Travelling with Type 1 - insulin

[marina winter]

Apologies I’ve read several threads but am still a bit confused, does insulin need to be refrigerated during flights/airport and the holiday duration?
If it does can anyone recommend anything?

 

[Robin]

How long are you going for?
Insulin is fine at room temperature for 28 days after you take it out of the fridge. (Lantus may be 6 weeks, check the leaflet if you use this). So it will be fine travelling in your hand luggage.
Some people like to use a Frio pouch which you soak, and it cools by evaporation. It’s not the same as a fridge, but if you’re going somewhere hot, it can keep it a bit cooler. (Obviously, I’d try and keep it out of the sun, say, in a hot car or a hot bag on a beach).
If I had access to my own fridge on hol, eg in an apartment, I’d put my spare insulin in it when I got there.(check the fridge is working correctly and it doesn’t freeze it, one of our members has just had a panic with frozen insulin, and that nearly happened to me once). If I don’t have a fridge, I just keep it in a drawer in my hotel room.
When you come home, if your spare insulin has been out of the fridge for 28 days, discard it. Otherwise, I put mine back in the fridge at home, but I make sure I use it next.

 

[marina winter]

Thank you for your reply, really helpful.
It’s Turkey and mega hot so I’ll get a Frio pouch and check for a fridge in the hotel.
Thank you again x

 

[rebrascora]

As I understand it, your insulin should be carried on the flight in hand luggage and is fine at room temperature, but technically the 28 day clock or whatever your insulin specifies its life out of the fridge as, starts ticking, even on unopened pens cartridges or vials. If you put the unopened ones in the fridge when you get to your destination, the clock stops again, so essentially you have used one day of your 28 days in transit, so 27 days left on the unopened cartridges.... assuming you have access to a fridge and can be confident (as you ever can be) that it isn't going to freeze your insulin and I would not store it in a communal fridge for security reasons. If you do not have access to a fridge then a Frio pouch should keep it cool but you will have to recharge it regularly to keep it cool.... it works by water evaporation from a gel in the pouch. There seems to be some debate about whether carrying the Frio on board a plane charged with water constitutes liquid, but the insulin will not overheat in the cabin so I don't see that it is necessary unless you are going to worry about losing one day out of 28. If you are carrying your in use insulin around with you in excessive heat, then you are best to use a Frio pouch for that too or indeed the same Frio pouch for in use and reserve insulin if you need to. I would not be concerned about in-use insulin unless temperatures were mid 30s or above and even then it will not fully degrade, just become less effective, Same on the way home. All the insulin can travel at room temperature but it will take another day out of its usable life, but in the frio bag or the fridge the clock should stop counting down and will stop when you return it to the fridge at home, so your spare pens or vials might only loose 2 or 3 days worth of useability from the travel to your destination and home provided it is kept at a reasonable temp (not excessively hot or freezing cold) in transit and in a fridge whilst on holiday.

A regular member has just reported that the fridge had been turned right down by the previous users of the holiday let they were using and she didn't notice until she found her insulin frozen in the fridge, so she has had to organize an emergency supply as she is due to change cartridges whilst on holiday, so do keep a close eye on fridge temp for the first day if you are using a fridge at your destination.

Hopefully I have got that right, but as with anything diabetes related we all do things slightly differently.

 

[marina winter]

Thank you for your reply, again really helpful

 

[Lucyr]

Apologies I’ve read several threads but am still a bit confused, does insulin need to be refrigerated during flights/airport and the holiday duration?
If it does can anyone recommend anything?

No unless you’re away more than 30 days