Experience of diabetes abroad

Mad76 · Jul 27, 2020

Hi all,
Just interested to know how peoples experiences of diabetic meds abroad are. ..

I'll start...

I've been in Algeria for work for almost a year now

Can buy everything over the counter in pharmacies .no need for prescriptions !

Metformin
Needles

Was happy to see they have the same insulin pens as back home . So can buy novorapid and lantus over the counter.

Pills very cheap. Insulin also reasonably priced

Only negative is I cant get libre here. Have to get them posted over to me.

Mad76 · Jul 27, 2020

Plus the pharmacist had never heard of glucotabs
Laughed and said if bg is low mix sugar in water, and drink

rochari · Jul 27, 2020

Due to a work commitment, I spent a year on a small and quite remote Greek island close to 20 years ago. I’d visited a good few times before that and knew there was only one very, very small pharmacy which doubled up as a food and furniture store!

On the short visit before the secondment began I took with me a list of my insulins, injecting pens, needles etc. At that time I was using, I think, the Hypoguard Blood Testing machine and thought getting strips for that would be a problem so had already changed over to an Accu-check (or similar) before the move. The reply from the pharmacist after looking down the items was 'no problem' but I had my doubts although I shouldn't have.

Not once did they let me down. I had to pay for all items but feel sure I claimed some of the cost back under the E111 scheme when I eventually came home. My memory is a bit hazy about that though.

What I do remember with fondness though is sometimes, after buying some of my medication, one of the staff would arrive at my door days later to let me know only one replacement item had been delivered to them from the mainland. I was always assured more would be coming on another ferry within the week and thankfully, it always did.

I remember once going into the little pharmacy just as a hypo began. I asked if they could quickly find me some sugar and water. No, was the response it was honey I needed. I asked again for sugar and water as I’d begun to feel that horrible jerkiness beginning but they were not having it. They sat me down, pushed my head gently back and administered what felt like half a jar of the golden liquid. The pharmacist waited patiently then after seeing I was OK put his overalls back on and strolled outside to continue working on his little truck.

Bill

Mad76 · Jul 27, 2020

rochari said:
Due to a work commitment, I spent a year on a small and quite remote Greek island close to 20 years ago. I’d visited a good few times before that and knew there was only one very, very small pharmacy which doubled up as a food and furniture store!

On the short visit before the secondment began I took with me a list of my insulins, injecting pens, needles etc. At that time I was using, I think, the Hypoguard Blood Testing machine and thought getting strips for that would be a problem so had already changed over to an Accu-check (or similar) before the move. The reply from the pharmacist after looking down the items was 'no problem' but I had my doubts although I shouldn't have.

Not once did they let me down. I had to pay for all items but feel sure I claimed some of the cost back under the E111 scheme when I eventually came home. My memory is a bit hazy about that though.

What I do remember with fondness though is sometimes, after buying some of my medication, one of the staff would arrive at my door days later to let me know only one replacement item had been delivered to them from the mainland. I was always assured more would be coming on another ferry within the week and thankfully, it always did.

I remember once going into the little pharmacy just as a hypo began. I asked if they could quickly find me some sugar and water. No, was the response it was honey I needed. I asked again for sugar and water as I’d begun to feel that horrible jerkiness beginning but they were not having it. They sat me down, pushed my head gently back and administered what felt like half a jar of the golden liquid. The pharmacist waited patiently then after seeing I was OK put his overalls back on and strolled outside to continue working on his little truck.

Bill

Sounds like a good experience Bill.

I would have been really nervous travelling somewhere so remote with one pharmacy !

rochari · Jul 27, 2020

Aye, it could be an adventure, Mad76. I worked regularly in Greece for 40 years and sometimes would have more problems with pharmacies in Athens than on small islands and usually for medicines that were not diabetes related. In the early days, there was never a sticky label attached to anything but you were given a handwritten letter-style note from the pharmacist. God bless hotel staff who'd to usually translate for me although over the years I was able to do that myself.

I remember once in the early days, on an old ramshackle ferry, sitting in a loo trying to inject my insulin. The seas were very rough and sea-water completely covered the floor of the gent's toilet, sometimes rising well up over my ankles as the ship heavily rolled. I think it was the only time I felt the hair rising on the back of my neck because I was convinced we were going to sink. Once insulin pens came around it was easy to discretely inject but in those days,with the glass syringes, usually a toilet was where I'd go to take it. Also, you never knew if food would be available on ferries and I recall almost always carrying packets of Greek-style digestive biscuits in my suitcase. Those were one of the few things that could be bought everywhere which were labelled with their carbohydrate content. Those 'saved' me a good few times.

Bill

Experience of diabetes abroad

Mad76

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Mad76

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rochari

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Mad76

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rochari

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Experience of diabetes abroad

Mad76

Well-Known Member

Mad76

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rochari

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Mad76

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rochari

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