5 TIPS FOR TRAVELING WITH TYPE 2 DIABETES

Fact checked by Nick BlackmerFact checked by Nick Blackmer

Managing type 2 diabetes is an everyday job. That means that even as you travel, you have to take steps to keep your blood sugar under control. Health’s Type 2 Diabetes Advocate Alysse Dalessandro is an expert traveler. She explains what she does to manage her diabetes even when she is away from home.

I’m sitting in a chair with the wooden arms squeezing my thighs. There’s a smell of antiseptic in the air. My nerves are completely wrecked. I should be at home packing for my first cruise, but instead, I am at the doctor’s office waiting to pee in a cup. I came in just the day before for a full physical, but only so my insurance would completely cover the visit. I just needed a prescription for motion sickness patches—I feel fine.

“You have diabetes,” the doctor tells me. An A1C over 10 confirms the diagnosis, and a urine test will confirm which type of diabetes I have. The frequent trips to the bathroom in the middle of the night, the way my mouth feels painfully dry when I wake up, the sudden unexplained weight loss—it turns out those were all symptoms of diabetes.

“Can I still go on the cruise tomorrow?” is among the first questions I ask the doctor. He looks back at me, shocked. He explains that if it’s type 2 diabetes, I can go on the cruise armed with new medications, a blood glucose meter, and a strict order to not drink any alcohol or touch a dessert.

At that moment, managing type 2 diabetes may have been completely foreign to me, but with the diagnosis came a realization: Your life can change at any moment. I decided in that doctor’s office I would not let diabetes rule my life. I left that office with a renewed sense of purpose. I was determined to make memories and challenge myself with new experiences while I still could.

On that cruise, I explored the ocean floor in a submarine, went cave tubing, and ziplined, all for the first time. As I was soaring through the jungle in Belize, I couldn’t help but wonder if my fear would’ve held me back from this experience just a week earlier. Traveling with diabetes on that first trip after my diagnosis had its complications, but it also fueled me.

More than eight years later, I am a content creator sharing my experiences as a plus-size queer person traveling with type 2 diabetes to thousands of folks across social media. I don’t take vacations as a break from a desk job—it’s my job to travel and explore new places. One week I am hiking Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland, and the next week I am looking up at Juliet’s balcony in Verona, Italy.

I don’t have all the answers, but having visited nearly 30 countries in the past eight years, I have learned some things along the way that I hope will help others with diabetes who want to travel.

1. Consider Wearing a Continuous Glucose Monitor 

Before that first cruise, my doctor handed me a paper schedule of when I should check my blood glucose levels. I had to bring my blood glucose meter, needles, test strips, and sharps container with me to every meal as I tracked the numbers on that paper schedule. While I was armed with more information than before my diagnosis, this was certainly not the best way for me to monitor my blood glucose levels. I realized I wanted something more efficient.

For the past four years, I have been wearing a continuous glucose monitor (CGM). This has absolutely transformed my experience traveling with diabetes. My CGM tracks my blood glucose levels by using a sensor attached to my arm and sends the readings to an app on my phone via Bluetooth.

Using a CGM takes the guesswork out of traveling with diabetes. Instead of getting a snapshot of my numbers a few times throughout the day with finger pricks, I am able to see what my numbers are at any time, even what they were when I was sleeping. Data are power when you have diabetes. I use this information to look for trends.

I love that at 30,000 feet in the air, I can still get a reading and make an informed decision when the flight attendant says, “Chicken or pasta?”

2. Pack Extras 

If there’s one thing I’ve learned while traveling over the past four years, it’s to expect the unexpected: Always buy the travel insurance, and pack extra! Now, by pack extra, I don’t mean pack three pairs of jeans for a weekend trip to Mexico “just in case.” I am referring specifically to the supplies you use to manage your diabetes.

I got my first CGM in early 2020, and a few months later, with travel still mostly shut down, I decided to go on a 50+ hour road trip to Yellowstone National Park. I left with a fresh CGM on my arm that would last me the next 14 days. Although this was a lot of driving, we planned to do most of it over the course of a week, and it did not even occur to me to pack an extra CGM in my bag just in case.

Well, luck would have it that as I pulled into a parking spot in Cheyenne, Wyoming, more than 1,200 miles from home, I accidentally caught my CGM on my seatbelt, and it fell off. I spent the next few hours on the phone trying to get my prescription transferred to the one pharmacy in the entire state of Wyoming that had my CGM in stock. This whole snafu added hours to an already long day of driving.

If your insurance or budget allows it, make sure you have devices and medications beyond the length of your trip. Better safe than stranded in Wyoming, unable to track your blood glucose levels.

3. Maintain Your Medication Schedule 

If you have traveled between Asia and the United States, then you already know what it feels like to switch your days and nights. My recent trip had me leaving my hometown in Cleveland on a Friday morning and arriving in Bali on a Monday morning. By the time I finally arrived, I didn’t know what time or day it was.

I did not want to take more than or less than my recommended daily and nightly medications during this cross-continent flight. I set alarms for the length of time between what would be my “breakfast” and “dinner” medications rather than basing it off the time at home or the time at my destination.

I also decided to bring protein-dense snacks that didn’t require refrigeration so that if the inflight meals did not align with the time I needed to take my medications with food, I could still stay on schedule.

4. Be Mindful of Your Meals

Speaking of meals, traveling makes it a lot more challenging to plan your meals. I personally love the spontaneity of travel meals, but my diabetes isn’t always on board. It’s also not as easy to plan when your next meal might be, especially if you are traveling with a guide or group.

Even as a seasoned traveler, I can still mess up the timing of my meals. Before a recent evening transatlantic flight, I ate a snack at the airport and took my dinner medications. I figured that, as with most transatlantic flights, the dinner service would occur as soon as the flight reached a cruising altitude.

Over three hours later, it was almost midnight, and the dinner cart still loomed far down the aisle. My CGM alarms rang out loudly and flashed red as my blood glucose levels dipped into dangerous territory. I rang my flight attendant call button and asked for two emergency glasses of orange juice. That flight was a scary reminder to always keep my snacks for lows close by and ask about meal times rather than assume.

5. Drink Water

Access to clean drinking water should be a basic human right, but traveling to certain parts of the world will show you how inaccessible this vital resource can be. I have seen how quickly my body and blood glucose levels react when I don’t drink enough water.

Places with higher elevations or hotter temperatures require an even greater water intake. This is even more important for people with diabetes, who can become dehydrated more quickly.

Some people with diabetes also cannot cool their bodies as quickly, and being in places near the Equator like Colombia, I was absolutely feeling these side effects. 

Final Thoughts

Going on a cruise just one day after receiving my diagnosis has set the tone for my current life traveling with diabetes. There are certainly times when I am scared or uncertain, but I have learned to be more aware of what’s going on in my body. I have also learned to better advocate for myself and educate others about diabetes management while traveling.

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2024-08-13T19:04:44Z dg43tfdfdgfd