We had a little insulated lunch bag with a long strap that contained everything my child needed to do her own injections. The bag contained new syringes, cotton balls, rubbing alcohol, the inject ease, and of course the growth hormone. She began using growth hormone about fourteen years ago. Back then you had two separate vials, one was the growth hormone powder the other was the aqueous solution to reconstitute it and it had to be refrigerated, thus the insulated bag. Well it also provided a padded layer of protection for the glass vials and syringes too.

Since we had an open adoption and all the birth relatives live in the same town she was spending the night with someone just about every weekend. They all knew she was on growth hormone because she was diagnosed before she came to live with us at the age of seven so they always expected her to bring her shot bag with her. It never failed; I always had to make two trips across town to wherever she spent the night. The first trip was to pick her up; the second trip was to retrieve her shot bag. I’d ask her each time I picked her up if she had everything. She always responded that she did so adamantly that I tended to believe her. Then we would get home, look through her belongings and of course it wouldn’t be there.

I guess it wouldn’t have been so difficult to remember if she could have just put her shot bag into her suitcase after her injection, but it always had to be refrigerated. My son’s best friend that is diabetic has the same problem with remembering his Lantis bag. Actually for only being eleven he does a great job of managing his blood sugar. But if he happens to be in the middle of a video game when he has to take his Lantis shot then he’s liable to loose the pen somewhere between taking the injection and putting it back in his bag. One night we searched for over an hour before we found where he had stashed it.

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