Pager Error

This one beeps AND boops (and beeps again)

Early this week, I was in line to get my lunch (the same line where I had that d-encounter a few weeks ago), and the woman behind the counter asked me the question, in an incredulous tone “does that thing still work?”

Huh? I wasn’t sure what she was talking about, or if she was even talking to me. But she might have been talking about my pump, and being the same one that gave me problems during that encounter, I started to worry that something may be wrong.

“I thought that because now everyone uses cellphones and iPads…”.

Oh, now I get it. It’s the old Pager Error.

“No, it’s an insulin pump”.

(Blank stare)

I pulled it away from my hip and displayed a length of tubing. “A medical device…”

(Silence)

“For diabetes.” And then… “yeah, it still works.”

And that was it. I wasn’t about to explain what diabetes was. I was hungry, and the people behind me in line were getting impatient.