Last Updated on June 24, 2019 by PowersToTravel
This morning’s adventure began with a behind-the-scenes view to the golden Buddha images we had admired in so many temples. We entered the Buddha Foundry in Phitsanulok, Thailand with our guide, into a large industrial yard in which the company created Buddha images for all manner of customers including the King. We walked from manufacturing stage to manufacturing stage – from mold-making to pouring to welding to polishing. It was all very interesting, but I’m sorry to say I don’t remember much about the actual process. I did take pictures though:
At one point, near the grinding area, I felt a sharp zing in my leg but thought nothing of it. Later I looked and found it bleeding – a high-speed fragment of the Buddha image had scored across my leg creating a perhaps 2-inch bleeding welt! To be sure, it wasn’t the worst or most painful of experiences, however it highlighted to me the dangers in Southeast Asia: we had been introduced into a factory and not provided any protective clothing, or protective glasses. For that matter, the workers didn’t have protection either. If that rogue part had hit my face instead of my leg? After that, I made sure I watched out for my own safety, standing far back and always wearing reading or sunglasses (for whatever good they would do) and did not trust any other organization.
At that point my continuous glucose monitor started to alarm and I could see that my sugars were spiking dramatically. Did the smile on my eggs hide a secret unknown sugar? I pumped extra to compensate and moved along.
Our next stop was across the street at a mouthful of a place: “Folk Museum of Sergeant Major Thawee – Phim Buranakhate.” The goal of the retired military man was the creation of a time-capsule to educate the younger Thai about a lifestyle which was largely gone. We strolled from building to building, viewing sample kitchens, bedrooms, barns, animals, tools. This here was the Thailand of my dreams, the rural, agricultural Asia: a fake water buffalo pulled an old-fashioned plow.
However I must interrupt myself here again because my alarm is once again jarring me – oh my goodness, my blood sugar levels instead of going down are now above 350! What the heck was in that breakfast? It’s too late to wonder about hidden sugars; the problem must be a malfunction of some sort. Greg and I are protecting the insulin from frying in the heat by storing it in the Diet Dr. Pepper plug-in-refrigerated cooler in the car, so I wasn’t worried, thankfully, about the integrity of my insulin.
I had changed my infusion set this morning. An infusion set looks a little like a small phone jack which is introduced into the skin of one’s abdomen via a small needle using a small plastic device; the device quickly withdraws the needle, and the phone jack’s tiny tube is secured into your skin automatically by an adhesive pad. The process is all very automatic and tidy. I would include a picture, but some people get heebeejeebees about needles or even the thought of them!
I have had problems in the past with my Animas infusion sets in that the needle has at times not fully punctured my skin, the little tube then is not inserted and simply sits next to my skin looking like a crochet-hook, pouring out the insulin onto the skin’s surface. This failure is invisible to the wearer because the adhesive pad is instantaneously applied by the device and all is hidden. So, when you insert an infusion sets two things can happen – it can hurt, in which case I am happy because I know it penetrated! or it can be painless, in which case it could have penetrated or it potentially could not have.
With the excitement of our trip, I hadn’t paid much attention to the whole normal automatic process, and also had not been quick to realize its failure, paying more attention to the Buddha images, and the fake water buffalo.
I immediately grabbed Bom, “I need to fix something on my pump and I need to be in the van to do it, right now.”
Luckily we were in Phitsanulok instead of a busy city, and Lucky was right there at the side of the road waiting for us. I scrambled to find another infusion set, and the in relative privacy of the van, re-attacked myself. Yes, that is “re-attacked” because darn, I made sure it hurt that time! I pumped a lot of insulin and hoped for the best, and returned to our museum visit.
I am so happy with our style of travel which allows me to fix my problems before they get out of hand – having a driver and van nearby, knowing my insulin is cold, and having all of my supplies immediately available. In the scope of our trip, that one morning was a minor incident, but minor because it was so immediately fixed!
Back to the museum…I was a little saddened by the thought that this museum had been created to preserve an image which I had imagined at home that I would actually experience in Thailand. Instead I had experienced the modern city, and a rural country slightly less modern, but nonetheless mechanized. I thought to myself that we had traveled fifty years too late to experience the true culture. But then, as I do, I immediately said to myself, “Ah but fifty years ago I would not have traveled, a diabetic, to a country with unusual disease risks.” Maybe some people would have, but I wouldn’t.
Even now, when I read the blogs of other diabetics I realize that in contrast to some, generally there isn’t much to write about in my travels that has to do with being diabetic. With my pump and my continuous glucose monitoring system, if I just plan, and pay attention (like I didn’t, this morning!) my travel is unmarred by incident.
Lesson Learned:
I finally learned, upon my return to the US, that Animas sells both a 6mm and a 9mm needled infusion set. I’d been using the 6. I ordered more boxes of the 9 just to made sure that they penetrate.
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Check out this article of mine too:
Thailand Travel Blog – Itinerary, Impressions and Diabetic Travel Tips
