Getting A Pump Tomorrow

I spent three days last week on the beach at my son Tom’s sailing competition (it was a holiday in Israel). The weather was good – hot with nice winds, perfect sailing conditions.  Tom did well enough, finishing 11^th out of 60 kids. I know he would have liked to have done better but this is his first year competing and he is one of the younger kids out there.  I’m proud of him and I hope he’s proud of himself.

While Tom sailed I spent most of the time in the shade watching my younger son Guy play in the sand with some other kids. I did go in to the water a few times to help get the boats in and out and I took Guy in a few times to cool off.

Although I was totally exhausted by the end of the day, I enjoyed it. I didn’t eat a thing all day long and just drank black coffee (which was free) and water. I brought a lot of food for the kids but I didn’t prepare any paleo snacks for myself. The other parents kept on offering me food (cake, cookies, fruit and other high carb foods), which I politely declined explaining my diabetic/paleo diet.

Tom has 4-5 competitions a year which basically means that all our holidays are spent at sailing competitions. Most of them are in cities or towns where you can leave your kids off and go to a café or even go home or to a hotel. But twice a year there is a competition near Caesarea on a beach near nothing. So twice a year the parents spend three days on the beach getting to know each other with no Wi-Fi and no worries other than making sure to smear on enough sunscreen. The truth is that after a few minutes on the beach you forget everything and just get in to the competition, passing binoculars around trying to identify your child’s boat and figure out who’s first, what place your kid is in, and which way they’re going.

I really got into it. I didn’t think Tom would take first or even fifth, but I enjoyed cheering him on. I didn’t think of much else aside from reapplying sunscreen to Guy and making sure he ate and drank enough.  The one thing that troubled me though was the fact that I was going to be getting an insulin pump on Monday. I kept on thinking how I would be back in six months for another competition, and what would I do with the pump. How would I spend three days getting in and out of the water and sitting on the sand? Would I be able to do all these things?

I talked to Jessica about it at dinner one night and her answer was simple: “Just because you’re getting it doesn’t mean you have to use it.  If you don’t like it, you can go back to injections.”

Tomorrow is the big day. I’ll be getting my insulin pump. I bought the insulin vials and I’m ready. Or at least I think I am.

Michael Aviad

Michael Aviad is co-founder of ASweetLife. He was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2002. Michael was born in Santa Barbara and grew up in Jerusalem. He studied law and after passing his bar exam went on to get an MBA with a major in finance. Michael worked for many years as an economist. He and his wife Jess, also a type 1 diabetic, have three sons. Michael loves to run and is always training for the next marathon.

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