Meltdown in Costa Rica

Costa Rica called to me in February, 2021. An opportunity to teach indoor cycling classes at a new studio sprang up, so I packed, flew, and landed in Tamarindo for a week.

This is going to be awesome!

Until…

My gosh darn transmitter broke.

In my time of wearing a CGM, dozens of airport security body scanners have checked me out without frying a single battery. I was confident that my G6 early transmitter failure was not my fault.

All was good four hours after I arrived in this gorgeous land. I put a beach dress on, hit the town, and replenished with a delicious plate of fresh veggies, beans, rice and avocado.

Several miles walking in flip flops and a mojito later, I returned to my airbnb to unpack and prepare to teach class the next morning. Less than 60 minutes into winding down, the worst sound anyone who wears a sensor and travels ever wants to hear, erupted from my receiver.

“Transmitter critical” flashed across the screen.

WHOA, Hold on.

I double checked the activated on date to confirm that I had several more weeks left on the transmitter.

I hoped and prayed to all the Gods in the jungle that it would last 6 more days. Of course, I brought two back-up sensors, my finger stick meter, and a Humalog pen, but not an extra transmitter. I only had one back-up at home and I didn’t want to risk taking it abroad when I thought I had time left!

Isn’t it customary that after you pray for help, you begin cursing your technology with language that would scare the cast of Pulp Fiction?

My anxiety went through the roof.

90 minutes later, the siren went off again with a long hold. I see the official notice of: “transmitter failure”.

A cold shudder went through my body. I had five cycling classes to teach in the next six days and I planned to be active every waking moment. Tamarindo was made for fun and physical activity but all I could feel was fear.

I Googled into the night for pharmacies and sensor access in Costa Rica with zero options. Dexcom is not distributed in Costa Rica, but there was a slim chance that I might locate a Freestyle Libre.

The next morning, I spoke with three pharmacists and a nurse who told me that sensors were rare on the coast. My best chance would be to drive five hours inland to the capital city and even then, I’d be pushing it.

Sadly, access to diabetes supplies in Costa Rica is rumored to be terrible. It was upsetting to find out that people were suffering in rural Costa Rica just because of poor distribution -a problem that should NEVER exist.

I felt crippled by my dependence on Dexcom and according to Youtube, replacing the transmitter battery requires Thor’s hammer and a high powered drill. Neither of which I had the ambition to find in tiny Tamarindo.

I inventoried my test strips and determined that I could test a maximum of six times each day before I arrived back in Minneapolis. For a sweaty, active body, that’s not enough.

Then I got paranoid, slept poorly, and didn’t want to go on any excursions or take unnecessary risks. Two nights later, I contacted Dexcom with a replacement request. To my surprise, they replied within 24 hours that a replacement would be sent out in a few days…

To my home. In Minnesota.

My reply:

Another day passed, and no reply from Dexcom.

It would have cost approximately $132 to have my one back-up transmitter shipped overnight from my home to Costa Rica. It was high risk to ship the only working transmitter I had, nor was I confident that the approximate arrival time of 48 hours would hold up. I was now half-way into my Costa Rican adventure with approximately 15 test strips left.

The only option left was to accept the situation and deal the best I could with a discomfort that I had worked so hard to out grow. I had not felt this way since I was a teenager on NPH and Regular while relying on a glucose monitor as big as my shoes size.

What can I learn from this experience?

Technology isn’t perfect. Neither am I. Pack for the apocalypse.

Six days after I flew home, the replacement transmitter showed up.

Moral of the story: Costa Rica is beautiful, I’d do it again. If you travel out of your home country, have some idea of what access is like to diabetes supplies. I’ve bought insulin in Mexico and Canada, but CGM access is variable. If anyone has helpful insight to share, PLEASE comment below!

Let’s talk about what access is like around the world.