Diabetes Canada is delighted to invite you to a special webinar presentation for individuals living with and impacted by diabetes. We will be hosting a dynamic conversation on travel, including preparing for trips, managing medications & supplies, and what you need to know during COVID-19. In addition to learning more about best practices and common questions, this webinar will provide an opportunity to ask the experts about your concerns and access key resources.
Featured Speakers:
Chris Jarvis, Canadian Olympian rower and founder & president of I Challenge Diabetes https://ichallengediabetes.org
Amanda Gill, Destination Expert with Kensington Tours. Both live with type 1 diabetes https://kensingtontours.com
welcome everyone uh my name is brooks
roach i'm a diabetes education
specialist with diabetes canada
and i'd like to welcome all here today
and start by acknowledging that i am
joining this webinar from the
traditional and unseated territory of
the migma people
prince edward island and wherever you're
joining or watching from i invite you to
express gratitude and recognize the land
on which we live
and the past inhabitants of these
indigenous lands we now call canada
so i am here joined by a couple of
wonderful guests today to talk about
something that may feel a little bit
unfamiliar after the past roughly 18
months and that is travel
so it's likely been a while for you and
we wanted to take this chance to offer a
reminder or introduction to the best
strategies for managing diabetes well on
the road in the air and all places in
between so we're joined today by chris
jarvis who is an olympic grower and
founder of i challenge diabetes
christian type 1 diabetes welcome chris
and amanda gill who also lives with type
1 diabetes and is a destination expert
with kensington tours
and has tracked nearly 60 countries so
welcome and thanks thank you to you both
uh really excited to hear what you have
to say on this topic
we'll be covering some key topics around
travel and we'll also be taking
questions from you our viewers so if at
any point through the the webinar you
have a question or comment feel free to
post it in the facebook comments and we
will pose it to our guests
some questions have already been
submitted and uh feel free to to keep
engaged
so we're going to go ahead and get
started with amanda
and the question i want to quote to you
amanda is what are the key differences
that people with diabetes will notice
when they're traveling now compared to
before covet 19.
hi thanks brett brooks
so i mean i think the first thing to
acknowledge is that
travel can be stressful at the best of
times um but certainly with
added measures for coved it can be more
stressful um so be mindful of that that
you you know may end up with you know
extra stress spikes to your blood sugar
for
no apparent reason
um but one of my biggest pieces of
advice is to be prepared there's going
to be longer lines are potentially
either and
you know things like less service on
flights so be prepared with you know
extra low supplies and snacks um i've
experienced in pearson airport the water
fountains have been blocked off
um so i normally bring an empty reusable
bottle to then fill up when i go through
that's not a as easy to do anymore
um you're gonna be need to be wearing a
mask throughout your flight uh with the
exception of eating and drinking
um
wearing a mask is always a challenge
we're all used to it now
um but one thing i've done on flights is
i actually bring a straw that way when i
am thirsty i don't need to remove my
mask and i can just slide the straw
under my mask to have it have a drink
um
as well on shorter flights and you know
instead of having a meal on the plane
and having to remove my mask for that
uh i might eat beforehand and on a
longer flight if you're going
internationally um you might get hungry
in eight or ten hours
so just
you know kind of understanding and being
comfortable with taking off your mask
for those meals and before putting it um
before putting it back on
um i have found on domestic flights that
there is less service um being offered
um
smaller meal selections
uh
so again maybe you're bringing your own
snacks uh which you may already be doing
but uh just be prepared that you may not
have you know you may only be able to
have that
tin of pringles by the time they get to
your your seat uh trust me that happened
to me this summer that that was all they
had when when the the meal cart reached
my aisle
so those are um
you know a few little tips for the
flights
um and then as well if you're traveling
internationally you may have
requirements for taking pcr tests
beforehand
showing those results showing
vaccination certificates
so again being prepared for those longer
lines making sure you've got your low
supplies with you
because you may not be able to run to a
kiosk to buy to buy a juice um if
something happens
hey yeah thank you amanda i personally i
haven't been on a plane since early
early 2020 so um
the the resounding tip that i keep
hearing is making sure that you have for
example any proof of vaccination any you
know vaccine passport any um basically
just stocking up on whatever new forms
of paperwork that have appeared in the
last couple of years as well as taking a
bit of extra time to stock up on on low
supplies is that the pro tip
um
so the next question is going to be go
to chris and this is sort of looking at
travel a bit more in general outside of
the scope of what has the pandemic done
and that question would be
if i have travel on the horizon if i'm
planning a trip what are the key steps
that i should take in the planning phase
thanks brooks and uh definitely when i
was younger um
i didn't do much travel with my family
we were very like locally based and so
it's actually my my sport that drew me
out of it and i think that's a wonderful
thing for all of you that are watching
this webinar today you've already
realized that you could learn from your
teammates and diabetes canada is putting
on this webinar here to help share some
insights so please feel free to ask
questions um i think i was so
accelerated in my learning because of my
teammates around me
now one of the things that they didn't
have is all of my rowing teammates which
was the the main thing that i was doing
on the national rowing team
as they didn't have diabetes and so
