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If you wear an insulin pump, how often do you carry a backup method of insulin delivery when you leave your home? (I.e. supplies for a pump site change, an insulin pen, syringes, etc.)
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I carry extra supplies especially if I am gone overnight.
I carry supplies if I’m going to be gone over night or on vacation. When I worked I kept one of everything at work as well.
I said “often.” I don’t actually wear a pump anymore, but when I did I had extra supplies with me any time I was leaving the house for more than a couple hours. For example, I always brought extra supplies to work, but wouldn’t bring extra to go grocery shopping.
Curious. You don’t wear a pump anymore? Are you doing some experimental therapy?
I said often. I only bring my supplies if I am traveling more than a half an hour from home or if I am going to a function that lasts several hours.
I said sometimes. All depends on where I’m going and for how long as others have said. Definitely on any overnight trip. Sometimes if it would be difficult to come home if something goes wrong. I went to a party once over 25 miles away and we played a game that made my site disconnect from my stomach. I didn’t realize it until I started feeling bad. Then we had to race home to fix it.
Always… I’ve had several occasions where I forgot a backup method, and without fail those are the times that my pod would fail, leak, or get ripped off. Learned my lesson!
I said Rarely because I hardly ever go anywhere more than 10 minutes from home.
Work is only 15-20 minutes from home. If there’s a problem, I can usually pack up and work from home the rest of the day. If for some reason I have to actually be in the office, I can get home and back in under an hour. Same for just running around town. If I have a rare pump failure, as long as I don’t need a bolus, I can go for a few hours before I even start to get high glucose levels. If I go out of town, I bring extra supplies.
As I always say better safe then sorry. So my little bicycling backpack which goes everywhere that I go has everything in it that I may need. Tester, Dex 4, and Humalog pen.
Always if I leave the house other than walking distance from where I live.
For all who said always or often, good for you. You are better at it than I am. I said “never”. The one exception is if I know I will run out of insulin. Even on day trips to Minneapolis/St. Paul, a 3 hour drive each way, I don’t carry backup supplies. 99% of the time, all is good. Then there is the 1% . . .
Only when going away from home for more than a day.
I picked “sometimes” because I’ll carry back-up if I’m traveling more than a few hours from home. In 20+ years of using an insulin pump, never had one fail (have only used Medtronic). But when I do travel, I carry a functioning, if out-of-warranty pump as my first back-up option. Also have some syringes if I need to inject.
Basically, anytime I plan on leaving home (or town) for a day or more, I bring a backup.
Not for daily outings but any time I’m going to be away for a whole day or more, yup.
Only for extended times from home but just local zipping around town I don’t take anything.
Always have a vial and a few syringes with me. Even if my pump doesn’t fail, I use it on the regular if I run out of insulin while I’m out, or if I am running low and have a meal I’ll just take a shot for the meal so that I have enough insulin to continue running basal until I get home. Also, I can’t use Fiasp in my Tslim pump so I’ll use that to do a shot for a large meal or a high instead of my pump on occasion because novolog just doesn’t work as fast as I need it to.
Why is it not allowed to use Fiasp in your tandem pump? I’ve tried a vial of it in my med Tronic pump to see if indeed it was more rapid acting than my nova log and it was not. I am now usingLyumjev in my Medtronic pump and it works amazingly fast and keeps my blood sugar very steady. Both of these trials were under the supervision of my endocrinologist. The Lyumjev does tend to foam very easily when drawing into the Medtronic Reservoir so I can see how it might be a problem in a tandem pump as you have to draw the insulin first into a syringe and then inject into the cartridge where the foam and bubbles might not be visible.
I retired about three years ago. Whenever we travel such as a cruise or other vacation (not lately!) I always have a “go bag” with supplies, insulin, other medications, etc. But these days I don’t really think about it because I’m never that far from home. That being said, when I was working I traveled a lot all across the country. One day I flew from home in ATL to Chicago, and upon arrival I suddenly remembered I had not brought my pump! It was the first time in my life I had done such a thing. I called my boss and said I was sorry but had a medical issue and would be returning home. I didn’t eat anything in the few hours it took me to fly back and get to my house and reattach. Luckily my number hadn’t risen about 250 so it wasn’t so bad. Just stupid!
I honestly only take back up supplies when I’m going out of town and know I will need them. Saying this now, it sounds like poor planning on my part. I may have to rethink this.
