We first wanted to go to Dinosaur BBQ up in Harlem, so she met me at the Metro North stop at 125th street, we hoped on the bus and headed over to Riverside Dr. Upon arriving at Riverside and battling through the smell of what could only have been 1,000 dying rats we found Dino BBQ to be closed! So we hoped on the 1 train and headed down to 23rd St. to Righteous Urban BBQ (RUB) but they didn't have deviled eggs which I had promised Courtney.
At this point we had been walking around for a while, I was carrying my bag from a weekend up at my parents and decided I should test. I've gotten into the habit of keeping some glucose tabs in my glucose meter case, but one of those tablets had smashed and there were glucose crumbs everywhere. I lightly tapped my case to get some of the "crumbs" out, as I'm doing this my Freestyle Flash decided to show its speed and independence by jumping out of the case and landing squarely onto a drainage grate!
In movie slow motion I the Flash displayed its last act of independence by jumping 2 feet down into the grate. Few things in Manhattan attract as much attention as 2 people trying to lift a locked drainage gate. No less than 5 people asked what we were doing and a homeless guy thought it was buried treasure. If you're at the corner of 23rd and 7th - look in this grate and you'll see a lonely Freestyle Flash meter!
Courtney called 311 (the NYC help line) and 311 in their display of intelligence sent a freaking ambulance! Apparently the words diabetic and glucose meter send up all the panic flares. The EMTs were really helpful but they didn't have the ability to lift the grate. They did however let me know where the closest open pharmacy would be.
So I headed over to one of the few CVS in the city. Thankfully they had an Accu-Check Ultra Mini and 25 test strips on hand, $48 dollars later I was able to test and had some piece of mind. Not to mention some great BBQ at Hill Country, a new place here in Manhattan; even if it was real expensive for some low & slow meat.
I'm going to miss by Flash meter and now really need to get a new one but this whole ordeal made me realize something. As a diabetic my life is now connected to medical devices and although I didn't flip out when the meter fell into the drainage grate my panic inside was at code red. After last night I now consider myself a full fledged member of the Type 1 fraternity.
10 comments:
Well, being that any kind of crisis I blog about seems to get laughs from whoever reads it, I don't feel so bad laughing throughout this entire post.
This whole story was friggin hysterical.
I lost it the most when you mentioned a homeless person thought you were trying to get at buried treasure.
Contact your endo's office and if they can't get you a replacement, ask for the name of the Freestyle rep.
I'm glad you were able to get a replacement. There's almost nothing worse than wandering around blind because you've no way of testing.
lmao that's terrible and hilarious at the same time..i'm sorry your meter met its demise in a grate but i'm glad you were able to get a backup so quickly. :)
Wow man! That's right out of a movie!
"Adventures" is right!
I was very glad to see that you still got you some BBQ in the end!
Never, ever pay for a meter.
And if you want to be as anal as I am, keep a spare meter in the car and on your body.
Okay, I live in Texas, so I have a spare everything in the car -- you can't survive in Texas without a car, and it's usually within walking distance of you.
But I do keep spare meter, spare sets, spare test strips and spare everything else I can think of (even a spare sensor) at my workplace and I care that kit on the weekend.
Oh yeah. You've joined the ranks of the rest of us! LOL. I hate it that you had to go through that, but it happens to the best of us. There was the time I was 8 & went to the movies out of town (cause we didn't have a movie theater in town) and left my meter and all my supplies in the movie theater an hour from my house. And the time I laid my meter down in a store in the mall (we never did get that one back). I think I was around 6 or 7 for that one. Oh, and the time I was 12 and on summer vacation and dropped my only bottle of insulin and had it break and my dad had to buy me a new one so we didn't have any money to go to the theme park. I could go on and on and on and on.
But anyway, welcom to the club!
O dropped her pump in the dog's water bowl the other day. Not quite as amusing as trying to life a drainage grate, but still...it happens to us all.
Call Freestyle and ask them for another meter. I've never paid for a meter for O and she's had diabetes for 10 years.
Well, you forgot to write about the part when we got locked in a park and had to scale a fence to get out, but otherwise, very accurate account of a crazy evening.
Ugh, those people were so annoying trying to see what we were doing. NYers are soo nosy!
You did a great job of staying calm when it fell down the grate. I think the most frustrating part was that we could SEE IT and it was only about 3 feet down.
Thanks again for dinner! In the end, I am happy to say, we still did get to have some yummy BBQ! :)
ps, was your "OHMYGODWAHTTHEHELLAMIGOINGTODO!" moment perhaps a OMGWTFBBQ moment? Since we were en route to BBQ?! :P
Welcome to the club! Not quite as bad as when I left my test strips in rural India and had to get it tested old school style (the doc told me what my glucose level was 3 hours prior), but still a little annoying. Glad you got it figured out. BBQ usually skyrockets my b.s. so congrats on a good night with no h.b.s.
BTW, just found your blog via Cara's blog; feel free to check out my blog about life living abroad as a type 1 diabetic: amyliagrace.blogspot.com
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