Travel cold cases for spare insulin

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mitchsi

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Type 1
Hi all,

I’m traveling to Belgium next week for 5 days, I expect I’ll just need my current open basal/bolus pens for the trip but I’d also want to take spare which I’d like to put back in the fridge when I get home (hope I don’t need it!). However I’d assume but correct me if I’m wrong - it should stay fridge temp during its duration of my travel. With this I’m thinking a frio type product is not suitable and I’ve found a medigenix icool product 2-8degC 12-18hrs which would get me through the travel part until the hotel fridge.
However, I’m aware that it has cool blocks in it, do airports allow this - has anyone got any experience travelling with this product?
Or am I over thinking this?

In addition to this - am I right in thinking that libre2 sensors are ok with metal detectors but not X-ray?
I’ll have to carry a spare sensor box in my hand rather than leave it in my luggage for x-ray scanning in that case.

Sorry lots of questions, it’s my 1st time biz travel since diagnosis

Any help and experience is appreciated,
 
mitchsi said:
Or am I over thinking this?
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I think so, yes. I think it's probably not great to put insulin in and out of the fridge lots, over a lengthy period. But for 5 days I wouldn't worry about it at all. I think the modern insulins are much more heat stable than some of us think. So absolutely don't freeze them, but don't worry too much about keeping them at room temperature for a while and then putting them in the fridge (or not). I'd worry much more about the possibility the hotel fridge will freeze it (which I'm sure is also unlikely especially if you use the fridge door, but (in my opinion) that's the bigger risk).

 
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Bruce Stephens said:
I think so, yes. I think it's probably not great to put insulin in and out of the fridge lots, over a lengthy period. But for 5 days I wouldn't worry about it at all. I think the modern insulins are much more heat stable than some of us think. So absolutely don't freeze them, but don't worry too much about keeping them at room temperature for a while and then putting them in the fridge (or not). I'd worry much more about the possibility the hotel fridge will freeze it (which I'm sure is also unlikely especially if you use the fridge door, but (in my opinion) that's the bigger risk).

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The idea I had was to keep it in fridge like conditions the whole trip thus no temperature cycling.
I think I remember a conversation actually that if it’s out the fridge for say 2 days of travel then consider after refrigerating it, it is good for 28days during use so that’s another way to think about it. Probably not much harm done.
 
mitchsi said:
I’m traveling to Belgium next week for 5 days, I expect I’ll just need my current open basal/bolus pens for the trip but I’d also want to take spare which I’d like to put back in the fridge when I get home (hope I don’t need it!). However I’d assume but correct me if I’m wrong - it should stay fridge temp during its duration of my travel.
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No. It does not have to stay at fridge temperature all the time.
Insulin is safe out of the fridge for 30 days. Those 30 days do not have to contiguous. If you take it out of the fridge for 5 days and then put it back, it is now safe out of the fridge for another 25 days.
As I have a pump, my insulin pens are back up and taken with me whenever I stay away from home overnight (as I travel for work, this happens a few times a month). I take the insulin cartridges out of the fridge, keep them at room temperature until I return and then put them back in fridge. I do this for a few months and then dispose of the cartridges and start new ones next time I travel.
Like @Bruce Stephens i would rather not trust hotel fridges. Although, it’s rarely an option for work trips when my stays are rarely longer than a couple of days.
 
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helli said:
Like @Bruce Stephens i would rather not trust hotel fridges. Although, it’s rarely an option for work trips when my stays are rarely longer than a couple of days.
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Thanks for the reply, it’s a decent hotel and I’d trust the fridge not to freeze, stayed there many times.
I think you’ve mentioned the contiguous time before and that’s where I remember it from.

Although on the x-ray topic I’m not that confident to not follow manufacturers recommendations, I’ll try to see what security says about it. I’m going Eurostar and theyre usually easier than airport security.
 
