Question on Travelling for Type 1 Diabetes

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Emma Fisher

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Hi,
So my best friend and I are planning on going travelling for a year (maybe 18 months) around most of Asia and Australia and NZ.
So I need help on what to do about my medication!!

I have lots of medical conditions including type 1 diabetes.
I've just been to see my GP and she said she can basically give me the years worth of tablets I'll need but she doesn't know how i'd get my insulin. Obviously I can take a lot with me but it's not very practical to be taking a years worth of tablets let alone a years worth of insulin! Especially considering it needs to be kept cold etc.

So I was just wondering if anyone's done this before and if taking it all with me is my only option? Or would it be possible for my GP to send an electronic prescription abroad for me to collect at different pharmacies along the way (as long as I'm incredibly organised!) and would this cost me anything? And if so would I be able to claim any money back when I'm home? Or alternatively would I be able to just bring a prescription with me and collect from pharmacies out in Asia, and again how much would this cost?
I use Levemir & Novorapid (by novo nordisk).

Also any ideas on good companies that would offer me a years worth of travel insurance for a reasonable price?
(Conditions: Type 1 diabetes, coeliac disease, underactive thyroid, bile acid malabsorption & fibromyalgia)

Thanks in advance!!
 
Welcome to the forum, Emma Fisher.
I'm surprised that your GP is able to prescribe a year of medications, as 3 months is the usual limit. Some countries eg Australia and New Zealand have reciprocal health arrangements with NHS
Keeping insulin cool isn't too difficult. When travelling overseas, I carry insulin in a stainless steel vacuum flask and place cartridges in a fridge when I can.
For long term travel insurance, specialist backpackers' insurance is usually the most appropriate.
 
You would need to check whether your regular medications are even available in all the countries you want to visit - for instance, only certain brands of insulin are available in Egypt (we used to have an ex-pat Type 1 member, married to an Egyptian and living there, on another D forum I belong to - and there were certain makes of insulin not licensed there - can't recall now which though) and the same thing could apply to anything from tablets to indigestion relievers.

If a drug is not available 'over the counter' from a pharmacy in any country (including all the others in the EU) then it is necessary to obtain a local prescription for it first. Again - in most places you'd have to pay at least something to see the doc for the scrip, and then have to pay whatever for the drugs. I don't know of ANY country where both are free other than the UK. Again - just go over the France - €23 to see a GP last year, same as locals pay every time they go - and then a co-pay system for the drugs at the pharmacy - same as locals pay - then the French health service, because you show your EHIC card, claim the remainder of the cost of the drugs back from the NHS. In Australia to access the reciprocal healthcare agreement you have to pre-register with Medicare in whatever state you are seeking medical services in (unless it's Emergency treatment direct with a hospital) and only then is the GP visit and the prescription free, otherwise you have to pay - $60 to the GP when we went 10 years ago - then you just pay the same reduced co-pay price in the pharmacy there that Ozzies would pay, cos no drugs are free even for most diabetics.

Soooo - it ain't simple! So - you need to do your homework before you take off.

How about sending the same question to the Home Office here and asking them for advice about what's available where, on your list?
 
Hey! I have type 1 and have recently just got back from 2 months in Asia and was in Aus for a year prior to that!
In Aus getting diabetes supplies is ridiculously easy and fairly cheap. First sign up for Medicare and as a U.K. Citizen this entitles you to see a dr for free. Once you have done this you can then sign up for the NDSS which enables you to get free needles and lancets and subsidised test strips. Insulin is unfortunately not subsided but having Medicare means you get a 'cap' on how much they can charge you. Towards the end of my stay I needed a bit more insulin to see me until I got home (I had taken enough to last me all year) and the dr told me it was the same cost to me to get 5 boxes (so 25 vials) of insulin as it was to just get one box (due to one box making me hit the cap so anything over that is free!) so I paid $30 approx for all that insulin!

I would definitely not have taken all that with me if I had known.

Asia is a bit trickier and I would take with you all you need for there (but get in Aus if you are doing Asia after Aus!) I take humalog and levemir and neither were available in Vietnam!

Frio packs are a god send for keeping the insulin cold. I got two of the extra large ones and just put all my vials in there. I also did make sure when booking a hotel it had a private fridge in the room. This wasn't always possible so I used to fill the sink up on a night and put all my insulin in it whilst I gave my Frio a break!

Just let me know if you have any questions!
 
Welcome @Sibarron23. Good to have such a seasoned traveller in here.
 
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