Had Type 1 for a little while now (approaching 45 + years) and not once have I ever forgotten to bring my Tupperware box with my insulin bearing mind I have worked overseas for many years on rotation - until a couple of weeks ago that is. I’m currently on the Medtronic 780G using Humalog. Heading across to Thailand & Japan for a much awaited family vacation with my wife & son and I ‘somehow’ left it in the fridge on the morning of the flight, yes and at the point of the aircraft doors closing I then realised, before the cold body drain took over along with shock horror & anger (no doubt this caused a rotten sugar level spike at that precise point ) - So whilst en route with a cold sweat I decided to check options after paying for the WiFi up in the clouds. Once we landed, firstly in Abu Dhabi (no luck in the airport pharmacy) then in Thailand still with no idea (except I was going to fly home that night already exhausted) we came out of the airport to get a taxi to a private hospital (it was a Sat & a 4 day holiday too to make things worse) - They ‘only’ had Actrapid which I had used many years ago with insulatard - it was explained (but don’t quote me on this) that insulin in Thailand is only via a prescription and unavailable over the counter without this. After much googling on the prev 2 flights I decided that actrapid it was to be as this was the only option, it took a ‘lot’ more monitoring & insulin dosage as my BG seemed to be through the roof initially as expected and more hydration to get things under control once I started using it in the pump for a few days with a bit of jiggery to load up the pump reservoir from the 3 ml vials instead of the 10 ml vials, but it did work. Luckily some friends were flying out 4 days after who kindly picked up the Tupperware without too much trouble. We did manage to find a pharmacy within Thailand that could get Humalog NR etc but this took time to find and it wasn’t guaranteed with it being a holiday - Point of Interest here - do be careful and maybe don’t leave in the fridge the night before or leave a note for yourself as anything is possible and I’d never have believed that I could have forgotten something as important as my insulin, but it’s happened - I did contact my hospital DN who replied after 4 days saying don’t use Actrapid and instead get Novorapid & Lantus - not great advise based on the circumstances which I’d explained with no other option as we where heading onwards on another flight later that day, it cost approx £60 for a box of 5 x 3ml vials which I was ok with. Other than that the holiday was great. ✈️
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