Traveling With Diabetes: Tips For A Happy Holiday
A diabetic person can handle any type of travel: there are no forbidden or dangerous places. The important thing is to take appropriate measures to travel safely and carefree.
First, we remember to NEVER INCLUDE insulin and blood glucose meter. The ideal is to bring everything you need (blood glucose meter, test strips needles, insulin etc.) with them.
If you are traveling by auto keep insulin in the passenger and not in the trunk or in the dashboard. Always have candy, fruit, sugar to make up for a possible hypoglycemia.
If you were to take a trip by plane remember to bring the supply of insulin and drugs. To avoid errors in calculating the hours spent last injection, keep a watch on the time zone set departure. If the flight is intercontinental airports with different or changing meal times you require some precautions:
In the case of type 1 diabetes: if you are traveling from North to South there are no changes in insulin dose.
Instead traveling from east to west, instead, it needs to be established with your healthcare adjustment of dose and timing of administration of ‘insulin.
In case of type 2 diabetes, there are no special precautions to be taken.
Here are some tips to keep insulin properly if we are not at home:
- Keep insulin at room temperature in a cool, dry place if the journey is short-lived, for longer trips keeps insulin in a thermal envelope with a small refrigerant.
- Be sure to bring with you twice insulin you’ll need
- Once you arrive at your destination remove insulin from the cooler and store it in the refrigerator
- Put insulin in your hand luggage, never in your suitcase that will go into the hold where temperatures often drop below freezing
- Do not expose insulin to direct sunlight, do not freeze it or subject it to extreme temperatures.
- If you go to a very cold place, keep insulin in his jacket pocket.
Happy Holidays!