Road Trip

We took a road trip this weekend; many hours of road travel and a couple hours logged on a ferry were involved. A very well stocked first aid kit, about two weeks of diabetes supplies, several changes of clothing and pajamas for myself and the girls, two cameras, two tripods, laptop, and a portable DVD player with about 8 of the kid's favourite shows were among the items crammed into our travel bags, all for a mere overnight stay away from home. And I haven't even mentioned the smaller version of my medicine cabinet I routinely pack for ailments ranging from headache, fever, indigestion and, of course, lactose intolerance.

We were ready for almost anything.

I couldn't help wondering, as I was assembling items and personal belongings prior to leaving, if I would be feeling foolish in a day and a half when I would find myself having to unload a vehicle full of stuff, most of which was completely unnecessary. But as it turned out, this was one trip I would be thankful for my penchant for preparedness.

Jenna experienced her first G.I. bug ever this weekend...at 4 am on Sunday morning...in a hotel room...500 kilometers from home. I have been dreading this inevitable encounter with the barf-bug since her diagnosis. How would it affect her blood sugars? Would she go too low? And if so, how would I treat a low if she isn't able to keep food down? But the question that did NOT occur to me was, what if it happened while we were away from home?

We had been getting up every two hours checking Jenna's blood sugar and bolusing to battle the delayed high from a pasta meal she'd had for supper at a restaurant Saturday evening. I tried in vain to talk her into stuffed mushrooms and soup. But she was set on pasta.

At 4 am Jenna sat up in bed. Mommy my legs are achy and I...*cough*...*barf*...

James and I sprang into action. I stumbled around in the dark trying to find the switch on the lamp between the two queen-sized beds. My mind started racing, trying to trouble shoot the problem. "Get her to the bathroom! Where's the checker?!" I quickly put together a worst case scenario in my head. Achy legs...vomitting...she's probably sky high complete with ketones because of that damned pasta. Or maybe her site went for a crap sometime in the night and she's been going without her basal--maybe even missed a correction. I checked her and braced myself for what I was sure would be an astoundingly high reading. But it was only 14. Definitely out of range but not nearly as high as I was expecting. A correction was given. I decided to check for ketones anyway just to be safe. No ketones. No fever. And Jenna reported feeling better after she vomited. So we cautiously settled her back to bed (after some necessary house keeping duties were performed) and hoped for the best.

But she vomited twice more after that requiring a total of three pajama changes.

We decide to ditch our plans for that day, admit defeat and book it home. At 7 am we packed up the vehicle and our two sleepy babes and that's precisely what we did. Thankfully, Jenna didn't have any further bouts of vomiting and she never developed a fever. Her blood sugars ran a little high for the first couple of hours of travel but eventually settled softly into the normal range. It was a very brief session of gastric upset that initially had me worried but was quick to run its course.

By the time we got home seven hours later Jenna was her usual self, albeit tired and in need of a bath, comfy jammies and a home-cooked meal. When we parked the vehicle in our driveway I reached over to unbuckle her belt. She looked at me and with a beautiful, contented smile on her face and said, "Well, that was an adventure."

That's my girl.