A Daily Dose of Insulin

I had not traveled for over two years after being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and when I planned my first trip, which was solo, I completely forgot that was another thing I had to manage. It was a huge stressor on my mind thinking about if I forget anything or what happens if I have an emergency.

The first thing I highly recommend is if you haven’t already, reach out to your endocrinologist to have a statement letter that you have a permanent disability. It is super helpful at the airport if they ask about your medical devices through security or so you can have an extra personal item with your medical equipment.

The next thing I recommend is always taking a little extra of everything. I am on insulin pumps so I bring a pod for every day that I will be gone in case it comes out. I like to bring one extra Dexcom as well and then blood sugar testing strips. I don’t bring more than one extra Dexcom because those are super limited for me and it’s hard to get extra and I don’t want to have to go through multiple in a short amount of time.

When packing my bags, depending on how much I am bringing I either grab a huge ziplock or dedicate a certain part of my bag to medical supplies. I like to do this because if my bag is going through security and my bag gets pulled to be inspected, I like to have that all in one spot so it’s easy to either pull out and be checked, or easy to rule out all my medical supplies as the cause.

When on the airplane, if I have someone next to me I tend to tell them that I am a diabetic and let them know that if for some reason I am having symptoms of a seizure or a low blood sugar that is why. If the airplane has a lot fewer people, I let the flight attendant know so that way someone is aware and can help in an emergency. If you do not want to tell anyone, then I highly recommend getting a bracelet or something that would let someone know you have diabetes in case of an emergency.

My last tip is that if you tend to have your blood sugar run a little high, I always grab a huge water bottle from a store in the airport. When my blood sugar is high I get insanely thirsty and it helps lower your blood sugar to drink water. I have felt very uncomfortable on flights where I didn’t have any, and if you’re flying an airline like Spirit and they charge $4 for a small bottle it is very frustrating.