there were some of those things that i
had to learn the hard way and so you
know we first off think about our
supplies that we might need for day to
day and then if you think about the
things you might want to do on that
travel horizon that's going to help you
to start to zoom in on that so you can
be prepared for it so we have learned
that there's lots of other um
types of gear that comes along with
those sports or activities that you
might want to do
so a dry bag for example is something
that you can roll up and keep your
supplies safe from water if you could
believe it i went rowing
for um 18 practices a week until i got
to the olympic level and i'd never heard
of or seen a dry bag and then i went on
a white water rafting trip and other
people had dry bags for their
electronics and i didn't have that for
my diabetes gear
so that was something that i really
encourage you to do is not only to think
about what you need but think about what
other people are doing in that
environment and how could you adapt that
to be your diabetes support i mean a big
thing for me has been traveling is the
diet in that local area and that could
be some brand new foods that you might
be expecting for me living with celiac
it kind of puts a little extra pressure
on it but to start calculating and
thinking okay so there's a rice based
diet i'm gonna have to get really good
with that and get a little bit prepared
so it's not bringing any extra anxiety
and you can deal with it in advance um i
remember even just in being in the south
of uh the united states some of the
portion sizes down there were
monstrous and
i was pretty excited about it to be
honest but it definitely meant that i
needed to be calculating a different
amount of insulin and a different amount
of activity to balance that all out
or bring some to-go containers if
nothing else lastly i would just
encourage you to think about the
language that you need to be uh thinking
about and if you're going for an
extended trip or a trip to a remote
place somewhere that you wouldn't be
able to access the type of medical
supplies that you're bringing you might
want to think about the the language
that you're gonna need to have and have
a little note card or an app that you
can help with in case you were to lose
your insulin um you know heaven forbid
but we have heard that over and over
again that it's one of the biggest
challenges that someone has their
diabetes supplies um put aside and then
they lose it somewhere
so being able to know where you would
find that what kind of support could you
get in that country and what kind of
language are they speaking there those
are good things and that's what i
learned from my teammates they would uh
you know jot down a lot of the popular
expressions that they wanted to use when
we're going to somewhere
say italy um to to be able to converse
and support yourself as you go touring
around
thank you chris um i i think there's an
interesting uh
point in there about these longer haul
treks which amanda you had mentioned
that earlier about some of these you
know if you're preparing for an eight to
ten hour flight or or longer um the
difference in preparation that you have
to inject into that so i'm wondering
about if you could share any advice for
adjusting insulin specifically when
someone is traveling across multiple
multiple time zones
yes certainly um you know obviously
my first recommendation is talk to your
medical team because they may have
different advice um but i've certainly
over many years of traveling with
diabetes have honed things and
differently than i did when i was on
multiple daily injections um i'm now
i've been on an insulin pump for over 10
years and
and so
my methods have changed um
with my pump i am using an older model
um medtronic pump and um
i tend to
adjust the time on my pump
as i'm in flight so for example if i'm
flying from toronto to vancouver
it's a three hour time difference
flight is about four and a half hours
but let's say six hours you know from
arriving at the airport until leaving
the next
so i'll adjust the time on my pump every
two hours by one hour
and so on you know flying to
[Music]
nepal or something you know i've got a
bigger time difference a longer journey
so i kind of balance out how long i'm in
transit and that does seem to work for
me
um but one thing i do find is very often
in flight you might
run a little bit higher
um just due to inactivity i'm certainly
i know i eat more when i'm in an
aircraft than i do normally because they
often just keep bringing more snacks and
meals
so i'll often
increase the basal and level of insulin
i'm getting you know whether it's 10 15
percent to try and keep myself in range
and um
but then
towards the end of my flight um i do
find as as i land my blood sugar may
start dropping especially when as we've
all experienced at many airports around
the world you could be walking 20
minutes just to get to customs or to the
baggage carousel
so i'm always prepared that i may have
that that low on arrival and you know
again going back to talking before about
being prepared with your
low treatments i can't tell you how many
times i've munched on glucose tablets as
i'm waiting to uh
speak with the customs agent
uh so those are some of um some of the
tips that i um personally
take when i take with me when i'm
traveling but i know chris you
so use some different methods and do you
have uh
any different suggestions
well i think um what's a little bit
relieving here is that we have a little
bit more stability in both the long
acting insulins that some of you might
be using as well as with insulin pumps
that are automated at this point um and
so there's a couple of different brands
now and i use one of them that will
actually adjust my background insulin or
my basal insulin
as as is needed and so that's kind of
relieved a lot of the the tension around
when do you actually change your time
zone and how much of that time zone will
play a factor because all of your
activity as amanda was saying when you
get off the flight i've definitely had
that uh you know off the flight low
happen too many times um so that's part
of my plan as well and i love the uh the
recommendation to talk to your your team
and come up with a plan to share with
them i think that's really helpful but
uh yeah the automation of pumps and the
stability of the long-acting insulin is
