Travelling around the world

[jmlondon]

Hello. I was diagnosed with type 1 Diabetes in 2003 when I was 20 years old, and have now lived with the condition for 10 years now. I have always remained on Novomix 30, injecting my self twice a day. While I coped with this condition, it has somewhat held me back from perusing my dreams. Not really because of official restrictions, but because of my confidence. I always felt that I couldn't do certain things because of my condition.

All this though changed when I started to look at life differently. I started to live life a lot more positively and made some major changes in my life. I decided to take a break from alcohol (18 months and still going) and also decided to quit my office job and pursue a dream of travelling around the world. I have just now come back from a 9 month travelling stint and had the most incredible time. I visited USA, New Zealand, Australia and a few countries in South East Asia. Other than a few incidents, my diabetes did not prevent me from doing anything I wanted and I just lived out my dreams. It truly was the best decision I have ever made.

For so many I thought I could not go travelling, being a type 1 diabetic. Negative questions would always arise in my head like, where will you store your insulin? What if you lost your insulin? What if there were no fridges, and so forth. But rather than just accept these negative thoughts, I decided to do some research and get the real facts.

I'm writing this story to let everyone know, who has similar negative thoughts to what I had before I went travelling, that 'life will pay whatever price you ask of it' This is a quote from Tony Robbins, who him and many other positive people inspired me to follow my dreams and live whatever life I wanted. I went for my dreams and everyone else can too. All it requires is a change of thought, and of course, ACTION!

I would be more than happy to speak to anyone else about travelling if they wished, or any other thing which is holding them back.

I wish you well and a life full of prosperity.

Jamie

 

[coco4]

Hi Jamie just reading your last e-mail was so inspirational. I am 57 years old and was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in June 2011 having developed DKA so everything seemed to happen overnight one minute everything was fine next thing I was at A and E and then in intensive care. After a week in hospital and having had diabetes etc explained to me it was like the end of the world had happened. I have always been a very spontaneous person particularly where travel is concerned. I love Canada and used to go there whenever I could. The year I was diagnosed I went to Canada for christmas as I have done for many years. It was a disaster I could not carb count so I could not match my insulin properly so my sugar levels were very high. I was taken to hospital with heart palpitations, but fortunately after two ECGs and other tests it was decided I was suffering from severe panic attacks due to high sugars and stress. Since that experience I sometimes find I cannot even travel 3 miles down the road on a bus. Please how did you manage to travel how you did and stay relatively on track. Any advice would be welcome as I would so love to see Canada amongst other places again, thanks Carole

 

[jmlondon]

Hi Carole, thank you for your message. I’m pleased you’re able to take something from my travelling experience. I’m sorry for the difficulties you had to endure with your diabetes while travelling. I understand taking more injections a day can be taxing, but with a lot of preparation and research, like I did, then I’m sure you can go to all the places you want to.

If I could, I tried to stick to the foods I regularly ate at home, or something very similar. I found this fairly easy to do up until I got to South East Asia, where I relied on eating out, as their supermarkets can be few and far between. When I chose particular dishes in Asia I would again look for similar dishes I had back home, and if I did try something really new then I would just do a lot of trial and error, and if I found my levels were really off then I wouldn't look to have that particular dish again. To also make sure I was in a good position I always went around with a backpack with light snacks and a sugary drink. I also planned my transport so that I would be travelling in the day rather than at night. I felt I was able to control my levels a lot better this way round.

Like I said at the start, with lots of preparation and research into all the things you want to do then I think you could control your levels a lot better. The less organized you are then you could experience a lot of surprises (high and low blood readings) along the way.

I hope any of this can be helpful to you and give you some more confidence about travelling in the future. And of course, always have lots of positivity. I feel this enabled me to travel in a stress free way.

Have a fantastic day

Jamie

 

[coco4]

Hi Jamie, thanks for your reply and words of encouragement and advice it all makes good sense sticking to food you are familiar with and staying positive. The positive bit is what I need to concentrate more on and not keep imagining worst case scenarios. Hope you don't mind me asking, but do you carb count when using the two injection a day medication or how do you know how much insulin to give yourself? Thanks again Carole

 

[jmlondon]

You're very welcome, Carole. Yes, staying positive is vital. Since I adopted this approach into my daily life I have seen my readings improve significantly. I don't carb count and I'm given a set amount of insulin to take in the morning and evening. It can't give you the flexibility as you would have with more injections, but if you stick to the same foods on a daily basis then you can get consistently good results. I'm currently thinking about going on a different insulin and taking more injections to see if that would improve my readings even more. Anything to improve my life even more

 

[coco4]

Hi Jamie hope you are okay. Thanks for explaining about two injections a day. I can see the consideration is either staying with the flexibility of Lantus and Novorapid, but "doing" more injecting or the convenience of injectiing twice a day usually in the comfort of your own home or if travelling not having to think about injecting while you are out and about before or after meals. Cheers Carole

 

[pinkjinks58]

Hi Jamie

I'm planning on going travelling in 6-7 months time and although I'm at the very early stages of saving/planning where I'm going to go.... my main concern is do I take all my insulin with me, and if so, where do I store it? Or were you able to get it when you were in USA or Australia?

I'm sure this wont be the last of my questions, I hope you dont mind!?! :lol:

Jess

 

[Sdarcy89_]

Hi Jamie.
I want to travel. Really badly across the USA. I have a few concerns though. How can you get fresh insulin as I wouldn't want to come back much. And what happens with insurance. As you need a address to be registered to a doctors for your prescription. Can you get a prescription sent over from England and take the insulin from any pharmacy in the world.

Glad you reached your dream. On to the next one.
Thanks