Except for brief trips to the post office, CVS or the grocery store I would seldom leave home without my diabetes back-up bag – a “just in case” extra supply of diabetes self-care everything. However, sometimes I would forget to bring it, and of course those are the few times when I really needed it!
Recently I treated myself to a really cool Myabetic tote bag with a detachable purse. It is cleverly designed to provide safe & organized storage for diabetes self-care essentials plus plenty of room for all the other stuff I carry around with me in my daily life for professional and personal business. These days, I never leave home with it.
Rarely go any distance from home. I’d pack extra pump supplies in addition to extra insulin and a couple of syringes if I was traveling anywhere overnight.
I’ve been a pump user for 27 yrs. I said “Always” because of 2 times back in the dark ages of MDI when I left home for work and, due to a weather event (BOTH TIMES), wan’t able to return home for my evening and following morning injections. Luckily only one expensive and not-fun trip to the emergency room resulted. I now carry my open vial of insulin and a couple of syringes as a basic part of my ‘diabetes kit.’ I can think of at least 4 times when a friend with T1D asked to ‘borrow’ some of my spare insulin because they had run out with no backups. I’ve recently changed pumps and am still working out a good way to carry all of the ‘extra’ parts of my new pump’s sets.
I always carry the pump hardware, but do not carry insulin
I have had two Medtronic pumps FAIL while traveling, I had back up syringes. Now I use a Tandem pump and I have not had any issues on multiple international trips. I do pack an expired pump just in case. Around town, I just carry my glucose tabs. Away from home more than a few hours, I have my go bag with a site change, syringes and insulin.
poor question, never if I am returning home same day. Always have back up items for over night trips.
I’m with David.
As others have said, I rarely go anywhere more than 30 minutes from my house. I will carry extra supplies if I’m low on insulin or have a site change that might take place when I’m out. If going on a trip or overnight, will carry supplies. When I worked, I did carry extra insulin Andrea syringe, and had supplies at work. I worked at a hospital so if I got in a bind I could get in touch with it CDE’s.
I said other. I have backup pump supplies at work & in the car. Also backup insulin at work. If I am spending the day away from home I will take my meter case with me that has insulin & syringe. Now I don’t carry supplies because I don’t test anymore. But if it is an all day kind of outing, I carry backup.
I always have my kit with me that includes an extra pod, fast and slow acting insulin and syringes just in case. We went to breakfast a few weeks ago and I realized I forgot my PDM for my pump. No biggie, I just gave a shot.
I always carry extra syringe and sometimes carry an extra pen. With the syringe I could get insulin out of the pump cartridge to tide me over until I got to supplies but if I go far away like on a boat trip I carry a pen unless I forget:-/
Overnight travel = always
Running around town = rarely, and that is even despite being caught out a few times. I was lucky, though, and able to return home to change my pump site before anything dire happened.
If I’m traveling more than an hour away from home, but not on an overnight trip, I really should carry backup. This RARELY happens now (and not only because of COVID), so I don’t know what I would do. I hope I would remember to carry backup!
I only carry extra supplies if I am going out of town. If I travel abroad, I bring about 50% more supplies than I should need for the duration of my trip, and never in my suitcase. I take them into whatever restaurant or restroom I visit.
I only carry backup Humalog and Lantus pens when I go on vacation.
For everyday goings on, only if I know I’m close to the end of a cartridge. Other than that, only if I’m going on a trip. Then I’m obsessive and usually pack triple what I think I might actually need just in case.
When I used to commute to/from work every day I had a small soft case kit in my bag with an extra infusion set or two, a reservoir, current vial of insulin, some syringes, an extra battery or two and small things like maybe some wipes. It didn’t take up much room and I did have to use it sometimes at work. There was no place to really keep extra supplies at my last job. If I’m out running errands I don’t carry anything.
I answered “Often”. I always take backup delivery supplies, when I’m going out of town or will be away from home for an extended period of time (working, visiting relatives, etc.). However, I don’t take supplies if just going to the grocery. I always keep an emergency supply of infusion sets, etc. in the car.
I always carry extra pump supplies with me . it’s an hour to town.if I’m out walking I carry insulin and syringes with me until I get to the car the forest has a mind of it’s own a tree branch pulled out my set. I’m glad for the extra pump supplies in car.
I only take additional supplies when I am gone longer than a day
If I am leaving my home for overnight I make sure to bring these, if for a few hours, no.