burden my husband with having to know where to look for it?
I found myself biting the bullet and looking into MedicAlert. For some reason, that company has always made me feel like it caters to a much “older” crowd and with my 40th birthday looming on the horizon, I wasn’t excited about it. It does seem that their website has been “youthed” up a bit, however I still find a lot of their jewelry personally unappealing and their service isn’t free, at $10-$50/year. Plus, a lot of their jewelry has “set engraving” which means it’s not customizable.
Mediband (based in Australia,) on the other hand, has an online Emergency Medical Information Record (EMIR) called MedibandPlus that is free for the first year with a purchase of a bracelet and only $7 a year after that. You can enter only what you like and set the privacy level individually for each field of information, e.g. Maybe I don’t care if everyone in the world could see that I’m Type 1 diabetic but would prefer to have only hospitals be able to access my health insurance ID. Of course, to access any of your information, someone would first need to enter your membership number on the MedibandPlus website…and mine is safely tucked away on the inside of my wristbands.
For the wristbands themselves, I wanted to order the customizable set of 7, but seeing as they were coming all the way from Australia, there were 7 of them, and I’d be wearing one everyday, I wanted to be sure I got the order right. I emailed with my detail oriented (hopefully not to annoying) questions about exactly what the finished product would look like. Their customer service was great (and patient with me)! I took the plunge and then waited almost a month (custom product from Australia, remember), which actually felt like a year, and finally got them last month! I love them! In fact, I like the look of them so much, I often “go eighties” and wear several at a time.
I’ve even gotten compliments on them from non PWDs who just think they look cool. I chose to have the “Star of Life” logo in bright orange/red on the outside, so it wouldn’t be likely to be missed in an emergency. I also printed “Insulin Dependent Diabetic” on the inside with another logo (where the logo and Diabetic are in bright orange.) Then, there is still room for me to add my MedibandPlus membership ID, the website url, and my husbands name and phone number. For me, on all fronts, Mediband is a win.
While I often think of my diabetes as having a life of it’s own and requiring as much work as a third child or a second job, it’s not the relationship I would chose to highlight when talking about diabetes. Instead, that would be my husband, Ben, who has to put up with my high-sugar frustrations and low-sugar grumpiness, never complains when it’s time to help me with a hard-to-reach site change, and still finds time to comment on my blog posts with offers to craft me a bat-utility belt for all my diabetes devices. ♥
This post is one in a series for the National Diabetes Month of November. Kerri from sixuntilme.com initiated the Photo-a-Day idea and prompts and lots of other diabetes bloggers have chosen to follow suite.