really helping us uh to have confidence
when we're traveling
yeah absolutely um you know i can speak
myself i remember a pretty catastrophic
low landing in brisbane after a you know
14 hour flight vancouver to brisbane
australia and uh that's that prime
example of a lot of inactivity then even
a slight change of just wandering around
the airport the mad scramble to get
luggage that led to a pretty significant
crash so it's definitely a recurring
theme
um
i'm thinking on that note of
actually managing medications and
technologies
i'm wondering chris if you could share
some best practices on actually
going through security and screening and
managing a person's medications and
technologies in that setting
thanks and
um
i think that the idea of managing is is
the most important thing
this is one of the areas that can cause
the most stress i think for people when
you're going through security and
screenings um i've even had you know go
going through security but then just as
you're getting on the plane another
surprise security uh screening there um
so on that note i think it's most
important for us all to try and find
that inner calm because there are times
where you're gonna run into the wrong
person who might be maybe we could use
the word ignorant more aggressive or
hostile and as long as we maintain our
cool and you explain that this is
medical equipment um that person will
have to go and check in with someone
else and you'll find somebody who's much
easier to talk to about that so i've had
that happen before where i got a little
hot tempered and brooks i think that's
the biggest learning that i had along
the way is that my response to that
didn't help at all
um so i've been through the check stops
at airports hundreds of times and i find
that every time that i bring it and if
it's nicely organized then it's even
easier so you know finding an
organizational system where you know
where your supplies are
and what you brought with you
and i've actually discovered this by
accident that when you
reveal like that you have a medical
condition it can actually help so i had
a juice box which i wasn't intending to
fly because at that time you know flying
with liquids was
definitely not approved and so um i
mentioned oh shoot you know that that
was for my low blood sugar and the
person said oh do you have diabetes
and that was just a really nice uh agent
there that was doing the check and they
said oh well you're allowed to have
something to treat your low blood sugar
and i'd never known that that was
actually permitted so i was always using
dex tabs or some type of solid
low treatment so i try to pass that on
as well is that we are allowed to have a
reasonable amount of low
supplies in most circumstances but i
would always bring um you know something
that's that's hard uh as a backup as
well there but i think the attitude is
the biggest thing that helps us to get
through that and then knowing where our
supplies are
from uh you know a fear perspective i've
had people that um would put their bags
in check luggage and goes under the
plane i think that's one thing that we
want to watch out specifically with our
medications because the plain
temperature where the luggage is is not
regulated so that uh that could cause
some freezing of insulin or other
medications that we wouldn't want to see
but it is nice to have backup supplies
there so if you're going on a long trip
for example you might want to have some
backup you know needles or pump supplies
anything like that um but your actual
liquid insulin supply should be with you
on your carry-on um and i also say that
you know when you put it up above your
head in the in the stowaway you also
want to make sure you have something
right there with you at the seat because
it could be you know a time where you're
not allowed to get up there's turbulence
and that might be a time where it's
really ideal to do maybe an injection of
insulin or maybe a pump site has fallen
off or you have a low blood sugar so i
always have a smaller component
component that can pull out and come
right into the seat with me and a lot of
people say you know oh chris you're six
foot four how do you fit into one of
those airplane seats um
you figure it out right you just find
your way to be comfortable and the same
thing with a long travel um in a car
right you wanna have the same supplies
with you accessible and you never wanna
say oh you know i'll be fine
why not have those supplies ready and so
i do the same thing i've driven across
canada back and forth i've driven down
to florida uh driving a 14 person
passenger van with one of our charitable
initiatives
and so always being ready if you don't
have a sensor um you know making sure
that you're testing in frequency uh
frequently and managing that so it's
always accessible when you need it
that's what i would say
thanks chris i think that's a super
helpful um
the idea of what person's attitude or
mindset dictating so much of the outcome
is super super relevant i think
oftentimes planning a trip
it becomes so overwhelming because there
are so many factors seemingly beyond our
control that if you can kind of zoom
back in and say well there are that's
going to be the case but if so long as i
am aware of what i need what i have on
me
i'm going to that will set me up as well
as i possibly can
and that's the same sort of approach
being applied to having
the right supplies with you even even in
the right space within the plane uh
you're planning it as much as you
possibly can recognizing there is
potential for you know plans to go awry
but you're building sort of an antibody
to that
and i would say as well um i didn't
mention about like if you are someone
who wears an insulin pump uh going
through the the sensor uh going through
this you know the new scanning device
that stands your body for metal um the
ones that actually move and have the
magnetic rotation um you don't have to
go through that you can ask for someone
to do a pat down
and you can also wear your insulin pump
through the
the one that beeps when you when you
walk through it um and that one uh you
can let them know that you're wearing an
insulin pump
i find that um
you know it's really again it's the
person that you're dealing with if you
walk through and you keep it hidden in
discrete
sometimes the pump does not go off it's
kind of like a cumulative effect of
