• Guest, the forum is undergoing some upgrades and so the usual themes will be unavailable for a few days. In the meantime, you can use the forum like normal. We'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

What equipment do you carry?

snowleopard

Well-Known Member
I don't have a pump so I need to carry pens, used and unused (and used) needles, test meter and strips, pricker and lancets. I have a case to conveniently carry all that: "Joe's small-in-one" which does the job pretty well. The only problem is that as my meter is quite big there is only room for one pen. I blithely thought I'd buy something similar but a bit bigger. Silly me, it seems there is no such thing.

So how do other people carry their gear around?
 
I'm lucky in having a libre so if I'm not going to be out for long I don't carry a metre. If I do or if I worried about BG and the libre not being accurate I have an accucheck mobile which is great as its all in 1, there's no pot of strips etc. Apart from that I have a carry case that just fits in 2 pens (I think it's what my old Lantus pen came in) for basal and bolus.

I hate carrying around lots of stuff, men don't have the pocket space for it all, so I've always been keen to get compact metres etc.
 
I don't use a dedicated diabetes case as I have always assumed they ramp up the cost just by adding the word "diabetes" to the description.
I use a Healthy Back Baglett and know others use a pencil case.
I notice your case is not only missing a second pen slot, it is also missing space to put hypo treatment. To me, that is as important as a pen and must be kept with my diabetes paraphernalia.
If this is a dedicated diabetes case, I think the manufacturers need to know that it is not fit for purpose.
You could also talk to your diabetes team about getting a smaller meter. Size (or lack of it) has always been a key requirement for me when I get a meter upgrade because I hate carrying around too much stuff.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I just carry Fiasp, in a frio, a libre, jelly babies and some carb. If I’m going to be out in the early morning or later evening I’ll carry the Levemir alongside the Fiasp in the libre. I’ve an SOS bracelet with details of contacts, medication etc and a small zipped container with spare needles but I’ll probably begin a heated debate when I state that I change needles just once a day! If I’m driving I’ll also take the accuchek mobile. As I’m female I keep it all in my hand/shoulder/cross body bag. As small a one as possible as T1 supplies are heavy enough already without amassing other junk!
I try to keep supplies to a minimum day to day but if I’m going away for a few days then there’s spares of everything, carb, libres, chargers, Novo echo pens, needles, mobile cartridges, glucotabs, glucagon if with friends or family, etc etc and cooling bags if somewhere hot. I turn into a T1 mule
.
 
I use the Elite Bags FIT's and have done for the last couple of years. It's goes everywhere with me, has an isothermic pouch in the middle for hot climates, which a Frio can fit inside with 2 pens, and has meant I don't need to cart my rucksack around all the time (and it fits inside it conveniently when I have it)
 
It all depends. If I’m within 30min from home nothing, apart from my pump and attached CGM. If a long way from home, battery, meter, strips and if overnight, insulin, reservoir and cannula set.
 
Depends what I'm doing. Close to home? Libre reader, nothing else. Out for a walk or run or cycle? Food gets added as a minimum - normally jelly babies + a few biscuits (clubs or similar). Quantity depending on length of trip - 4 for an hour, more for longer. For a longer trip cycling or walking I'll carry my insulin pen, but rarely use it unless it coincides with when I want to take my levemir (and I'll have two with me if that's the case). If I think I'll need money, I'll have my finger prick meter with me, since it doubles as my wallet. Overnight I'll have a pot (old pasta sauce plastic pot, jam jar sized) with spare vials, more needles, miaomiao (I only wear that at night) and tape.

How to carry?

I'm less good at that. If going minimalist eg running, pockets + a belt pouch works. Otherwise I tend to go for a bag of some kind (rucksack, barbag), with the various bits carried loose in that. I do have a little bit of a gap in my setup for shorter walks where I don't need a bag - in winter it's easy, the coat has enough pockets, but shorts pockets aren't enough for summer.

I don't have any formal diabetic bag though. The nearest is the pot of little things.
 
I use a make-up bag. It's a good quality one, fairly long and has a little inner pocket which I use for my epilepsy meds. It's washable and didn't cost much. Also, it doesn't look like a make up bag because it's not cute, or flowery or anything - it's a sort of plain tangerine colour and fits both pens, needles, spares, test strips and meter with no trouble at all.

At the moment it also holds hayfever meds and (I have no idea why) a memory stick....
 
If you use the forum question box right upper, page and type in words like, 'emergency kit, carry kit etc you will find some answers there too. Including a thread on the pump forum.
 
I’m going on a cycle tour for a couple of months. It is recommended by Diabetes UK that one take twice as much insulin and syringes/insulin pens as one needs for the trip in case of breakages or unexpected delay. Mmm. They don’t really mention pumps and CGM.

For the period I’m away I will need 3 boxes of cannulas; 3 boxes of reservoirs; 4 bottles of fast acting insulin; 3 boxes of CGM sensors; inserter and charger for the CGM. Usual blood testing kit; 15 boxes of test strips; lancets and Dextrose tablets. That is before I double up!

I also need to take emergency long lasting insulin pens; pen needles; syringes for short acting insulin and glucagon kit.

I will also use two Frio bags to keep the insulin cool as I won’t have a fridge. I could probably do with a loan pump too.

Well that’s one full pannier.
 
If you are going in a group, i would suggest you ask two iof them to carry a spare kit each for you, even if insulated but not in Frio.
All it takes is for your gear with or without bike to be stolen, end up under a truck, or in a river and you could very well need those spares.
It happened to me on a canoe trip where at the start we had to carry canoes and gear down a 1000 feet to the river. The drum holding my insulin and needles rolled off down the cliff but fortunately i had distributed kits to other canoeists at the start.
We did find the insulin and needles intact the next morning but if not and i had not thought to distribute those back up kits there was 7 days of paddling ahead with few 'escape' points.
That said, enjoy your trip and allow whatever adjustments for exercise to help avoid hypos.
 
I have a caresens meter in its carry case, which includes the meter, the vial of testing strips and some lancets (I'm minimalist so I don't bother with a finger pricker). That's pretty compact so it fits in a pocket or my (deliberately tiny) handbag. Then I always have a tube of glucotabs and (usually) my insulin pen (carried loose). I don't bother with the pen if I'm just going for a walk for a couple of hours and I'm not eating out. I often don't carry the tester on short (1-2 hours) walks with my dog and husband, since I always test before hand and he usually drives. (We're ten minutes drive from an awesome wood/beach/island which is a dog exercise area and if he's driving I can leave behind everything except my glucotabs, though I usually have my meter in the car as well.) But I'd have to carry my meter on walks if I didn't have decent hypo awareness, as I often need to chew a glucotab while I'm walking.

If I'm out at the shops it's meter and glucotabs as a minimum, plus pen if there's any chance we'll eat out.

But it would be nice to have a small bag that fit glucotabs, meter and pen...,.

And if the libre still worked for me I would carry its reader at all times. (Though it was a nightmare to mislay around the house, I ended up putting a "tile" on it so I could locate it with my phone. So a typical scenario: ask my partner to ring my phone so that I could find the phone, then use the phone to find the meter. )
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…