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CONFUSED BY GP !!!

Hi Hazey,
Frio products are good for keeping insulin pens cool. They cost about £20 and you can buy them online or from pharmacies - LLoyds have them in our area. We have used them on several trips to hot countries. Remember not to put any of your insulin in the checked in luggage that goes in the plane's hold or it will freeze and be rendered useless.

There are two ways of testing for ketones. Either in yr urine, using Ketostix or some similar strip, or in yr blood using ketone testing strips for your Optium Xceed. These strips are lilac coloured and come in boxes of 10. I believe they are expensive, much more than the glucose testing strips. The advantage of testing yr blood for ketones is that you get a picture of what's happening now, rather than several hours ago which is what you get when you test yr urine. I would definitely take some method of ketone testing with you when you go away.
Sue
 
sofaraway said:
"I'm now on 20 units of Novomix 3 times a day which seems to have worked wonders"

That's why I thought you were still on it three times a day, didn't see where you had reduced it back to 2 times. Anyway my point still sounds basal bolus is better, and something to think about for the near future.


.............

Actually Hazey I thought the same as sofaraway, that's why I couldnt understand why your bg were so high. However, you've now put us all in the picutre with the correct info lol. Like I said in my previous messages to you about using Novomix, it is best used 2/3 daily dose in morning and the other 1/3 before evening meal ( although it can also be used split up into 3 doses, breakfast, lunch and eve meal). I hope that now yr GP has advised you to increase your morning shot, you will start to see a reduction in your bg. Just remember that the insulin will need you to feed it some carb and this will possibly mean that you might have to eat a small carb snack mid morning according to what your bg level is. If you dont eat too much carb for lunch, you might also need to eat a snack mid afternoon as well.

As an alternative to buying a Frio bag, you could do what I have done in the past when going abroad and that is put your insulin in plastic carrier bag (not one with a hole in it lol) and fill the bathroom sink up in your hotel room with cold water and just drop the plastic carrier bag with the insulin inside it into the sink. Works a treat and costs nothing !! You can also use the bidet too and suspend insulin and bottles of lemonade etc in that (just remember not to wee in it pmsl).

Have a nice time :D
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the info folks. My GP is actually considering putting me the 3 times a day regime if the present system doesn't work. I'm actually under quite a lot of stress at the moment which i know isn't going to help my levels. We've got my mother-in-law living with us and she is terminally ill with lung cancer We have one of those baby monitors which we have by the bed. The problem is, obviously, she has very restless nights even with high doses of pain killer so i'm not getting much sleep at all. I know you didn't need to know that but there's no one i can talk to about it as my wife is obviously so stressed about it so apologies if i've bored any of you but i feel slightly better now.

If anyone has any good or bad reports about the frio bags i'd be grateful for it. If i get all good reports i'll invest in one.

BEST WISHES TO YOU AND YOURS !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hazey
 
Hi Hazey,
Sorry to hear you are going through such a stressful time right now. Just you hang in there and remembrer we are all behind you if you need to let off some steam or just want some words of encouragement.

Re the Frio bag - I have had one for around 10 months and I have used it regularly on holidays, both long and short haul. It has been great and has always kept my injection pens nicely chilled for the duration of a trip - generally I find it will stay chilled for around 12 hours but after that the gel crystals start to lose moisture and it becomes less effective. But you only need to re-wet it and it will work for a further 12 hours.

Someone has already mentioned not to carry insulin in your hold luggage because of the danger of freezing. That depends on who you fly with - In most modern planes the cargo hold is now air-conditioned so freezing isn't a problem. I think a bigger problem with hold luggage is the way it is handled (or rather mis-handled) and the fact that anything that looks like it could be (a) a drug or (b) sellable, is likely to not be there when you arrive.
 
Thanksfor the reply Dennis, i'll get one of the frio bags now. With regards to the carrying of them, i would never put anything i remotely cared about or desperately needed into a cargo hold, i've learnt that from past experience. I also rang the airline about my needles i have to take on board and they said i had to have a letter off my GP to take them on. I can see me having problems with security, i'm lucky like that

Thanks again

Hazey
 
You shouldn't have any problems with security. I've got a letter (and I wouldn't travel without one)
but have never had to show it. I was a bit worried about going through security with my pump this time (was scared that they might think I was a suicide bomber with wires sticking out :D ) but they've seen it all before!
 
Hazey

If you're going to buy a Frio bag, get one that's slightly bigger so that you can put your insulin pen in it and a blood sugar meter as well.

Some meters do not function very well when the temperatures go above 30 degrees :wink:
 
I fly quite frequently and, unlike Nellie, I have experienced some occasions where I have offered a GP's letter and they haven't been interested, other occasions where they have asked to see it, and two occasions in the last year (Pisa and Boston) where, despite my explanation and having seen the letter, the security officer demanded that I inject there and then to prove the substance wasn't either a poison or an explosive. On both occasions I had to ask for the airport doctor to be called to explain to the security officer why it was not possible for me to just inject "on demand". I also have an American colleague who is Type-1 and has three times in the last year been refused permission to board flights with his insulin kit because he had left his doctor's letter at home (in New York, Heathrow and Paris).

Whether you take a doctor's letter with you (and be warned - they charge for this) is up to you. But if you hit problems with today's hightened security awareness don't say you weren't warned.
 
Nellie said:
You shouldn't have any problems with security. I've got a letter (and I wouldn't travel without one)
but have never had to show it. I was a bit worried about going through security with my pump this time (was scared that they might think I was a suicide bomber with wires sticking out :D ) but they've seen it all before!
Click to expand...
Nellie,
Don't know why but this image suddenly flashed through my head of you trying to blow up a plane armed only with an insulin pump. Made my day!! :mrgreen:
 
Edited so my joke won't land me with 42 days in the pokey. I hate this country right now.


I've never had problems at airport security, but I always have a doctor's letter with me. The hardest part was convincing the last airline I flew with (when booking) that "no, ALL the insulin has to stay with me - it cannot be left in the baggage hold to freeze at 32k feet!".
 
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