Emergency go kit

Tips, Tech & Gear Gear
1

I wanted to share my “go kit”. This is what I have packed for an emergency unplanned departure of possibly extended length. This is not a daily carry pack. When I leave the house for a few hours, the only thing I carry is a PDM and strips.

I wanted to be able to have a pack that I don’t need to put anything into, it is always ready. So I don’t have a lot of stuff in here. This is not my zombie apocalypse pack. But I think I could possibly survive 2 months with the insulin in here. I would love to have more strips than 50. But this way I don’t have to go into my inventory too much. The goal is to not be using stuff from the pack. It is not a storage for things I need to use now, don’t want to say “Oh, I need strips, let me get them from my go bag…”

Once a year I can replace the insulin, sensor, pods, batteries, and alcohol swabs (they dry out after an extended time). Yes, the insulin will be kept in my pack for a year without refrigeration. Apparently - as I have discovered over the years - I have the type of diabetes that does not require my insulin to be refrigerated. :slight_smile:

Here is what I have in there:

  • 30 syringes
  • 1 vial of NovoLog
  • 1 vial of Levemir
  • 1 cartridge of Humalog (for the pen)
  • 2 OmniPods
  • 1 Humalog pen (choosing the one that allows 1/2 unit dosing, which is vital)
  • 50 Contour strips (would love to have more, but don’t want to have too much in my unusable stash inventory)
  • 1 Contour Next One meter
  • 2 spare batteries for meter (no batteries stored in meter so they doesn’t go bad and leak)
  • 1 Dexcom sensor
  • 10 pen needles (8mm)
  • lancets
  • alcohol swabs
  • 1 piece Tegaderm (for extending sensor life)
  • 4 packs of glucose gel (60 grams of very fast carbs, I chose this type because it lasts forever, won’t mold like gtabs potentially can)

The empty kit:

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The supplies:

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Everything fits really well in here:

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I picked a pack that is not diabetes specific. I like this one better than any of the standard D kits. It holds every thing securely, everything stays in place. The only mod I needed was to put two holes in it to keep the insulin vials in. Dimensions - 8.5" x 7.5" x 3", and the external material is semi-hard EVA with a rubber handle. Only $15 - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072DYTVZG/
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Keep in mind - this is not a daily use pack, I am only going to repack this once a year with new insulin, pods, and sensor. And it is not a luxury kit. Just the essentials.

Am I missing anything?

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2

Looking forward to seeing this sometime in the near future.

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3

I have a similar kit inside my larger earthquake kit. I don’t keep insulin in it, though, because I find if insulin is unrefrigerated for more than a couple months it doesn’t work well for me.

The only additional item I can think of is perhaps glucagon?

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Thanks.
I have an extra I can put in there, but I gotta see if I can make it fit!

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5

What type of insulin? NovoLog or Humalog? I admittedly have much more experience with unrefrigerated Humalog than I do with NovoLog.

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6

Lantus and Apidra are the ones I’ve had the most experience with. I used Humalog for years, too, but can’t recall using any that had been left out. Not yet sure about Fiasp or Tresiba, either. Apidra and Lantus both lose considerable potency if left out for months, in my experience. Maybe you’d still be able to use them by taking 4x as much as usual…

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7

Great kit! I would throw in some bandaids for gushers, or to keep infection out. And they don’t take up a lot of room.

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8

Since I’ve use Humalog a lot, I can put a Humalog vial in there instead of NovoLog. But I can leave some NovoLog unrefrigerated for a year and try it, just to see if it stays as potent as the Humalog does.

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9

There’s one thing I don’t understand about all this. Why would you leave insulin and other supplies in there for a year to get old? If I were doing this, I’d rotate my supplies through the go kit. Every time I went to the fridge to get a new vial of insulin, I’d put that new vial in the go kit and take the oldest vial out of the kit to use. Same for any other supplies that age. That way the contents of the kit would always be relatively fresh. And this approach could also enable you to gradually increase the number of strips in the kit, rather than limiting you to 50.

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10

Sure I could rotate the insulin. But I have never had any problem using unrefrigerated insulin. So I was just trying to simplify the whole thing by not having to swap out stuff.

I’m pretty comfortable with the shelf-life of the strips. The ones I put in there expire 18 months from now. I just don’t want to tap into the kit for any daily use stuff. Like if I am running low on strips, I buy them instead of digging into the stash.

In general, I don’t want it to be a part of inventory. I want it to be off-limits unless I need to take it with me.

Otherwise, you know what would happen - the first day I remove something to use it, would be the day I need the kit.

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11

If you can’t or don’t want to store insulin in the bag, add insulin to a list of things you need to throw in at the last minute, and attach that to the bag. This is what we have done, since there are things we would have to grab from elsewhere anyway – for instance, PDM, keys, wallets, passports, spare cash.

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12

Looks like you’ve got all your bases covered there…

This is more up my alley:

Dad Bag Waist Zipper Packs Adjustable Traveling Fanny Bags Adjustable Sports Waist Belt Pouch https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0769WWH7R/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_x5vyAb5FN0ZAG

Joking aside, I prefer a smaller go-bag and am brainstorming how to put one together with a small belt-case like would hold a point-and-shoot camera. I’d actually like to set up 2 different ones, one with and one without a concealed holster…

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I have to admit…our life is crazy enough that one more thing like rotating insulin would be a deal breaker for us. This kit, as an emergency use only supply, I can probably manage to throw together and store in the garage (in case my house burns down).

Also, @Eric this is rad!!! Thanks for sharing and inspiring!

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14

I am going through and checking what is in our emergency kit. @Eric - Thanks for all the information and pictures!!!

An item which I am adding and for which we picked up a fresh set on our last Endo visit are four paper prescriptions. Generally, prescriptions are good for six months from date written. (Obvious exceptions that are not relevant here.) These were specifically asked for to be “extra” prescriptions and specifically on paper. I explained the purpose to our Endo who agrees with this as a good idea. These will be placed in the emergency kit with the other stuff. If we have to leave, this will give us the ability to pick up additional prescription items from any pharmacy.

Basaglar - Long acting insulin - pens
Novolog - Fast acting insulin - vials
Syringes - for Novolog
Pen Needles - for Basaglar

We actually do not require prescriptions for the syringes (and presumably the pen tips??). However we could end up on the other side of state lines which may have different laws and procedures. As well, a given pharmacy may say a prescription is needed even if it is not. Either way - no big deal to have the paper prescription ready in advance. Just as easy to ask for 4 paper prescriptions as it is for 2 paper prescriptions.

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