metal um so when you walk through there
uh if you do have a beep like let them
know what you're what you're holding and
why
and most people respond really well and
again on that note of your attitude it
kind of dictates the way you can't
escalate the
the
the fire here if you're staying calm and
telling them that you have diabetes this
is an approved device and uh and you'd
like to speak to somebody who
understands right
so
yeah totally i think we might have a bit
of a a cat trying to get in on the
action but
yeah
aggressive just like some uh
of the agents that i've dealt with in
security
um
so i i really appreciate the the wealth
of travel experience that you're both
bringing into this uh in in very
different capacities headed very
different destinations and i just wanted
to kind of open the door if you if
either of you had anything else any
other points or tips that you wanted to
share um to feel free
well i think um you know cr chris was
talking previously about you know not
putting insulin um in the undercarriage
of the aircraft
and on a similar note i do find
especially on longer trips
it's good to sort of separate your
supplies but between a few of your bags
um because you never know when you might
leave that backpack sitting on a bench
somewhere or
you know the um trust me i once had a
trunk get locked and we couldn't get our
baggage out of it they had to take apart
the car
um
and so you know it was good that i also
had pump supplies in my backpack in the
car with me while we waited several
hours so i could get the rest of my
supplies
relieved so that certainly
never keep everything in one place
because whether you leave it behind or
heaven forbid something gets stolen
you'll have a backup
and i think amanda the uh the one saying
that someone said to me when i was much
younger is a place for everything and
everything in its place
and for those of you that that hate
organizing things i'm not the type of
person that likes to take that time and
have have had struggles for that reason
but the more that i commit to that
especially while traveling and thinking
about the motivation of it right i am so
excited to be traveling i'm really uh
you know hopeful to have a good
experience here if you can use that to
motivate you to put things back where
you expect them to be and then that way
every time you need that blood test kit
or or the the piece then it's not an
added stress and diabetes you know can
pop up us on us
in the worst of moments
um in fact when i was traveling this is
prior to covet but i was traveling with
my two daughters for the first time um
juliet was still a little baby in the
car seat and then stella was just old
enough to walk and i had a low while i
was trying to carry the car seat and
holding stella's hand walking through
trying to meet up with my wife um
and it was
it was definitely something that that
caught me off guard and had me a little
stressed but you have a plan and so you
go back to your supplies you know you
you grab onto those um and then we can
get through a lot of these challenging
moments with a little bit of impact into
our big trip travel and that's what i
like to look at is if i have to pause
for 15 minutes to fix this it's within
my plan
and you know i'm going to be able to
deal with it and and that helps me to
stay calm head and not make any further
mistakes
so that's uh
that's that's what i would hope for is
to be able to remember where i put my my
supplies doesn't always happen to be
honest but i do try
thanks folks um so we're going to open
the floor two questions we do have a
quite a number of questions coming in on
on facebook so want to make sure we have
have adequate time to
to meaningfully and properly answer
everyone um the first one is regarding
hydration on flight so uh it's the
question group says water on flights uh
guessing that they do not give much with
less staff based on what you said
earlier
um so recommendations for getting enough
water to stay hydrated hydrated i'm
assuming this is especially with with
longer haul flights
yeah and uh so as far as that goes
because i was mentioning for example
toronto airport
at least the last time i was there in
august i couldn't use their water
fountains however i have found at some
of the restaurants near the gate they're
very happy to fill up my reusable
bottles or of course you can you can
purchase at the kiosks
but i always will have at least 750 ml
of water that i fill up and bring on
board with me when they come around
offering drinks i'll usually ask for a
couple just to to to stay hydrated and
and generally i'm always leaving still
with water in in my bottle
yeah that's a good point because i've
definitely been the person that brings
around my reusable and being caught
unaware uh seeing that the fountains
have been closed off i hadn't thought
about that as an
option
and certainly going on to a plane with
an empty water bottle isn't very helpful
so that's a great question
thanks
the the next question we have is a
little bit to do or a little bit related
to for example chris your point around
being able to have a juice box on hand
and this question is
i've been told that we can take an extra
piece of hand luggage carrying all of
our diabetes supplies on board is this
true
do either of you know know more about
this
well i i don't know the actual
regulations on it um but i do know that
um that i often bring a small
uh component with me as i mentioned and
i try to keep it within the size i think
the size is really where you're gonna
get into trouble so if you're packing
huge bags and an extra one that's when
they're gonna be a bit more critical um
but but amanda i'm not sure if you have
more
understanding of the actual regulations
there
yeah and and it is my understanding that
you can i believe you do need to get
um medical like you know sort of get
approval from the airline beforehand
it's not something i've ever done
because
being allowed you know a carry-on as
well as a personal item like a purse or
a small backpack for
um you know generally i can fit
everything i i need even when i've gone
on month-long trips in those um but it's
certainly if you are concerned about you
know being able to bring a little bit
more on board um contact the airline
before travel um because i'm
i do believe it is permitted if you get
the approval
thanks folks and and we do have uh
