One of the great parts about coming home? Having access to my doctors again, including the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. I was pretty grateful to walk back into that building and have my normal checkups that I have been missing for the last year. I did plan heavily for the diabetes aspect of this
Category: Diabetes
Changing My Mind: Traveling with a Back Up Insulin Pump
Before I left for our trip, I put a lot of thought into whether I wanted to travel with a back up insulin pump. I considered it from all angles, and made a logical decision not to bring a back up—I even wrote about it here explaining my logic. While on this trip, my insulin
Purchasing Insulin while Abroad
I’ve gotten a few emails lately asking about purchasing insulin abroad. So in case anyone is looking for this information, here’s what I know: If possible, I’d always recommend getting as much insulin as you can in your home country, before you depart for any travel. Insulin is pretty compact, which means it won’t eat
Ordering Custom-Made Diabetes Bags
In Vietnam, we spent some time in Hoi An, a town known for making custom-made clothes, bags and shoes. There’s something like 400 tailor shops throughout town—and it’s a small town. The prices really range (as does the quality), but in general a dress can be made for ~$50 US and a full suit can
Managing my A1C during Long-Term Travel
Managing my blood sugars this year has been an adventure, in and of itself. This is partly because keeping my numbers in range felt like a new and different challenge than during any previous travel. During a previous one- or two-week vacation, I wouldn’t worry so much about higher numbers, because it would be “averaged
Shipping CGM and Insulin Pump Supplies Internationally
When we arrived back to our hotel after tracking mountain gorillas in Rwanda, I received a much-anticipated email. The subject line was simply “Success!,” and it brought the wonderful news that my diabetes supplies were successfully picked up from DHL by a very kind friend of ours. It made an already great day that much
Celebrating small successes
We’re currently in Madrid, Spain and spent yesterday walking a bajillion miles around the city. We ran some errands, we saw both botanical gardens and non-botanical gardens, and we attended our very first opera. The plus side of all the walking was a great day of blood sugars, plus very-little-to-no-bolusing for some gelato and a croissant throughout
Please don’t interrupt.
I originally posted this on DiabetesSisters.org about our time at Macchu Picchu back in April. As similar things have happened to me along our travels, I think it’s an important point so I’m reposting here. It wouldn’t be fair to say that I was the type of person who dreamed about going to Machu Picchu my whole life. It
How I Store my OmniPod
I’ve gotten a few questions lately about how I store my OmniPod system. This is one thing that has not changed from my life at home to my life traveling. But considering that several people have asked, I wanted to share my not-so-travel-related solution: While a new OmniPod system comes with a black carrying case—a case