At first, I didn’t want to use that title, because escape feels oppressive, like something is holding me back. Escaping my Dexcom data for a weekend seems inappropriate when the reality of the situation is much different for other people struggling to pay for insulin. Saying I’m escaping from this device, its protections, its information, its everything seems inappropriately arrogant.

But that’s where I found myself this weekend, taking a break from the constant stream of data and decisions that are required to live my life with diabetes.

Choices like this are carefully thought out. Whenever I make the decision to take a step back from any normal portion of my diabetes management, I tend to do so in the safety of my own home – often over a weekend. I’m not a doctor, but I figure it’s best to be in a familiar environment in case things go bad, or I decide to get back on the horse and resume my regular diabetes management methods.

All that aside, I must admit it did feel good to not look at my receiver every half hour. It felt great not being woken up by another alarm under my pillow. And, it felt great to see blood glucose checks in range despite the missing Dexcom safety net. Almost as if, for a few hours over the weekend, I knew what I was doing.