I think you're panicking unnecessarily quite honestly. A few cartridges and/or disposable pens can travel and reside perfectly happily in a properly and regularly hydrated Frio for a few weeks anywhere in Europe, Australia, Kuala Lumpur, southern India (Goa twice, Kerala once) and the Dominican Republic complete with the latter's daily electricity cuts and Oh what a surprise - I'm not dead yet.

You take twice as much everything as you reasonably expect to need whilst you're there, whether its Timbuktu or Towcester. Disposable cartridges - your repeat scrip needs to be 2 boxes at a time and as soon as you run out of one box of cartridges you always order 2 more. Vials for pumps, ditto, 2 at a time on perpetual repeat ad infinitum. So always plenty in the fridge at home - although there's nowt you use that isn't available in Belgium, so no different to your visiting Brum for a few days in truth.

I presume you already have an EHIC/GHIC - they still work the same - instant access to the same state healthcare as locals.
 
trophywench said:
I think you're panicking unnecessarily quite honestly. A few cartridges and/or disposable pens can travel and reside perfectly happily in a properly and regularly hydrated Frio for a few weeks anywhere in Europe, Australia, Kuala Lumpur, southern India (Goa twice, Kerala once) and the Dominican Republic complete with the latter's daily electricity cuts and Oh what a surprise - I'm not dead yet.

You take twice as much everything as you reasonably expect to need whilst you're there, whether its Timbuktu or Towcester. Disposable cartridges - your repeat scrip needs to be 2 boxes at a time and as soon as you run out of one box of cartridges you always order 2 more. Vials for pumps, ditto, 2 at a time on perpetual repeat ad infinitum. So always plenty in the fridge at home - although there's nowt you use that isn't available in Belgium, so no different to your visiting Brum for a few days in truth.

I presume you already have an EHIC/GHIC - they still work the same - instant access to the same state healthcare as locals.
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Well I wouldn’t say I’m panicking ;-) just concerned enough to ask for peoples experience.

Thanks for the reassurance, I don’t want to waste unnecessarily but seems I won’t need to. I wanted to purchase a frio anyway but this cooler is not a tonne of money either.
 
trophywench said:
A few cartridges and/or disposable pens can travel and reside perfectly happily in a properly and regularly hydrated Frio for a few weeks anywhere in Europe, Australia, Kuala Lumpur, southern India (Goa twice, Kerala once) and the Dominican Republic complete with the latter's daily electricity cuts and Oh what a surprise - I'm not dead yet.
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I'd add Miami, Barbados, Venezuela, Morocco, Tamil Nandu, Ghana, and probably more if I put my mind to it. As I was often camping, I didn't have to worry about power cuts - electricity was just a dream for some of these places. 😎
 
Bruce Stephens said:
That's true. Quite likely airports would be OK not X-raying them, but I just never asked.
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I’m going to ask at the Eurostar about skipping the x-ray to gauge their reaction and exposure to this type of thing.
It will be a new learning curve.
 
helli said:
I'd add Miami, Barbados, Venezuela, Morocco, Tamil Nandu, Ghana, and probably more if I put my mind to it. As I was often camping, I didn't have to worry about power cuts - electricity was just a dream for some of these places. 😎
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Yeah the frio looks good, although it’ll be some time before I’m travelling somewhere without electricity
My main question was that if I don’t need the extra insulin I take (because the trip is uneventful) then I’d put it back in the fridge once I get home, however if it’s not refrigerated all the time perhaps the room doesn’t even have a fridge it would reduce its shelf life too much. But yeah I can see why it’s not a concern now.
Useful discussion for me tho so thanks all
 
And that last comment of yours is exactly why I said never run out of more than enough insulin at home - so if you start using the insulin you brought back from hol cos it goes off early, you have quite enough to just lob what's gorn orf and forget about it.
 
I haven't traveled abored but I have traveled on coach journeys sometimes when I've gone to my parents what which when including the change has been over 5 hours before and my insulin always been fine. I just put in the fridge once I got to my parents house and then home at other end). I think now that the whole 28 days thong could be manufacturers covering themselves.
 
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