Jan 25, 2007

A Man and his BG Monitor

Andy Stuckey

Thanks for all of the comments on my post about the diabetes/Jack Bauer man-purse. My man-purse was a gift from a TV show that I worked on and I’m not sure who the maker of the bag is. I think that the company was called Corporate Specialties. I also know that Timbuk2 makes a couple of good, well, let’s go ahead and abbreviate: DJBMPs.

Last night, after being dressed as a thug all day for a video shoot, I went to Sal's Comedy Hole to do a quick set with Jon Murray, the guy I perform with. We did a couple of songs and had a Guinness each, then returned to Brooklyn for the night. When I got home, I looked in my DJBMP for my glucometer...and it wasn't in there.

I remembered checking my blood glucose before leaving the house and then overloading my DJBMP with a ¼-inch cable for my ukulele and a tuner in case I knocked the little guy around on the F train.

(Yes, I'm a man and I play a mean ukulele. If you are in NYC and want to witness this, we have a big show on Wednesday, February 7, at 9 PM at Sin-é on the Lower East side of Manhattan. We are playing after another person with Type 1 diabetes, Jon Rowan. He and I worked on the TV show dLife together for a bit and will one day form a band called "The Diabeatles." He's at 9 and we're at 9:45.)

Now, back to the story. I was back at home and it was about 11:30 when I started searching in the dark for my glucometer. I had that insecure feeling I'm sure some of you get when you are about to go to sleep but don't know what your blood glucose is. I turned on a few lights and my wife heard a little action, so now the quiet hunt began and she slept. I usually check my blood glucose on this blue, dentist-office-like counter in our house, so I checked there first. Sometimes I check it in the kitchen, so I tiptoed in there afterwards. No luck.

Then it hit me. I went back to the office where I had overloaded my DJBMP, and lying on the floor by my music equipment was the little black bag. I felt like a college kid finding his last bit of pot that was hidden in a piggy bank and immediately opened it and began to use it. I even changed the lancet to let it know that I cared.

Blood glucose 125 mg/dl, time for bed. I crawled in, turned on my little battery-powered light, and read 15 pages of Blood Meridian before falling asleep, knowing that my little black kit was safe. Ahh, the little things.

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