Diabetes on the Road: A Couple Weeks in Kenya and Tanzania

Just back from two weeks of camping, taking pictures, and running around in Kenya and Tanzania.  I’ve pasted a few pictures in this blog, but more are on my photography website.  As always when I’m out in the middle of nowhere, diabetes was top of my mind.  The first week I had the problem I sometimes run into while traveling, where I can give myself as much insulin as I want and it doesn’t have an impact. I still don’t know exactly why this happens.  My blood sugar will stay above 200, regardless of how much insulin I give myself. Of course there’s the occasional blood sugar nose-dive lower that eventually happens, especially if I start exercising, but even those were easy to fight off with a bottle of juice or some Mentos.  These episodes tend to be short-lived, and it went away by week 2, but it was a bit frustrating

The second week I had a realization of how important Dexcom is to my control.  I thought I lost Dexcom and really began to have a mini-panic.  I found it shortly after, rolled up in my sleeping bag, and it was pure joy.  As it was lost though, I couldn’t believe how emotionally attached I’ve become to Dexcom.  For all its faults, its ???s, its alarms when I’m really at 125, I can no longer imagine my life without it, particularly when I’m on the road.  To think that I’ve only used it for about 1/10 of the time I’ve been diabetic is tough to imagine given how much I now depend on it.

The last diabetes issue I had with this trip was the last night in an unfenced campground (i.e. the animals can just walk right on) there were some wild pigs that apparently like anything that can be eaten.  We were told they would raid, so we had to get rid of all food and drink and put it in a fenced kitchen area.  I didn’t want to not have any sugar if I got low so kept a couple packs of Mentos.  The pigs came.  They snorted.  They banged our tent.  But then they got distracted and banged a friend’s tent for 2 hours.  I think she had some soap in her tent.  I guess the pigs like soap more than Mentos.  Fine with me.

So it was overall a good trip.  I was happy with the photography, had a good time with my girlfriend, and the blood sugar stayed pretty inline. 

Sam Gellman

After growing up in Wisconsin, Sam Gellman spent his junior year of high school in the Netherlands, about half way through the year he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. He finished his year abroad, learning the ins and outs of diabetes in a combination of Dutch and English, which is now the Dutch vocabulary he remembers best. Sam spent his college years at Stanford, playing for the Stanford squash team during the year and leading bike trips in Canada in the summers. He spent six months of college in Chile, worked in Tahoe, and then got a job in finance in San Francisco, before moving with his job to Hong Kong in 2006. Now 29 and in his fifth year in Hong Kong, he spends his free time trying to learn Chinese and taking pictures.

Sam Gellman

After growing up in Wisconsin, Sam Gellman spent his junior year of high school in the Netherlands, about half way through the year he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. He finished his year abroad, learning the ins and outs of diabetes in a combination of Dutch and English, which is now the Dutch vocabulary he remembers best. Sam spent his college years at Stanford, playing for the Stanford squash team during the year and leading bike trips in Canada in the summers. He spent six months of college in Chile, worked in Tahoe, and then got a job in finance in San Francisco, before moving with his job to Hong Kong in 2006. Now 29 and in his fifth year in Hong Kong, he spends his free time trying to learn Chinese and taking pictures.