Saturday, March 12, 2011

How To Prepare For Disasters When Type 1 is Involved...

I can't imagine there is anyone out there reading my blog that hasn't heard about the devastation happening in Japan and in the Pacific. When disasters like this occur, one of the first things to pop into my head is about all the children and adults who are living with Type 1 Diabetes. What do you do when you have to evacuate so quickly and all your supplies are destroyed? All your juice boxes to treat lows. Insulin. Test strips. Pump supplies. Needles. Batteries. I always wonder, what would I do if that happened to us? What would I do if Sydney looked up to me and said, "Mom I feel low." And I had nothing to give her. Do I just hold her and rock her until the low makes her slip into a coma or makes her have a seizure and eventually it takes her life? I can't imagine the horror that would be going through my mind. Are there parents going through this right now? Probably.

We aren't far removed from a situation like this. None of us parents of Type 1 kids are. We are all just a disaster away from not having diabetes supplies to keep our children alive. So, what options do we have to prepare? One thing I suggest is getting a backpack and keeping it in the coat closet by the door. In the backpack you need to have things like a couple boxes of test strips. Extra glucometer. Batteries. Pump infusion sets. Reservoirs. Needles. Juice boxes. Glucose tablets and anything else you use to treat lows. Have extra insulin in the fridge so you just have to throw it in the bag and leave if an emergency were to happen. Some bottles of water wouldn't hurt anything either. Then, if a disaster were to strike and you had minutes to evacuate, you could grab the bag and leave and not be faced with a situation where you have to watch your child die from lack of diabetes supplies. Maybe this means you will have to pay out of pocket for some extra test strips. Just buy a few at a time until you have built up a couple hundred strips. Same with the other items. But once they are packed in a bag and ready, it will be a great comfort and life saving in case of an emergency.

May God bless the people of Japan and Hawaii at this time. As terrible as it is, hopefully we can take some lessons away and make ourselves more prepared for a disaster. If you have any other thoughts on this, feel free to comment and we can help spread ideas to make us all more prepared for our Type 1 kids.

If you want to help, there is an organization dedicated to getting diabetes supplies to Type 1 kids around the world. Lots of areas just don't have access to insulin and these children will die. They also help in disaster torn areas to get diabetes supplies to kids who need them. Click HERE or copy and paste the link below to learn more about this great organization and how you can help. www.insulinforlifeusa.org/

6 comments:

Tammy said...

A disaster is one of my worst nightmares. I had the same thoughts when I watched the news. But so is financial problems like a loss of job or market crash.

We just paid off our last credit card and are completely debt free. We have started to stock up on food. I figure we probably have a couple months' worth of freeze dried foods, we have water and dry goods along with about 3 months' salary saved up. We plan to keep working on that until we have 6 months saved. I try to put away some D supplies, but that's probably the hardest. We figure we have enough money and food stored up, we should be able to afford his supplies if we have to.

But I hadn't thought of needing to grab supplies as we leave the house. I'll have to see what I can do. (Now I have another fear... lol)

Valerie said...

Just posted about this myself...I have all my supplies in one box underneath my bed, but I really think having a bag (like you said) is a better idea so you can easily grab the stuff you need. It's scary to think about, but it's better to be prepared for the worst case scenarios!

wendys said...

Great advice.

Misty said...

First thing that entered my mind when I heard of this disaster. Such a scary thought..being without D supplies for any amount of time. After Valentine's Day, I bought a big bag of individual packets of Skittles on sale and I put them away thinking that I would always have something to treat a low...good thing is that they won't spoil.

Unknown said...

I usually have a 1 month overlap of supplies between shipments from the pharmacy. However, I should have a bag packed with them. They are in our most secure room in the basement, but they are not ready to be mobilized in case of evacuation.

Heidi / D-Tales said...

I thought of the same thing, and I've been working on our supply bag.

Excellent post!