Day 4: Out of Nowhere

You’d be surprised at the amount of accommodations there are on ferries (and other modes of transportation in Europe for that matter). 

After finally finding an available ferry to take us to the Ntherlands across the English Channel we had a long boat ride and plenty of time to kill on board. My readings ended up pretty because I was pretty sedentary. So I ended up doing some exploring. 


There was a beatiful triple passenger deck with tables and a bar. I enjoy walking around and watching the sea waves. On the other side of the passenger out of nowhere I discovered a basketball court. I was really surprised, and proceeded to do a full half hour exercise routine. This helped wake up my body and lower my blood sugar. 

I got some pretty strange looks as other passengers stared at me as I did forward lunges, but I didn’t care. I was just so happy to find exactly what I needed while I was in the middle of the Sea. 

Day 3: A Royal Pain

It is easy to overlook the funny little symptoms of being a diabetic like dehydration, irratibility, shakiness, etc. simply because they are symptoms that other non-diabetics can have. But forgetting about these symptoms when traveling can be quite torturous. 

In the morning when we had set out to visit London I had been drinking a lot of water to compensate for the higher reading I had before breakfast. We then got on our tour bus to take us all the way to the tower bridge. The traffic to the old cut of London was so bad that it took almost two hours to get there. Inevitably, I was overcome with the intense urge to pee. I found myself beating my fist together and pacing back an forth until I was able to finally get off and ran through the street of London like a mad man searching for a bathroom. 

The moral of the story is that you should never underestimate your basic needs since they are amplified by your diabetes. 

Day 2 Luck Has Nothing to Do With It

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It’s one of those things that you worry a lot about when you’re packing. “Will I die because I don’t have enough low treatment on me?”  or “will I have to go to the hospital if someone steals my insulin bag?” 

I found answers to these questions while taking the “Johnny Swift” ferry across the Irish Sea.  

1. As we were crossing the Irish Sea on the “Johanthon Swift” I had a lot of time to kill. It’s times like these where boredom forces me to discover things that I didn’t know. The cafe on the passenger deck served all sorts of coffee and drinks, but I wasn’t planning on buying anything. Across from the stand were the cream and sugar. Then I had a great yet obvious idea. “Here are all these sugar packets and I might need them at some point”. I took 10 nonchalantly and put them in my pack for later. Each pack is around a table spoon of sugar and a table spoon of sugar is approximately 4g of carbohydrates. That’s equivalent to a glucose tab. Lesson learned: sugar is everywhere, take some without a single thought of embarassment. 
2. At the very end of our passage across the sea, one of the service crew members made an announcement that I’ve have never heard before. “…if there any passengers on board who have humalog insulin, please report to the service desk”. My first thought: “I lost my insulin bag and it is at the service desk!” But I checked my bag and there was my insulin bag, so it couldn’t be that.it turned out that a middle aged man needed some insulin because he had left his pen elsewhere. I offered mine, but because he was a pen user he took help from another family whose son uses the pen. It was really eye opening. I suddenly realized that I’m not the only diabetic in Europe! It wasn’t just luck that we were there to help this man. It’s reality and a its blessing.  Diabetes is a fairly common disease and everyday abroad I learn how willing people are to help you through it. 

Day 1 – A long way to Ireland

One thing that I noticed while flying, is that all the excitement and noise can really cause some stress (albeit positive stress) on the body. It seemed that no matter what I did, I was constantly looking at a meter flashing a low blood sugar reading. I would even at -%30 basal rate changes during my flights but still would end up low. This may be the case for you. If it is don’t be afraid to not “play by the rules”. 

Your endocrinologist may have changed your basal rates before sending you off on vacation, but she cannot predict the way your body is going to react to the changes you face abroad. You can’t either, but you can learn to react to them. The more difficulties you face with controlling your blood sugar, the more you will find ways to prevent future problems.

 For example while I was on the plane to Dublin dinner was served on the flight with pasta and salad. I was surprised at how willing the stewardess was to look up the nutrition facts for me and how the security in Waterloo let me keep my pump on while doing the metal dectector test.

Remember that most people are related to diabetics. So a lot of people are very willing to give you special attention to help you out. So fear not!

What you will need… 4

Have you ever been sitting next to a fresh batch of Krispy Kremes and asked yourself “How will the sugar  glaze and dough of a Krispy Kreme doughnut effect my blood sugar levels?” OF COURSE NOT! You’re asking yourself “How soon can I get this box in my belly?!?”

I’m not going to lie, now that it is the day before leaving, things are getting real. My parents cry every time they look at me, people are telling me they are going to miss me. It’s like the moment when you’re about to jump out of an airplane. No going back, no sure if you’ll land, but boy does it give you a rush of energy.

