Due to the fact that the school year is almost over and I fell asleep on the couch Thursday night, Friday's post didn't get written as scheduled. Here it is a day late.
Friday's prompt: Let's round out the week by sharing our best diabetes tips and diabetes tricks. From how you organize supplies to how you manage gear on the go/vacation (beach, or skiing, or whatever). From how you keep track of prescription numbers to how you remember to get your orders refilled. How about any “unconventional” diabetes practices, or ways to make diabetes work for YOU (not necessarily how the doctors say to do it!). There's always something we can learn from each other. (Remember though, please no medical advice or dangerous suggestions.)
We've only been dealing with type 1 diabetes in our house for a little under 4 years, but there are some things that I've done to help keep the chaos under at least a little bit of control. Now that there are 3 of us with t1d in the house, it has become even more important. The rest of the house is a mess, but the d supplies are in order.
1) Prescriptions. I think I've finally gotten all of our prescriptions on the same refill cycle. That means just one trip to the pharmacy every 90 days. It took a while to get them all synced up. The CVS app makes it easy to order refills, too.
2) Labels and Sharpies. I label pretty much everything. The Dexcom sensor packages have the initial of the person and the date it was inserted. Plastic organizers contain supplies and snacks, all labeled. Here are a couple of examples.
3) Opsite Flexifix and Skintac. These are essential for keeping Dexcom sensors on for as long as possible.
4) Portable sharps container. We use old prescription bottles. Works great, secure and compact.
5) Snacks/low treatments. We have drawers of snacks that are 15-ish grams of carbs or less. I buy packages of crackers and such when the are on sale. Same with candy to use as low treatments. None of us really prefer Skittles, Smarties, and such just to eat so they work well for lows. No temptation just to eat them. I make sure we have a variety of different carb counts , labeled of course, for different situations.
6) Kitchen "control center." This recycled wine rack holds all of our daily use supplies. Each of us has a spot for our meters and insulin pens. There is a box of each color of pen needle, as well as a box for trash. To the side is a bottle for sharps.
7) We also have well-stocked bags that I try to double check every Sunday night, adding insulin pens and pen needles, as well as changing the lancets in all meter cases. Juice, a meter, and pen/pen needles live in our bedroom too. Diabetes supplies are everywhere!
8) Insulin. The extra fridge, which was originally purchased when our boys were just entering the teen years, is now pretty much the insulin fridge. It holds the 90 day supply for each of us. The main fridge has the boxes we are currently using.
There ya go! Those are my tips for organizing 3 people with t1d in the same house. Being organized helps us get able to KDA every say.
Read other tips and tricks here.
Wow! You are very organized. But I guess that you need to be....
ReplyDeleteBeing organized has kept me from going totally insane!
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