Calling All People!!!
Hey! You! Want to help me out with an article?
I'm writing an article for JDRF's Living with Diabetes newsletter on Travel with Diabetes and I want to include some quotes on best ways to handle travel with pre-teens and teens. I would love to get some tips on how to help parents who are either traveling with tween/teens or who are preparing tweens/teens who will be traveling alone.
I have a list of suggestions that I have come up with, but I'd like to get some quotes in there from people who are "travel experts." If you have cleaned any wisdom from your years of traveling as a teen or have traveled with your child and have advice you'd like other newbie parents to know about travel, please comment. You might see your suggestion or your quote in the article. Even if you don't think your comment applies to the article, comment anyway, it might inspire me!
Edit: Also, if your only suggestions have already been mentioned, please share some travel stories to illustrate the tip! Sometimes that's even more useful!
Need comments by Sunday night, so act fast!
Thanks!
I'm writing an article for JDRF's Living with Diabetes newsletter on Travel with Diabetes and I want to include some quotes on best ways to handle travel with pre-teens and teens. I would love to get some tips on how to help parents who are either traveling with tween/teens or who are preparing tweens/teens who will be traveling alone.
I have a list of suggestions that I have come up with, but I'd like to get some quotes in there from people who are "travel experts." If you have cleaned any wisdom from your years of traveling as a teen or have traveled with your child and have advice you'd like other newbie parents to know about travel, please comment. You might see your suggestion or your quote in the article. Even if you don't think your comment applies to the article, comment anyway, it might inspire me!
Edit: Also, if your only suggestions have already been mentioned, please share some travel stories to illustrate the tip! Sometimes that's even more useful!
Need comments by Sunday night, so act fast!
Thanks!
posted by Allison at 3:29 PM
3 Comments:
First and foremost: DO NOT let diabetes stop you from travelling!
Standard tips include:
- Double your supplies (triple if you have the space in your luggage, although that NEVER happens)
- Always bring your supplies as a carry on
- Split some of your supplies with your travelling partner, if possible (travelling with a partner who knows your diabetes situation is always much easier)
- Ask about hotel safes when in a foreign country
- Frio gel packs are a must: they’re less bulky than the Medicool products and can be reactivated with water (i.e., you don’t need a freezer around to refreeze anything)
- Use a thigh harness to carry my pump when you want to be inconspicuous (i.e., not be a pick-pocket target (at least not as much of one) in crowded markets, cities, etc.)
- If you’re going to a foreign country, learn key phrases like “I have diabetes,” and “Help,” and “Sugar,” and “It’s an emergency,” and “I need something sweet to eat.” Have these printed in English, in the foreign language for the country you’re travelling in, and even spelled out phonetically so you might be able to pronounce them yourself if need be. Carry this in your pocket while travelling.
- Carry extra glucose and snacks on you at all times
- Keep some cash and important contact info (like the nearest US embassy) in your shoe (no joke)
- Contact your health insurance provider and ask about contact info while travelling abroad
- Find out where hospitals are located in places you’re travelling to
- Bring extra batteries for all your devices (they might not be easy to find)
- Bring multiple devices (multiple insulin delivery devices, multiple glucometers, etc)
It sounds like a lot, but it’s doable and it will help you have fun in a new place with less worry.
Both Minimed and Cozmo will loan you a pump to bring on your trip. You give them a credit card number and as long as you return the pump by the date you say you will they won't charge you. When I had a cozmo I had a pump die on vacation twice so the backup pump helped. Also, if you're somewhere really hot, keep your meter out in the open, don't have it packed inside bags because it'll overheat easier. If it does overheat, all you need is to ice it for about 10 minutes and it's as good as new. Third, bring extra pump clips because stuff such as amusment park rides can easily break them and it's a pain having to find places to put your pump on clothes with no pockets
-Jenny, Age 17, CA
Have a back-up plan and know what to do if your pump malfunctions. Carry Lantus or a similar long-acting insulin, and know how to use it, just in case.
(I learned the hard way...and the ER I visited had never seen a pump before...and had I followed the doctor's advice for correcting highs [something like 2-units for every 40 points], I certainly would have had worse problems than a malfunctioning pump!)
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