diabetes canada does have a web page on
air travel uh and i can look into
updating that if there are any specific
um you know extra extra tidbits
especially post cobit on that front so
uh you can check out diabetes.ca slash
air travel and it will it'll have some
extra info after the fact
um we have a question that says has
anyone had any experience with getting
quote unquote stuck in a foreign country
for an extended amount of time and not
having enough supplies available what
did you do
and a second part to that question is
anyone experiencing issues
charging their insulin pump in a foreign
country due to a different type of
outlet
good
so i have a few experiences being
stuck or you know having an insulin
challenge and so
my first time actually traveling i went
to italy and on the way back because i
didn't speak any italian there were
signs in the airport suggesting that
there was a
closing of the airport at this date and
that was the day after i was traveling
or the day before i was traveling back
so i went to that airport it was closed
and so i had to try and figure out call
the airline company and they'd move my
flight to another city all altogether
um so i ended up spending a couple of
extra days trying to get back home
um
luckily i had the supplies in that case
i think the question is more towards
supplies and so there's two other times
where it wasn't a delay but it was
actually one time i dropped a bottle of
insulin that would have been plenty to
get me through the travel and it broke
and i lost all of that insulin
and so i after that started to be a bit
more prepared about knowing what the
protocol is and how to get
access to insulin um so for example in
the united states what you think would
be the least amount of trouble is one of
the highest uh challenges because you
have to go and see an actual doctor to
get a prescription and pay for that
doctor's experience and then
go back to your pharmacy and i tried to
dialogue with the pharmacist explain
that i just dropped i had the broken
bottle
and they would not sell me a bottle of
insulin regardless so it's good to know
the
policies there and just to be prepared
for it so if you recognize that you're
running low or if you find that you're
going to be staying longer that you're
ready to take action
and the other part there is about the
type of insulin so in thailand for
example i went in just to see
how how that experience was
and getting insulin was very easy but
the type of insulin was very different i
knew that because i had kind of done the
research there but i was curious about
it um and so the type of insulin is is
more of an older style the toronto
type of fast acting insulin which is
different than the hume log or nova
rapid that we might see here every day
thanks chris um we have a question
that's
somewhat similar and it's regarding
supplies uh with extended travel and
this person is wondering about shipping
supplies to another country they have
been keen to go away for months or two
but aren't clear on how to restock
supplies and aren't sure if they could
bring them all
yeah and i'm pro
i won't have any advice for you as far
as shipping goes because i've i've never
had to do it but i have you know kind of
come up with my own little tips and
tricks so that i can
fit a larger volume of supplies into
less space um
so i i use the uh the libra scanner on
my arm and they come in quite large
boxes um but if you take out the
components that you need to insert it it
takes up half the space
now you're supposed to use the same two
pieces that come in the same box so i
use a sharpie and i say okay i'm putting
a one on the two that came to on each of
them that came together and i'm bringing
putting twos on the other two that came
together and then i just put them in a
ziploc bag as opposed to bringing them
in the boxes
and so that's you know sort of taking
things out of the packaging and test
strips and instead of having 50 in a
tube
i i put 100 into the tube so then you
know just taking up that much less space
it depending on how long you're
traveling if you are traveling for an
extended period i you know certainly
you'll want to find a very reputable um
shipping service to ensure
you receive them
yeah and i have seen some so when i was
going to university i was abroad and i
did have some care packages delivered to
me i think that's a fantastic way to go
um and the main thing is to know about
how long you're in one spot
because if you're on a rotating um
plan where maybe night to night you're
moving from one place to another that
makes it a lot more challenging and
you're going to want to make sure that
your supplies have reached a destination
and you've communicated to them that
there will be an advanced package
arriving so that you don't get there and
feel any stress about when uh that's
gonna arrive
the one time that i had an insulin pump
go down internationally um was was
pretty scary it was actually just before
the world championships for me so i was
really worried about shipping and how
that was going to arrive and i think it
was five or six days before the world
championship started uh and i was having
a bit of a meltdown and i went for a
walk and kind of breathed it all out but
it was really impressive to see that
with less than 24 hours i was able to
get my new insulin pump arrive at the
hotel that i was at
so shipping can be a very effective way
to get that and that came from north
america over to europe and so it was a
considerable distance
but but it's important to know that like
you have to follow those steps and in my
panic
you know the last thing that i wanted to
do was get on onto the phone and and sit
there you know and talk through with
with somebody
but but that was such a helpful um
process to go through and the supports
are there for us so um great idea to
start self-supporting yourself um
and i i think amanda's idea about
consolidating and organizing is a
helpful step as well
yeah a couple of couple of really
actionable ideas there and that there is
another question that came in uh
regarding taking traveling overseas and
taking freestyle
libra sensors that take up a lot of
space and i think that would apply both
those strategies would apply as well to
that other question
um we have someone who asked
said that their sugars usually go higher
with anxiety and stress and it's any
