Green D - A wink to Mama

From a comment on one of my previous posts, a nod to those who are ready to judge, particularly about the lack of greenness of chronic illness. Sustainable chronic illness, a whole new realm of environmental activism! Sounds exciting?

Seriously, though - I have considered it. I am an environmental educator, after all. And the fact that my pump only takes standard batteries that don't recharge? That sucks. Apparently the pump doesn't recognize that the batteries work unless they have a complete charge, and only disposables appear to have a full charge.

So I purchase disposable batteries, and a lot of them. My sensor alarms drain battery power like you wouldn't believe. What do I do? I put the batteries into the hazardous waste container in our church, so they don't go into the landfill. I'm investigating the new Enviromax batteries that they have at health food stores, though I expect that they'll generally be a little more expensive than the current ones that I use. But not by much, surprisingly.

And how about this super funky idea? Using the body's energy to power the extra parts that some of us need to live? Wow. This could be the basis of a pump could be implanted, a closed loop system.

What else? Pump supplies come in major packaging. Some is paper, easy to recycle. Our community has a recycling day once a month, and at the moment I am saving the weird little packages to give to the people who collect weird little packages for recycling.

My current pet peeve? Fed Ex-ing supplies. Yes, sometimes it's an emergency, and I'm all for sending my goodies on a quick trip on the plane. But an extra part that I might need for my pump someday? Not so much. Let us make a choice how we want things shipped.

And yes, my insulin. I'm sure it's a fabulous concoction of stuff derived through mad scientist-like experiments, combined with some really great preservatives. Ick. But you know, it keeps me alive, and I am grateful for that. I know that there are animal insulins out there that are less removed what's natural, but I find that the system I use right now works for me most of the time, so I'm sticking to it. Preservatives be danged. Genetically-modified mad scientist cackling be danged. Fingers in ears. La la la.

Let's not forget self-forgiveness. If I can eat local most of the time but eat avocadoes some of the time, I can forgive myself for using disposable batteries to power my existance.