Type 1 - Skiing Holiday

What a great post JRW, pleased you had a great holiday, hope your good progress continues

JRW said:

Hi All,

I thought I'd share a good story, I just got back from Meribel, after a week of snowboarding in the Alps. I was diagnosed a Type 1, two years ago aged 38, I went for my first snow holiday this time last year, and managed OK, but not great. This year the snowboarding was much better, managed my BG much better, and I also found out one of our chalet hosts doing a season, was also a type 1. I really admire the guts of her to do something like that, and take on that challenge, especially at a relatively young age. All I can say is that T1 should not stop you pushing the boundaries, and living a different life.

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Thanks for this
Glad you had a good holiday
How did you deal with the travel insurance?
Thanks
Beaver Lee

Glad your holiday went well and yes how cool to have a type 1 chalet host - lots of stories/experience to share.

This is my favourite subject Skiing and type 1 - type 1 hasn't stopped me doing this, it's easily manageable except I don't personally get many hypo symptoms due to the altitiude !! Just a case or reducing the apres ski activity so it doesn't impact on the following day, otherwise lots of jelly babies, hot chocolate and skiing !

JRW said:

Hi BL, I didn't notify my travel insurance, it's not something that they've ever asked about.

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Thank you
The skiing went well.
The insurance was about £5 more.

JRW said:

Hi All,

I thought I'd share a good story, I just got back from Meribel, after a week of snowboarding in the Alps. I was diagnosed a Type 1, two years ago aged 38, I went for my first snow holiday this time last year, and managed OK, but not great. This year the snowboarding was much better, managed my BG much better, and I also found out one of our chalet hosts doing a season, was also a type 1. I really admire the guts of her to do something like that, and take on that challenge, especially at a relatively young age. All I can say is that T1 should not stop you pushing the boundaries, and living a different life.

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That's awesome JRW!
TeamBG are hoping to do a skiing holiday and advertise to all with diabetes sometime in the future. It would be great if you could join in! www.teambloodglucose.com

@JRW - it's worth notifying your travel insurance company. As a pre-existing condition, if you were to need emergency service treatment for a hypo or hyper, your insurance would not cover it if you hadn't told them.

One useful skiing tip I picked up from a very good consultant specialising in sporty type 1’s, is that it's hard for the body to raise its internal temperature when blood sugar is 3 or less and so its really important to keep sugars up when it's cold. Posting this in March is obviously less than ideal right at the end of the season though!

I've had type1 for 36yrs and i have never let it hold me back from doing anything which has included going around various countries mountain climbing,skiing and mountain biking.
yeah everyone look after yourself but enjoy life and don't be scared to push the limits.

Thanks so much for all the suggestions and advice.

Five things:

1/ The small, round, soft goats' cheeses for our packed lunch showed up as liquids.
The lady on the outward trip dealing with this custom's "alert" was great.
She also has T1 and just packaged them up in the plastic bags for liquids.
In future we will be taking hard cheeses for our snacks for travelling.

2/ The hospital gave us a covering letter re the needles and medication for customs.
This was needed, especially for coming back, some officials at Chambréy were less friendly.

3/ The hospital also advised lessening the basal dose a little.
(Apparently this was something to do with the effects of altitude.)

4/ As Tim mentions re the importance of making sure of insurance cover - there was an extra to pay.
Also we made sure that all the normal details plus holiday details were all in the bracelet too.

5/ The dietician at the hospital was helpful with ideas and recipes for things to make and take with us for our low carb high fat diet ( we follow a mix of GAPS / SCD and Dr Bernstein's dietary advice: basically using food which fit both sets of criteria.)

What took the effort was getting my brain around it all ready for a new environment.
It actually was not any more difficult. We ate well, and didn't go hungry.


Thanks so much for all the encouragement.
Beaver Lee

JaneC said:

One useful skiing tip I picked up from a very good consultant specialising in sporty type 1’s, is that it's hard for the body to raise its internal temperature when blood sugar is 3 or less and so its really important to keep sugars up when it's cold. Posting this in March is obviously less than ideal right at the end of the season though!

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Thank you for this.
I had not heard this before.
Beaver Lee