ideas for packing insulin pump equipment
etc
um wondering if sensors keep their
accuracy while flying wondering about
pat down with masks on
um
so i i think there's there's quite a
number of questions kind of balled into
into the one recognizing this person
also says they're flying alone and it's
going to be quite stressful so i think
you know we've we've touched on some
really great strategies for specifically
packing uh equipment and supplies uh i
suppose
any uh any any advice regarding accuracy
of sensors while flying or uh keeping
masks on during uh security pat down
yeah well i would say um just kind of
touch on the the first part regarding
the anxious component is that i at some
points would think oh do i really need
to carry all this stuff
and uh sometimes my travel is actually
backpacking where you're carrying
everything that you have with you um
sometimes over 20 kilometers in a day
and luckily i do a lot of traveling with
other type ones so i've seen them bring
extra sensors
and for the while like i would think
okay if this sensor makes it i'll be
good for the whole the whole hike
but then it falls off right and then
what do i do i i'm i'm a bit more
anxious i don't have the same type of
support that i would want
so if you think about that risk versus
reward then even if you have to carry a
little bit extra or you have to be a
little bit more creative on how you pack
you know that you've got those backups
and so i've started to do that and
actually hasn't made any impact on me um
in a negative way i've just had to get a
little bit more creative on how i pack
um and the same thing is gonna you know
translate into our approach to traveling
and being ready the more thought you put
in advance it should gain your
confidence right and um
thinking about how we can manage and
sorry brooks uh if there's a little bit
of a breakout on that but i did want to
comment on how how we can give ourselves
confidence knowing that we have those
backups and um
i know that's helpful
yeah no absolutely crisp a fine answer
amanda could you maybe speak to uh
having traveled a bit yourself you know
over the past let's say over this summer
uh your experience with keeping a mask
on uh during pat downs or as it was
mentioned earlier not needing to go
through a magnetic uh pat down tube or
for lack of a better word but going
through getting a manual pat down
yeah so um you know it's been a while
since i um i have had the manual pat
down um but one thing i'm actually we
were talking about the machine that sort
of scans around you
um when i've gone through those with my
pump they actually do um then they take
me aside and
they like i remove my i show them my
pump in my hand and they kind of like do
some kind of swab on onto it or my hands
um
but uh as far as i'm wearing the mask um
it's sort of like when we're you know
when we're at the grocery store that um
you know we are still still wearing our
mask um
when they're looking at photos they'll
ask you to just move you know when
they're checking your id like they'll
ask you to lower your um your mask so
they can make sure you're the same
person on your passport
um
but as far as wearing masks throughout
the travel
i mean let's face it it's no fun
especially when you're wearing one for
several hours but not only us as
diabetics but everyone around us as it
is in the same boat we just may have to
take ours you know down a few more times
if we're if we're having to treat a low
blood sugar
thanks annetta um we have a question
that is regarding an extra travel pump
uh so it's the question is thoughts on
getting an extra travel pump how can i
get one and i think i'll i'll add before
before i hand the baton over to chris
and amanda um i think a recurring theme
throughout this conversation is when in
doubt having something on hand extra
even if it may be a bit of hassle to you
know find an innovative way to pack that
in um could be a really effective
security measure especially if you know
that you're prone to some of that uh you
know travel scramble stress and anxiety
i'll just say that travel owners have
been a part of the plan for a long time
and i think all the all the companies uh
provide those for you so
um so the one thing that you want to
make sure you're doing is planning ahead
so that you've got time to go back and
forth a little bit with an email to your
to your
choice that you have there um and then
that pump loaner should be coming to you
for your for your travel no matter what
the company is that's available here in
canada um
i definitely think it's a good idea and
it's such a small lightweight device to
like tuck away inside of all the other
pieces that you have
yeah and and to add to that i i will say
make sure you either pre-program that
loaner pump or have your pump settings
recorded somewhere
um
because it's great if you've got a
loaner pump but if you don't know how
much insulin you're supposed to be
getting at different times of day
um
then
it's not going to be of great help to
you
i also always have um long-acting
insulin with me
and uh with a you know with my my
medical team you know i know if i was
without a pump like sometimes i have
gone on very last-minute trips that i
you know didn't have time to get a
loaner um so i at least know that if my
pump decides to stop working i know how
much level mirror orland has to take uh
during that time
yeah that's super helpful tip amanda
having uh something even on your phone
if you have i could keep a note it's
often they're stored on a cloud so you
could access it from any device uh just
just take a quick log of before you take
off on your trip what your basal rate to
what your bolus ratios are to be a a
game changer if you find yourself in
that position
um we have a question
one of the thought there is that
sometimes people will use like an older
pump that they have from a maybe even a
different company and so one thing that
that's going to do is you're going to
have like different supplies for each
pump so i think it's really worthwhile
to ask for the loaner pump from like
your most recent uh
choice so you don't have to bring a
whole bunch of let's say animus supplies
you've got an old animus kicking around
um you know when you've you could access
a loan or pump from from your current
company same thing with a blood test kit
if you bring a backup blood test kit
