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.
