The Abbott Freestyle Navigator? Or Alien Tracking Device?

Ever since I’ve started wearing the Freestyle Navigator — Abbott’s continuous glucometer — I’ve gotten a lot of comments. That’s not surprising — with a transmitter the size of a matchbook, not to mention its accompanying messy layers of lint-covered adhesive, it has a way of standing out. Especially when it’s on my arm.

Please note: This is not actually me.

The last time this happened was yesterday, when I was walking around Oakland’s Lake Merritt with my husband. For those of you not familiar with the Bay Area, Lake Merritt is right next to downtown — and is less a bucolic nature preserve than it is a dumping ground for dozens of city storm pipes. (It’s also a stopover for hundreds of Canada geese, whose nearly human-sized droppings make every jog into an obstacle course.)

I frequently get spoken to when I walk around Lake Merritt — most memorably when a man asked my (female) friend and me how many laps we were doing and, when we told him just one, suggested we stop, since he “had a lap for [us] right here.” (He then encouraged us to “do ourselves a favor and get some of that chocolate flavor,” which, I’ll admit, struck me as rather creative.)

Anyway, on our way around Lake Merritt yesterday I noticed a homeless-looking guy on a Razor scooter coming up behind us. From what I could tell, he was talking to himself. Again, not unusual around Lake Merrit. I moved over to let him pass and, as he approached, he pointed at my arm and said, bluntly, “What’s that?”

For a second, I thought he meant my arm — and if he had to ask about basic anatomy, he was worse off than I’d thought. But of course, he was actually talking about my CGM.

I should pause here and say that when people ask me what the transmitter is, I usually just tell them. I’m a very bad liar — and besides, people are just asking out of curiosity.  But I’m always tempted to make something up, just to see their reaction. Like, for example, it’s an anti-shoplifting tag to prevent anyone from stealing me. Or it’s a tracking device stuck there by my parole officer. Or it’s one of those dog collars that gives me a shock if I wander too far out of my husband’s sight. The possibilities are endless. If I were feeling mean, I could go for the paranoia-inducing. “It’s how the aliens communicate with me.” Or, worse, “It’s how I control you.”

But of course, that wouldn’t have been nice. And the guy was genuinely curious. And, despite my daydreams, I’m not actually an asshole. So I just said, “It’s for diabetes.”

Usually this results in several follow-up questions, with me delivering an impromptu educational diabetes talk (which I suppose is a good thing — making me into sort of a brand ambassador for the disease). But that’s not what happened with this guy. Instead he just said, “Oh,” with a touch of what sounded like empathy, and scooted off down the path. No follow-up questions. So instead, I have one for other CGM wearers: what are your favorite alternate uses for your transmitter? I need some new ideas.

Catherine Price

Catherine Price (www.catherine-price.com) was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 22 years old. She has written for publications including The Best American Science Catherine Price is a professional journalist who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 22 years old. Her work has been featured in publications including The Best American Science Writing, The New York Times, Popular Science, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post Magazine, Salon, Slate, Men’s Journal, Health Magazine, The Oprah Magazine, and Outside, among others. A graduate of Yale and UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism

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Catherine Price

Catherine Price was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 22 years old. She has written for publications including The Best American Science Catherine Price is a professional journalist who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 22 years old. Her work has been featured in publications including The Best American Science Writing, The New York Times, Popular Science, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post Magazine, Salon, Slate, Men’s Journal, Health Magazine, The Oprah Magazine, and Outside, among others. A graduate of Yale and UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism