Come fly with me, Diabetes

AloeSvea

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2,051
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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Sharing tips and tricks and experiences for diabetics taking to the skies. How do you deal with airplane food, or the lack thereof, medication, sleep, jet-lag, security guards, air stewards, neighbours, customs, passports, border controls - the good, the bad, and the ugly. You name it!
 

Lamont D

Oracle
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15,798
Type of diabetes
Reactive hypoglycemia
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I do not have diabetes
You snack low carb meals, that you have prepared beforehand.
I personally wouldn't touch anything that is served to you on planes, trains and automobiles.

Because I eat very small meals throughout the day just to keep going without hypos, it is enough till you can have a decent low carb meal. I always take a flask of homemade soup if it's cold or small bites of fruit, or just roasted meats, cooked at home etc. It does me!

But whilst I'm travelling, I rarely have anything other than a bite or two!
But I just can't eat a full breakfast and so on whilst traveling!
 
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Shar67

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If you ask for special assistance when flying you go to front of queue for passport control, and security, also 1st on plane. The cabin crew are aware they have an assistance required passenger, makes everything so much easier.
 
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Lamont D

Oracle
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15,798
Type of diabetes
Reactive hypoglycemia
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I do not have diabetes
If you ask for special assistance when flying you go to front of queue for passport control, and security, also 1st on plane. The cabin crew are aware they have an assistance required passenger, makes everything so much easier.
That's just using your condition for special treatment and queue jumping of the worst kind!













Gonna try that next time! (Wont get away with it though!!)
 
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Jaylee

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Retired Moderator
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That's just using your condition for special treatment and queue jumping of the worst kind!











Gonna try that next time! (Wont get away with it though!!)

I still got a Michael Eavis mask that came in a mid 90s copy of NME for sneaking into Glasonbury festival.

Still works well "fast tracking" at Dutch airports..
 
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AloeSvea

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Well - Nosher - normally I would agree with you! But my regular trip has been a very long-haul multi-leg journey (Sweden to NZ and visa versa). Can't imagine prepacking proper meals for travelling across the globe :). This current journey is 31 hours. But I am presently sitting at Hong Kong Airport with my last blood glucose reading of 8.0 (because I couldn't resist one of those cute little toblerone packets with my coffee - my excuse is it was after 11 hours like a sardine in the plane I caved!), - so you are absolutely right in principle of course!

Yeah - I take a sandwich when offered and remove the meat and salad and eat that and return the rest. And with the inflight food I leave the rolls, the rice and potatoes and give them to Mr Svea to chomp away on - the lucky non-diabetic that he is. That works fine, and even though it is highly processed food (see the British Airways ham roll ingredients!) - on the next leg my post dinner meal BG was 6.7 - not too bad.

I was much more organised with food this time though - see pic - made sure I made a trip to one of the LCHF stores in Stockholm and stocked up on pork rinds and my favourite parmesan knäckebröd (hard bread), and Aussie macadamias and pistacios. They were most appreciated in the wee hours of the morning (or night? Who knows? I'm changing my watch to destination time at every leg). I have to say though - carrying around a bag of food with me this time has contributed to me looking like a (edited out country of choice - you choose!) peasant immigrant, and through three security check points already no less.

The first security check I did not 'pass', but I am used to the Swedes considering me a suspicious type - I try to take it as a compliment that a middle-aged female diabetic like me needs to have my cabin luggage swiped for bombs every time I leave that fair country. I don't really find it complimentary - far from it! But I realise that I might appear to them like a clumsy, anxious, athletic Middle Eastern woman who instead of bench pressing and Michael Mosley H.I.T. regimes (and not looking forward to these long journeys from hell) has been training in Syria? I wish they would just ask me though! What I actually am. But they never do of course. I guess they have explosives-swiping quotas to meet.

Just checking my post-post- toblerone post breakfast BG - (and a very nice egg and veg, a very little fruit, and a teeny tiny sausage for airplane breakfast) - 6.6. I notice that on my accu chek meter it is ten to one in the afternoon back in the cold country. (In Hong Kong it is ten to eight in the evening. I had to ask Herr Svea if it was indeed the evening! You can get a bit confused when having lived in subarctic regions during the winter - it is dark so much of the time after all.) But here it is the tropics - and if it is dark it is night-time - how civilised!

One more security point to go through - the infamous NZ bio-security screening. But the food will be well gone by then, and if not - chucked. (And no-one in my home country thinks I might have been training to kill people in Syria. Thank heavens for such mercies.)
It's all nuts in there anyway.jpg
Supplies from the LCHF store in Stockholm.jpg
 
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AloeSvea

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Oh! And a note regarding long-haul flights and neuropathy in the feet. Two things save my sanity, and my feet for such journeys from hell - massage sandals, and support socks. I have a really groovy pink pair from the Swedish Design Torget - they work a treat against very painful uncontrollable swelling. And the massage sandals - I made sure I brought the pair this time that I can wear my support socks with. (Yes - it can look a little odd! But hey.) This time I also brought peppermint foot cooling spray (in photo of LCHF supplies) - and I feel like a new woman with new feet - even with my nerve damage! I haven't had to moisturise them (never in the cabin, I promise! Ditto the spray). But maybe I shouldn't speak so soon - another 11 hours to go, as a sardine passenger in a sardine can plane.

Looking at the long line at the boarding gate I am wishing I could do a 'fast track'. Good on you Shar!
 

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Mep

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1,461
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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Insulin
my personal experience with flying.... especially since being on insulin: I got told I'm required to provide a letter from the doctor to advise I'm diabetic and need to carry sharps with me, etc. So I remember the last time I presented that here for a qantas flight I was told I had to be seated where they could see me and get to me quickly. I never order a diabetic meal on the plane... learnt about that pretty quick. I can't eat artificial sweetened stuff anyhow and that's what most of their diabetic food is with some rabbit food thrown in with dressings. I just find it easier eating the normal meal choices. I carry snacks with me also. But these days my diet is even more restricted than when I last flew in 2011. To be honest if i get my way I'd be happy to never fly again. I don't have the travel bug anyhow and there are just too many things for me to consider health wise. Although I will share a funny about flying... I was in a queue for the toilet and when I finally got there and got into the toilet the pilot announced that we were starting to descend to land. Well the plane was sharply turning wasn't it and I lost my footing and flew straight back onto the wall behind the toilet and freaked out that I actually landed on the toilet (I'm OCD with hygiene). Of course there was a big thud... so when I stepped out I'm being asked by the flight attendant if I'm ok and that I need to be seated with my belt on for landing. So now that I have bladder problems as well the idea of getting thrown around in the toilet on a plane doesn't appeal. lol.
 
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Robbity

Expert
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6,683
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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Diet only
. I have to say though - carrying around a bag of food with me this time has contributed to me looking like a (edited out country of choice - you choose!) peasant immigrant, and through three security check points already no less.

The first security check I did not 'pass', but I am used to the Swedes considering me a suspicious type - I try to take it as a compliment that a middle-aged female diabetic like me needs to have my cabin luggage swiped for bombs every time I leave that fair country. I don't really find it complimentary - far from it! But I realise that I might appear to them like a clumsy, anxious, athletic Middle Eastern woman who instead of bench pressing and Michael Mosley H.I.T. regimes (and not looking forward to these long journeys from hell) has been training in Syria? I wish they would just ask me though! What I actually am. But they never do of course. I guess they have explosives-swiping quotas to meet.

@AloeSvea - Before my husband retired he used to have to work abroad for long periods and I used to fly over for holidays with him. Every time I was picked out to have my baggage searched at Heathrow. In the end I asked one of the security people why they'd picked me, and was told they looked for people they thought wouldn't make any fuss over being searched....:wideyed::eek: Unfortunately for me I obviously never looked as though I might object!

Robbity
 

Lamont D

Oracle
Messages
15,798
Type of diabetes
Reactive hypoglycemia
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
Flying huh!
What you need to do is find a low carb recipe that can be reproduced into something small and easy to carry. Just like sweets, biscuits, nuts, something that has no carbs in but can can satiate you from a to b!
If you do manage to find that important bit of snack like 9 bars in mini bites, I think you will make a lot of money.

Any who,
Flying.

The last time me and the wife flew, getting out of Manchester was a joke, because they delayed the flight by nearly five hours and the wife smokes!
She nearly battered the poor sap trying to soothe her, at the desk, and as we had already booked in, we couldn't get back out to where you could smoke, she actually spent the last two hours of the delay puffing away under armed guard on the side of the terminal, I think that her escort had joined her and joined in the mass smoking session!
Fun days and we didn't get to our hotel till three in the morning!
From 5 a.m. in the morning almost 22 hours for a three to four hour flight!
We got free meals and goodies from the airline!
 