it's not that you really want to focus
all your business on one product but i
mean it makes it a lot more efficient um
for you to have the same strips as
backups um i have seen people on our
trips that will bring like one tube of
of backup supplies uh with a backup
meter that's different and then if that
one meter goes down and then they're
they only have 50 test strips for their
backup right so that's not very many so
it's good to use the same brand i just
thought might be a useful tip as well
yeah it's a good point as as someone who
uh quote-unquote switched teams uh to a
new pump provider last year you could
definitely vouch for that of you know i
do have some spare emergency supplies
but they wouldn't be uh they wouldn't
synergize the system i use now so when
in doubt keep it on you know simplify
use the same same thing
um we have someone who shared a story a
little bit who said on a positive note
uh i went to germany and forgot my extra
insulin i found out that in most
countries in europe you can get insulin
without a prescription so that is
helpful for anyone traveling to
uh you know the european union or the eu
27 uh
you know that's that's a pretty pretty
solid advantage especially in
considering chris your story about uh
the hassle that you went through in in
the united states to get to go through a
doctor get a full-on prescription
and pay for that
so a bit of a bit of solace to anyone
who's who's europe-bound or wants to be
europe-bound
that's right yeah
that's what you're gonna deal with and
and that can be motivating and at least
you know right so that something was to
happen you know what you have to go
through and it becomes less stress when
you have that information for yourself
yeah great great story there
um i have someone who is a relatively
new type 1 diabetic so first of all
thank you for for tuning in and i hope
you
have the chance to to get some travel
relatively soon um and then this
person's asking they were advised that
they require a medical note to show when
they travel
can we can you advise from your
experience sort of the process to go
through for that and what it's like
so personally i do have medical notes
from my endocrinologist
and i think i even have one from my
family doctor
i've been through
you know hundreds of airports around the
world
i've never had to show it
um however i do have it in you know in
my little travel medical bag
if i'm ever asked for it but um
but i've never
actually had to provide it to anyone
yeah
um and similarly i've never had to
provide it except for one time
and uh this is actually um for the most
people are aware of the liquid ban and
now that's been rescinded a little bit
but at one point when the liquid bomb
first happened it was in heathrow
airport and we had actually just flown
through heathrow to get to italy and
then we were going back to heathrow
which is in um
it's in london so uh anyway
we were going back to that airport and
this was after the bomb scare it
happened
so
when going through the airport in italy
they said absolutely no liquids and i
had my bottle of insulin
um and i was trying to explain to
somebody and they they were saying no no
no and then i had my medical note so
they end up bringing it to another
person and that's why i said like one of
the things i've learned over time is
just keep your cool
somebody will come along who will
understand um and try not to get as good
because i thought you know
i'm not going to throw away my insulin
here this is this is crazy but
they just needed to understand so
luckily i had that little form and so
that's the idea with the form is that
when you do need it at least you've got
it um it's going to be helpful for you
hopefully you're like us with lots and
lots of other travel experiences where
you don't need to have anything like
that
and thanks for that question because it
can be especially as a first timer it
can be a bit confusing to know what what
pieces of paper do i actually need to
prove this or to justify this so
better better to have it than to not
um we have a question regarding uh where
to get coveted tests before flying so
they say several types and the most
convenient and reliable ones
since they need to be done two days
before flying
um so any recommendations on getting
that done i i
was my inclination would be toward a
self-directed test but i'd be curious to
hear your folks thoughts
yes so um as far as that goes it really
depends where you're traveling to um
every every country does have different
requirements um
so there are some countries that it
could be 96 hours before you you land
others three days before you depart um
sometimes 48 hours and and i've helped
clients some with you know getting
numerous tests um for those of us and at
least and i can speak to ontario
shoppers drug mart and many other
pharmacies do provide travel
pcr testing
so i would recommend that's probably the
best way way to go is to speak with your
local pharmacy and
and see if they provide that that is the
current and then of course when you're
when you're in destination and again
depending where you're traveling um in
the u.s sometimes you can have results
within an hour um you know i know of
clinics in
cairo egypt that it's a drive-through
testing facility and your results are in
12 hours um so you'll really need to
speak with somebody who either your
traveling on the travel professional or
you know someone in destination to let
you know where to get it to return home
to canada um but in canada i think your
best bet is really going to be
speaking with your local pharmacy and
finding one that offers those services
and there is a cost i think it's over a
hundred dollars but
no if you're getting to explore the
world it's a small price to pay
thanks amanda and i i think i'll add the
caveat that it's not necessarily uh an
expense depending on province so there
are some problems for example here in
the atlantic region where they they are
free um but i would just look into that
depending on on where you live what the
what the deal is with
receiving a pcr test because it can vary
i have a question that is
specifically served around this idea of
calming the nerves or you know is
self-directing uh how we how we bring
our own attitude into what can be a very
stressful or overwhelming experience and
have a viewer asking if you have any
recommendations or ideas for
