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Creating Your Own Best-Case Scenario (Continued)

Go-bag

You've heard the one about the guy who went out to the corner store for cigarettes and never came back, right? It's generally assumed he abandoned his wife and kiddos. Walked out on them. Or maybe he had diabetes. Maybe something waylaid him. And maybe he didn't have a Go-bag.

A Go-bag is the most elemental of emergency kits. It's sort of a diabetes first aid kit. It should have two days worth of supplies of all you need to survive, diabetes-wise, and it should always be with you. How complicated a Go-bag is depends on how complicated your diabetes is. It could be as simple as a pill box with a couple of diabetes pills in it; or it could need to be a small camera bag with spare insulin, back up pump supplies, batteries, and more. For most dFolks, the minimum contents of a diabetes first aid kit would include medications, glucose, and a meter with strips. Insulin users need some backup delivery devices and glucagon as well.

I bet if that guy who went out for smokes had been better prepared, he would have been back in half an hour, and not died until many years later...of lung cancer. Nah, you're right. The dirt-bag probably just abandoned his family. But still, you get my point.

If you're dFolk, don't leave home without everything you need to survive for 48 hours. Even if you're just going out to the corner store for cigarettes. Hey, the worst hypo I ever had was in Sam's Club.

Home Stash

Let is snow, let it snow, let it snow. But not until I pick up my prescriptions at the pharmacy.

I know you don't believe it, but it is more than possible to be stranded in your home for days. Weeks maybe. That's why the prepared dPerson keeps about two weeks' worth of diabetes survival stuff in their house. It's more than possible to be trapped at home. And it's more than possible to get very, very sick — or even die — in your home if you don't have the dSupplies you need to keep your diabetes in control while everything around you spins out of control.

Evac Kit

While most people with diabetes buy into the first two concepts, few have Evac kits, because, unless you've ever been evacuated before, you probably don't believe it can happen to you. But Katrinas happen. Sandies happen. Rivers flood. Wildfires burn cities. Earthquakes level buildings. There's no place in the country that's evacuation-proof. Even if you live in boring old Safeville, a railroad car of toxic chemicals could derail at midnight and you could find yourself ordered to flee in your jammies.

An Evac Kit is a little different from a home stash. Home stashes tend to get scattered all over your homestead. Your extra insulin is in the fridge, your strips are in the cupboard, your pills in the medicine cabinet, and the spare batteries are in the garage.

Was that a knock on the door? Oh dear. It's the Sheriff. You have five minutes to get the heck out of your house. Lava is coming down the road. (Hey, it could happen.) How fast can you gather your stash? How much of it will you forget?

Too long and too much. I guarantee it.

Thus the Evac Kit. Your Evac Kit is your mobile stash. It's not exactly ready to go at a moment's notice, but it can be ready in minutes. It's a bag or case that has everything you need that can be stored well in advance, along with a checklist of things that can't be stored in advance. The checklist should include where to find the things that needed to be added at the last minute. If you have to evacuate, your brain will not be at its best.