Before leaving on my crazy adventure around the world, I looked everywhere for information on what other people in a similar situation to me had done. I am a Type 1 Diabetic, I have been for 25 years and was hoping to find some advice from others who had packed up their lives to travel.

Unfortunately I was disappointed to find almost nothing that helped me. I was led in circles by authorities such as Australian Customs, Australia Post and Diabetes Australia who would just refer me to each other. No one was able to give me a straight answer to questions like: Can I get an insulin script filled overseas on a tourist visa? Can I obtain pen needles in another country? Could I possibly have pen needles posted from Australia to wherever I am in the world?

Having come up against dead-ends in my search for information and ultimately just doing what worked best for me, I thought I would post what I have done and how I did it in the hope that it may help other diabetic travelers.

Traveling around the world for almost 9 months, I have been lucky that I have not really encountered any major problems with either my diabetic health or supplies. When preparing to leave, I decided that the best option for me was to take all the supplies I would need with me. So I packed up 700 pen needles, 30 vials of insulin, test strips, spare pens and other bits and pieces, put everything in my backpack and went on my way.

No I didn’t refrigerate the insulin vials, and yes they are still working fine almost 9 months on. In truth when I was in the really warm climates of Asia when I first started back in May, I would try to find a fridge to store my insulin pack. However I found that became annoying as when I am on the move to a new city or country everyday or two, insulin stored in a fridge somewhere is easily forgotten and left behind. I found that keeping all my insulin stored safely in my carry-on backpack, protected as much as possible from breakage without being store in a fridge was the best solution for me. And it hasn’t failed – not once. I’m not sure how long you could keep insulin out of the fridge, but mine has not seen one for at least 7 months and it is still working fine.

I don’t like re-using needles. If I can avoid it I will. The risk of infection and using the same needle until it is blunt is not something that I am happy to do – hence why I packed all my pen needles into a Kathmandu cell bag and stored them easily within my large backpack. It didn’t bother me giving away that extra space in my backpack. I felt confident that I had all the supplies I needed and I was careful and conscientious enough to keep everything as safe as possible.

If the worst had happened and I lost my luggage, or my insulin vials were smashed, or something was stolen, then I would have dealt with acquiring new supplies. But having decided to take everything with me, acquiring more whilst on the road became a backup plan, one I thankfully didn’t need.

These solutions meant I haven’t had to change my plans or adventures anywhere in the world. I just concentrate on being me and living an amazing life 🙂