Well, it wasn’t really a weekend at Disney, but Orlando / Kississimme / Lake Buena Vista, but it’s just easier to say Disney. Amanda and I absolutely love coming to Orlando for a weekend trip because it’s not too far from our house and we love the Disney atmosphere, because, well, who doesn’t love Disney.
We decided to take a pre-mini honeymoon over Labor Day weekend to just relax and venture around Downtown Disney. This was my first trip to Disney (Orlando) not wearing an insulin pump. Every other time I went, I was on a pump and eating all the wonderful snacks and sweets there was very easy. Just hit a few buttons and bam, insulin delivery. Things were a tad bit different this time.
Our first night there, we decided to go to Uno’s, it’s one of our traditions when going to Orlando. If you have never been to Uno’s or have never have Chicago deep-dish pizza then you really haven’t lived your life to the fullest yet. I have come to the conclusion that there is no logical reasoning in how to bolus for this meal. It’s a “damn, I better take a shit load of insulin and just deal with the low if it comes later” kind of thing. (Remember kids, don’t try this at home, even with your parents’ permission.)
Not only was I not using an insulin pump, I was fresh out of insulin pens and was using the old school syringe and vial method of insulin delivery. The bathrooms in Uno’s was perfect for a dude who had to take an insulin shot in private. If I am drawing insulin from a vial with a syringe, I will tend to go to the restroom to do so, if it’s from a pen, I’ll shoot it up right at the table.
After Uno’s we decided to head on over to Downtown Disney, which was walking distance from our hotel, so I thought the walk would definitely help with the carbs and blood sugar dilemna that I thought I would be having because of that amazing deep dish pizza. Guess who’s blood sugar went low while at Downtown Disney after walking around for almost two hours? Guess who was also ordering a Mickey Mouse rice crispy treat covered in dark chocolate, then smothered in Reece’s Pieces and topped with a white chocolate swirl?
If there was ever a perfect time for a low blood sugar it was then.
The next day was all about the outlets. If you haven’t been to Orlando, they have three sets of Outlets, two of them are the nationwide Premium Outlets and they also have a smaller Lake Buena Vista Outlets. It’s usually Amanda’s goal to hit all three! Fortunately, for me, it was about 95 degrees all day and Amanda was over it after the first stop of outlets. I was also about over standing out in the heat and was feeling like I needed to eat because my blood sugar was trending down. Quick lunch at Joe’s Crab Shack raised my sugar a bit too high than I would have liked a couple hours after eating. (This exact Joe’s Crab Shack was robbed the very next day).
I knew that we were going to CityWalk at Universal Studios and would be out pretty late, so I don’t like not having a “stable” blood sugar before going out for a long night. This was definitely one of those unstable times, high morning, low before lunch, higher after lunch, high before dinner, etc.
After making pit stops to Margaritaville, Fat Tuesday’s, and Pat O’Briens, it was time to get some food. When we decided to eat at the food court in CityWalk, I didn’t realize there was no bathrooom and I have to go all the way downstairs and have a pretty long walk to get there, just to take an insulin shot, so I went against what I said earlier about not drawing up a syringe at a table. I not only had to take my bolus, but it was also time for my Levemir, so it was a double shot! No weird looks, so I would call it a success.
All in all, my last trip to Disney, without an insulin pump was not that bad. I thought that it would be more of a pain in the ass to draw up shots everytime that I wanted to snack, but I found myself just not snacking as much as I would have if I was wearing my pump.
Next up, the real honeymoon on a cruise, now that’s going to be interesting.
Hey Chris,
My name is Nikki, for my English class I’m doing a few research papers on diabetes and one of the papers has to be in the form of a profile. I saw your blog and thought that it had a lot of good information and insight of what someone with diabetes has to go through on a daily basis. I just wanted to write to you and ask if it was okay if I wrote about some of the blogs you posted and the information you gave?
-Nikki Bingle