Travelling to Asia and Australia with Type 1 diabetes

Mary1994 said:

I've been a type 1 diabetic for 3 years and I'm 22. In March I'm going to be travelling to Asia for 3 months then going onto Australia to do a working visa. I requested 4 months prescription to allow me to sign onto the Australian health care system when I get there and in case of theft or emergencies as my monthly prescription will literally only cover 3 months exactly. However, my doctors surgery have refused to give me anymore than 3 months worth of prescription and told me I Would "have to sort myself out" . Obviously I know there is medication available around the world but as I'll be in rural areas at some parts of my trip I wanted to be extra prepared and am worried they won't have my exact medication etc (especially my Glucomen testing strips). I was just wondered if anyone else has had this problem as I'm super scared about it all and want to enjoy my trip and not worry!

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I've never had an issue requesting any amount of my medication and/or supplies. However, I've never requested that much in one go.

Insulin though, you wouldn't have requested 3 months worth of that at a time surely? It would become unstable between: pharmacy to home, home to airport, airport to Asia, etc... That just leaves test strips really, where there shouldn't be much of an issue requesting a good amount.

That's surely rubbish as currently I'm on a year abroad so I get 4 months and just stock pile the rest ! Also if you carry a photocopy of your prescription you'll be able to get it just have to probably pay for it ! My suggestion would be if you haven't put in a script for a while put one I'm now and then one in march just before you go ! Also you could get your comstulant to write a letter that's what mine did and as he explained to me it's because they don't want a to go over budget and b they don't want you to sell it on which is fair enough but annoying when we diabetics want to go travelling !

Ooh, Mary, I'm so envious! Spent 6 months backpacking in Asia many years ago, best experience of my life.

Had the same trouble persuading the GP to give me enough for six months, he was paranoid the insulin would go off, so I told him, look, I'll take the risk because here's the dilemma: if you give me 6 months and it goes off, I'll find more, whereas if you're just going to give me a couple of months supply, I will then have no option but to find more in two months anyway, not because it has gone off but because I'll have simply run out because of his decision to not give me enough. Got the six month supply, it only saw a fridge a couple of times, and I had no problems at all with it.

Mind you, this was 18 years ago, can't remember what type it was, maybe modern insulins are more sensitive to heat (or maybe the lawyers are more paranoid!).

Anyway, enjoy it! Had "happy birthday to you" sung to me in Laotian in a wild west themed bar in Vientiane at 3am on my 30th birthday - who says T1D holds us back?!