meditations that are easy to do and can
help calm the nerves or if that's a
practice that that you folks use
i'll share i'll share what uh helped me
and so i mentioned a little bit about my
height um so i guess like when you first
get into an uncomfortable position you
tend to complain about it right and then
here i was on a national rowing team
with everybody being you know six three
six four six six
and so everybody's starting to argue
about who's gonna get the best seat on
the plane
and i just started to think about it
myself like who do i want to be and
that's a you know a different way of
meditating but thinking about over and
over again like in this situation what
kind of person do i want to be how do i
want to contribute and how do i want to
see this
go and so i would often find myself just
quickly you know taking the uh the
window side seat um or right in the
middle of of the the row where there's
three or four people
and finding myself quite happy there
whereas you know um
if you if you look to see how other
people are responding
you might want to think okay i see that
this person is upset how can i respond
differently and so i just tried to get
that into my mantra um so that i was
always trying to take the the road that
would would lead me to be the type of
person and the type of experience that
i'd want to to be experiencing myself
and that that really helped me with my
my travel experiences and i remember
quite a few
experiences that were challenging very
constricted um
but but working through those in in
peace with myself and the people around
me so i think that's a one strategy
yeah and and i would add to that and i'm
a terrible person for last minute
packing
leaving for the airport at the last
minute but those times where i am
prepared and i'm packed a few days in
advance or even the night before
and
i'm leaving to get to the airport four
hours before my flight um i do find that
you know not being stressed about the
traffic i'm sitting in or throwing
things into
into my backpack um minutes before i'm
leaving
that really does help with my overall
peace of mind as well as
my blood sugars i i generally when i
have been prepared in advance and early
to the airport i don't see the same
spikes as when i'm racing through the
terminal to get to the gate
thank you thank you folks um so i think
seeing no more questions i want to say
thanks to everyone who who did submit
the question i really appreciate a lot
of the
the angles from which you're approaching
this so and i also get the sense that
it's as much as it can be a challenging
one to prepare for travel is by
definition such an exciting uh you know
full of potential energy so i can tell
there's a lot of you know excitement
behind the stress almost and i hope that
this has helped to to clear up a bit of
that that uncertainty or anxiety
um
before we wrap up i'd like to just take
a moment to tell you tell you folks
about how diabetes canada is helping
support you as we prepare for a return
to travel or more frequent travel so you
can visit our website and our social
media to stay up to date on what we're
working on and and resources that were
we put out
and for specific direction on this if
you have any specific tips or questions
that you didn't didn't get answered
today
you can call our helpline at 1 800
banting or you can email info
diabetes.ta for any questions
you can also specifically on this topic
check out as mentioned diabetes.ca
air travel
and that'll have all the resources we
have around this this topic including uh
you know how to access resources like uh
like a medical note packing lists and
more
so i want to give a huge heartfelt thank
you to our guests amanda gill and chris
jarvis for a really fantastic
conversation thank you for making the
time and sharing some of your your
expert knowledge on this front um before
we wrap up any final remarks to our
viewers
uh well i would love to share you know
on that note of the excitement apart uh
definitely the eating is one of the
things that's caught me off guard on
travel
so i remember in brazil there was a
restaurant that we went to that was all
meat just circulating platters of meat
and
and so it was a delicious night but i
didn't realize that if you eat a large
portion of fats and proteins that it can
also affect your blood sugar and so i
had a really rough night after that and
so sometimes you know using those
moments of reflection to realize that
you're learning um so that was a night
where i probably ate
more meat than i'd ever eaten before in
my life but i didn't have a lot of
carbohydrates and so the uh the blood
sugar didn't start spiking until about
three or four hours later um but i just
like you know just welcome you all to
think about that wonderful experience i
i will never forget that restaurant
and uh the night afterwards you know
that that's not a big part of it right
so we we might suffer a little bit along
the way as we explore and open up new
horizons but we're also learning and i
know better to how to manage that for
next time so i encourage you that as you
go and explore your your new horizons to
uh to keep coming back to these
resources and reaching out for support
as we learn together
yeah and on that note
you know
it's okay to not be perfect all the time
and
and it can be especially hard to stay
under control when you're in a new
environment and eating new food so don't
beat yourself up just correct
and enjoy the rest of your day um
because it's all new for all of us when
we when we go new places so do your best
to enjoy and not beat yourself up if you
do have a spike or a low
thanks so much folks um
so with that we'll we'll wrap up and i
just sincerely hope that this webinar
has been helpful for for you all of our
viewers i know i
was super appreciative of this
conversation as i'm gearing up for some
travel myself it's really really
wonderful to start thinking about this
stuff and
on that wonderful point of you know it
can be a really difficult hand to to
travel with diabetes but that doesn't
mean you can't pursue all the wonderful
learning and experiences along the way
it's just one
one extra hurdle that's that's on the
path to a great experience
so please feel free to contact us at
diabetes canada for any any info or any
questions
and thank you all and take care happy
travels
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