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AndBreathe

Master
Retired Moderator
Messages
11,320
Type of diabetes
I reversed my Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Sharing tips and tricks and experiences for diabetics taking to the skies. How do you deal with airplane food, or the lack thereof, medication, sleep, jet-lag, security guards, air stewards, neighbours, customs, passports, border controls - the good, the bad, and the ugly. You name it!

I've done lots of flying since diagnosis. I just get on with it.

I make the best meal choice I can, and figure the portion sizes are pretty modest, so little will happen. I don't eat the sweet options or the pretzels with drinks, and to date, have passed on the ice creams available a while before arrival at the other end.

It's one day, once in a while, and I tend to think the less stressed I am over things, the better I will cope with whatever is thrown my way. If I send myself on a sugar or generalised carb binge I am less likely to take any little glitches in my stride, so I just don't go there. To be honest, I usually have quite a bit to get done whether arriving "there" or here, so don't want to create a slef induced sluggish state I can easily avoid.

The only time I got a bit stressed was when I had over-stayed my entry stamp by a few days, but as I was leaving the territory I had over-stayed, they didn't even mention it. I've been back since, without repercussions. I could apply for citizenship the other end, but it seems like more hassle it's worth. It's not a passport I would ever use for travel anyway.
 
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SunnyExpat

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2,230
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Prefer not to say
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Carry your medication, in fact always carry anything you can't afford to lose.
I just eat whatever's going, and don't stress it, so long as I know what it'll do to me, I can get the portion size right.

Drinking, sleeping, it all depends on whether I'm driving later, and what time the flight is.
Window seat if I want to sleep, aisle seat if I want to stay awake.
 
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Brunneria

Guru
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21,889
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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Diet only
The last time i flew, we got there early enough to have a large Full English (at an absurd price) between check in and boarding.

Didn't need to eat again for over 8 hours, which saw me home and dry at the destination.
Of course that depends on how far you are going...
 
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SunnyExpat

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Plastic bacon, sausages full of rusk, eggs made from rubber, and as you say, at a chronically inflated price.
But ok if you can make it last 8 hours I guess.
 

Munkki

Well-Known Member
Messages
527
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
I pack some nuts and raw veggies, and eat some cheese in Schiphol. On long-haul flights I make sure I join in with the little kids, marching around the isles in the air plane :joyful: to avoid swollen ankles. Anyway, I move as much as I can, carrying my suitcase up and down stairs, avoiding elevators, escalators, etc.
 
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TyTy

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414
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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Diet only
Dislikes
Not much
I just recently flew , I had the meal , and it was ok
 
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AloeSvea

Well-Known Member
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Type of diabetes
Type 2
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@AloeSvea - Before my husband retired he used to have to work abroad for long periods and I used to fly over for holidays with him. Every time I was picked out to have my baggage searched at Heathrow. In the end I asked one of the security people why they'd picked me, and was told they looked for people they thought wouldn't make any fuss over being searched....:wideyed::eek: Unfortunately for me I obviously never looked as though I might object!

Robbity

Ah! Yes - my incredibly lovely, nurturing, gentle (middle-aged mother of adult children) British immigrant-in-NZ GP says she gets explosive-checked too, and when she asked them why the last time, they told her they deliberately check the least suspicious looking ones! Bizarre.

It's a true compliment that you look like you wouldn't object.
 

AloeSvea

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,051
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Other
Flying huh!
What you need to do is find a low carb recipe that can be reproduced into something small and easy to carry. Just like sweets, biscuits, nuts, something that has no carbs in but can can satiate you from a to b!
If you do manage to find that important bit of snack like 9 bars in mini bites, I think you will make a lot of money.

Any who,
Flying.

The last time me and the wife flew, getting out of Manchester was a joke, because they delayed the flight by nearly five hours and the wife smokes!
She nearly battered the poor sap trying to soothe her, at the desk, and as we had already booked in, we couldn't get back out to where you could smoke, she actually spent the last two hours of the delay puffing away under armed guard on the side of the terminal, I think that her escort had joined her and joined in the mass smoking session!
Fun days and we didn't get to our hotel till three in the morning!
From 5 a.m. in the morning almost 22 hours for a three to four hour flight!
We got free meals and goodies from the airline!

That is a wonderful smokers-flying story :). I will share it with (also badly jetlagged) Mr Svea when he gets back from having a smoke outside!
 
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