<story><title>Open Insulin Foundation</title><url>https://openinsulin.org/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sgt101</author><text>My daughter is insulin dependent.&lt;p&gt;We live in the UK - which has a fantastic free provision for diabetics, my daughter has a Diasend artificial pancreas (on her phone + a sensor on her arm and a pump for the insulin controlled by the app). This gives her very very high levels of control and flexibility.&lt;p&gt;However, when covid hit I was really scared because I thought that if things went really wrong (beyond loo paper being sold out) there would be no possibility of me protecting my daughter - I simply had no means to provide insulin for her that don&amp;#x27;t depend on a large scale modern pharma supply chain.&lt;p&gt;Any way that was viable for insulin to be made in a shed or a garage would be huge from my perspective because it would give me an option in the case of a SHTF situation - right now I haven&amp;#x27;t got one. If things go bad, my daughter dies - no if&amp;#x27;s no buts. I know (in my heart) that the reality is that if SHTF then I will die too, but the sheer hopelessness of my daughters position is really hard to take.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Guidii</author><text>If SHTF, then we should think about old-school methods based on animal extraction. The process is involved, but still approachable.&lt;p&gt;My daughter did a project in her high school chemistry class on the entire process, describing the steps involved - I don&amp;#x27;t have that paper handy, but if a high school student can work it out it&amp;#x27;s probably available elsewhere. She later told me that this project was part of her post-apocalypse-family-survival-plan;)</text></comment>
<story><title>Open Insulin Foundation</title><url>https://openinsulin.org/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sgt101</author><text>My daughter is insulin dependent.&lt;p&gt;We live in the UK - which has a fantastic free provision for diabetics, my daughter has a Diasend artificial pancreas (on her phone + a sensor on her arm and a pump for the insulin controlled by the app). This gives her very very high levels of control and flexibility.&lt;p&gt;However, when covid hit I was really scared because I thought that if things went really wrong (beyond loo paper being sold out) there would be no possibility of me protecting my daughter - I simply had no means to provide insulin for her that don&amp;#x27;t depend on a large scale modern pharma supply chain.&lt;p&gt;Any way that was viable for insulin to be made in a shed or a garage would be huge from my perspective because it would give me an option in the case of a SHTF situation - right now I haven&amp;#x27;t got one. If things go bad, my daughter dies - no if&amp;#x27;s no buts. I know (in my heart) that the reality is that if SHTF then I will die too, but the sheer hopelessness of my daughters position is really hard to take.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>steveklabnik</author><text>It doesn&amp;#x27;t even need to be a large-scale breakdown. Extreme weather is becoming more and more of an issue, which often leads to things like loss of power. When you use a refrigerator to keep your medication cold, a sudden &amp;quot;you&amp;#x27;re going to lose power until further notice&amp;quot; introduces significant logistical hurdles.&lt;p&gt;I share these sorts of worries with you. It&amp;#x27;s hard.</text></comment>