Self-Control & Humility

Although traveling is all about experiencing and going all-out, it’s a good idea to keep yourself in check. When you’re standing in line at the airport and you begin to feel low. Check Yourself! Don’t stand there like a dummy thinking, “Maybe I’m just tired from the trip, I don’t need to pull my glucose meter out right now in this busy airport”. Yes you do! I am just as guilty of doing this as any other diabetic, but we really need to remember to have humility and self control. For all of you out there who are too good to show that you’re diabetic in public, I wrote this one-line poem for you

Better to be humbled with a meter, than humiliated with a seizure x_x

When you’re on vacation, it’s easy to let yourself go and lose track of time. But losing track of your blood sugar is a completely different story. You may find yourself in a situation where you are asked to go out to a pub with some new friends that you just met at the Hostel. Sounds like fun, but Just remember that alcohol can do some really crazy things to your readings (and inhibitions). So instead of drinking at the bar and having to wake up all throughout the night when you get to your dorm with glucose readings that resemble lotto numbers better than they do blood sugars. Do yourself a kindness and refrain from the drinks. Have self-control. You will thank yourself later if you take care of yourself now.

Just remember: Self control = BG Control = A Good Time!

What you will need… 3

According to Murphy’s Law “anything that can go wrong, will go wrong”.The driving force of Murphy’s Law is fear. But  according Newton’s Law “every action has an equal and opposite reaction”.  The equal and opposite force against fear is faith. And Faith’s Law is “where there’s a will, theres a way”

Faith

You may not be able to make it over the boarder without a passport or stay in a hostel without money, but you won’t even take the first step out of your house without faith. You can’t get anywhere without faith. There is no question about it, there will be trouble during this trip. But with faith you are able to look beyond the little roadblocks and see how they are all a part of the big adventure.

The more you spend time worrying about how your pump site might fall out if you go to swim in Lake Como, or how you might walk around in so many circles in Amsterdam that you get both lost and low, the less time you are giving yourself to actually enjoy the trip. Bring faith along, that no matter what, everything will turn out fine.

Don’t trouble yourself. You have enough weight on your back already, no need to add weight to your head with so many worries. You may lose your train ticket, plane ticket, Passport, and glucose meter, but if you don’t give up and have faith that you can still make it home, trust God, you will. “where there’s a will, there’s a way”

What you will need… 2

A-#1, meter and pump supplies

More important than your pad lock, more important than your sleeping bag, more important than your backpack, arguably more important than your passport are the diabetic supplies. This may seem like a given, but you need A LOT of pump and meter supplies. Depending on your situation, you want to have anywhere from 150-200% of the amount of supplies that you would usually have for the time period that you will be gone on your trip. You never really know! Your inset may fall out, you might accidentally drop every last one of your lancets into the English Channel while checking your BG on the bow of a ferry, or perhaps you’re going to be eating so much Italian pasta that your Daily Insulin Intake becomes quadruple what it usually is. Whatever it may be, you’d rather be safe than insulin-less.

We diabetics rely on insulin for our sobriety and sanity. If you don’t want to become a constant irritable presence to your travel partner, then it is certainly a good idea to make sure that you are always prepared and are getting the insulin that you need.

On the flip-side you also need to remember to bring the other most important medicine that diabetics need. Food. Always have low treatment, especially if you are going to be backpacking and walking around a lot.

When it comes time to pack your bag with your supplies, be smart about it. Most inset and cartridges are shipped to your house or pharmacy in standard sized boxes. This is cute and all, but you can save some room by putting your supplies into ziplock bags instead. Not only will this allow you to save room in your bag, but you can then label the ziplock bags and fill them with enough supplies for 2 weeks. Then your ziplock bags can become a way of pacing yourself, and making sure that you are no where near running out of supplies throughout the trip.

So be a Savvy Supply Sacker and pack your pump wisely!

 

What you will need…

Type-A diabetics are always very conscious about supplies. So when getting ready for a trip we naturally begin to thing about the number of things that we need. So the question is what “supplies” do you need to make this trip happen?

A Best Friend for the Journey

Someone to look after. Someone to look after you. Someone to laugh with, joke with, and sing with. Someone to sweat with, cry with, freeze with, and get lost with. Someone to carry you when your blood sugar is low, or tell you that your high when you’re out of breath. Someone to find help when you need it. Someone that you can help find a reason to laugh. Everybody needs somebody. Don’t do this alone. There are too many people in the world to want to travel alone.

I am so blessed beyond words to have my cousin Ariana. She’s my age, beautiful, joyful, selfless, and pretty much the funnest person on earth. I know there isn’t going to be a single dull moment on this trip with Ari around. Plus she’s really tall so I know I’ll never lose sight of her.

I’ve known her since long before I was diagnosed with diabetes so talking to her about blood sugar issues and hyper/hypoglycemia symptoms is no problem. There’s no holding back between us and we love to laugh at each other.

The first thing you need for this trip, is a friend to share it with. And unlike other supplies, you only need one!