10 tips for traveling with Diabetes
I recently received an email from Jamie Angela Lenard with a request to post a resource document she prepared on tips when travelling with Diabetes. Given that as many as 40% of people living with Diabetes experience vision loss due to either retinopathy, cataracts, or glaucoma, and that it’s the leading cause of blindness among adult Americans and Canadians, the request seemed quite relevant.
1. Keep the supplies readily available. Whether you’re traveling by plane, train, or automobile, ensure your diabetes supplies are easily accessible.
If you’re flying, make sure you put all of your supplies within your carry-on bags. Back-up insulin also needs to be put within your carry-on, because checked baggage could be subjected to extreme cold or heat that may spoil insulin, and ruin glucometers.
In case you are utilizing a device to help keep your insulin cool, be sure it is just a cold pack, and never a freezer pack–freezing insulin destroys its effectiveness. Exactly the same rules apply for storing supplies while driving or on the train.
2. Attempt to stick to your routine. Traveling can definitely throw those with diabetes off schedule, and also at no-fault of their own. The delay of your flight may mean sitting on the runway all night, or if you’re traveling out of your time zone, it may well mean feeling hungry whenever you need to be asleep.
In the event you pack extra snacks for the plane, you might want to store them within an insulated bag through an ice pack.
3. Get documentation. Carry a note from the doctor proclaiming that you’ve diabetes, and require to take your medication along constantly. If you’re visiting a country where they speak a language other than your, translate the note into that language.
Create a few copies of the note and distribute to people tripping with you, so that you can have documentation constantly.
4. Inform airport security you’ve diabetes. When flying, make sure to put your diabetes supplies inside a quart size plastic container which is separate from your other non-diabetes liquids you’re bringing aboard; in this way, screeners can immediately separate diabetes medications from other liquid items in your carry-on baggage.
5. Be ready to treat low glucose. Whenever you travel, you could possibly disrupt your normal routine for both eating and dosing insulin; you can even be sightseeing or boosting your physical activity.
As a result of these changes, you have to be prepared for low glucose whenever it strikes, so pack lots of glucose tablets – these are often the most effective simply because they won’t melt, explode in heat, or leak and become sticky.
6. Investigate foods. For mealtime insulin, do your very best to determine the carbohydrate grams inside the foods you’re eating so that you can go ahead and take the right pre-meal insulin.
Additionally, test out your blood sugar before and after meals to view how new foods are affecting your control. It’s essential to keep the glucose numbers in balance to stop problems.
7. Raise your stash of supplies. You could be planing a trip to Hawaii for less than a week, but it’s smart to pack diabetes supplies just like you were staying two times as long.
8. Consider time zone changes. If you’re wearing an insulin pump and will also be tripping to a place which is in another time zone, make sure to adjust your insulin pump’s clock to reflect the alteration.
9. Test out your blood glucose levels. Travel will surely have all kinds of effects on diabetes management. Remember that the possible lack of activity may prompt your blood sugar levels to become elevated; conversely, sightseeing as well as other physical activity may lower glucose.
Due to adjustments to your schedule, it is vital to check glucose before and after meals.
10. Tell others you have diabetes. While it might not often be comfortable, you should tell the people with whom you’re traveling you have diabetes. Tell them that which you need to do to be healthy and active on your trip, and whatever they have to do in the event that there is an emergency.
Always wear a medical identification bracelet when you’re traveling (although you ought to be wearing one every time anyway)-and be sure it states you’ve diabetes, if you take insulin, and if possible, list an emergency phone number.
Jamie’s personal hobby is blogging to stop Diabetes and increase awareness for healthy eating. To read her blog visit: www.diabetesmeters.org