The following story tells the individual experience of someone using insulin pump therapy and frequent blood sugar monitoring to manage his/her diabetes. As you read, please remember that the experience is specific to the individual. While clinical studies support pump therapy and frequent testing as effective tools for controlling blood sugars, results may vary, and not every response will be the same.
Adventure Is a Way of Life for Pumper Ozzie Roberts
Flying over the Skeleton coast, Namibia, Africa, a desolate area where no help is available, we saw two people, waving frantically. Their car was stuck, and they were stranded. So we landed our small plane on the beach to help. After pushing their car back onto solid ground and saving their lives, their parting words to us were: "Angels from heaven!"
Just another day on an another trip to Africa, for three veteran travelers: Ruth, my wife for 63 years, Mr. Pump, my MiniMed 508, and me, an 85-year-old diabetic - on insulin for 61 years and the pump for more than 17 of those. But this expedition was different in that our transportation for the 30 days spent in Namibia, Botswana and Zambia was entirely by small plane, which we used like a car to go where we wanted.
Of course, traveling by small plane in the wilderness meant living in primitive conditions wherever we stopped. Tents and kerosene lanterns were all that was available. And we sure looked forward to our daily bucket of warm water!
But this allowed us to experience Africa as it was, and still is, if you can get beyond the developed tourist areas. Experiences included:
- Getting as close as a few feet from lions devouring their kill
- Seeing a one-day-old elephant and a newborn giraffe
- Being charged by an elephant while I was on foot and alone.
- Ruth being imprisoned by baboons for over an hour while she fended off their attacks, all alone in our tent.
- Seeing a leopard make a kill not 20 feet from us (very seldom seen).
- Witnessing an "elephant funeral" - a herd of elephants grieving over a dead family member as they sniffed and touched the dead body with their trunks (as if to pay respects)
- Being welcomed into a village of native people - a village which has remained unchanged for 700 years
Food was where "Mr. Pump" (My MiniMed Pump) really made the trip possible. We ate what could be obtained locally and cooked over an open fire. Meal times varied greatly, depending on what we were doing: Naturally, I did a lot of blood glucose tests, because there was no way of knowing the calorie content of all those strange foods. The one thing I could always be sure of was that "Mr. Pump" would always be there to help keep me in good control. And he did. Thanks, "Mr. Pump!"
Ozzie Roberts is 85-years old, has been on insulin for 61 years and on MiniMed pumps for more than 17 years, and has no complications. He and Ruth have been married over 63 years. He has traveled in all seven continents and on almost all of the earth's seas. He currently wears a Medtronic Diabetes 508 pump and tests his blood glucose up to 14 times a day.
Information on this site should not be used as a subsitute for talking to your doctor.
To find out if intensive diabetes management using insulin pump therapy and frequent blood sugar monitoring is right for you, call 800-MINIMED (800-646-4633) or 818-362-5958 for a referral to a diabetes specialist.
