Journey to the Abyss

It’s school holidays in Adelaide and today we set out on the “obligatory” trip to the museum. We have a wonderful museum in Adelaide and as Andy Thomas hails from here, we even have a space suit he wore which is pretty cool! We also have some amazing exhibitions with the latest being “Into the Abyss” a dark and mysterious look at the bottom of the ocean.

So I gathered the children, packed some food, nappies, baby wipes, water, money, car keys, jackets, strollers and bundled them into the car. Arriving and parking we got everyone out and ready to go. Something I have missed, I was thinking…something to do yet…”Oh check my blood”. Ok will get them out onto the street from the carpark and then check.

Walking along the main street in our lovely little city juggling the stroller and trying to get the blood glucose machine out can be interesting. “Right, got it”….”ohh” nope the light is green. Across we go. Ok, now to check…”Ohh”…nope the 3 year old wants a drink (already). Ok will check when we get across the street.

Do I really need to check? My little diabetic voice in my head says “Yes you do. You are out with the kids, you need to make sure you are not going to go low in the museum. Remember the time you DID and how horrible it was?”

I see all the other families milling around the museum doors and our friends we are meeting run cheerfully up. “I just have to check my blood”. Hang on, yep, all done, thanks to the 5 second testing we now have. With a few blood strips dropped on the floor, leaving my trail all over the world just like Hansel and Gretel, we are off into the Abyss.

Seeing the “please check your backpacks at the door” sign, I think “not likely”, slip it onto the stroller and hope they don’t notice it. No! And we are in. As we look at the somewhat ugly but remarkable creatures I hear a voice and a tap on my shoulder in the darkened room “Excuse me, do you have baby things in that bag?” I turn to see an officious looking woman in a really great uniform fitting in well with the theme of the exhibit. “Oh, I have type 1 diabetes and it has my food in it” I explain. ” I might NEED that”. “Well, ok…but you need a STICKER” she almost yells at me. “These are our RULES and if you get a sticker you can have your MEDICINE in here”. She walks off to get the sticker that says it is ok for us to have the backpack in there with us, I feel slightly embarrassed as people look at me….thinking yet again how I have had to tackle extra things in my day. Thinking it is not medicine. I am not sick. I simply need to have my food with me.

But hey, on the flipside, guess there are some benefits to diabetes – we got to keep our backpack in the museum! And we got an orange sticker – YAY to us!!