VIP

Not going to lie, I was a little anxious to hop on board a plane as this was going to be my first time flying with Type 1 Diabetes but a few travelling jitters weren’t going to stop me.  I rejected the idea of being left behind in Malaysia with the dogs. Don’t get me wrong, the dogs are mum’s 2^nd children so they should be on their way soon.  It’s just that I refused to be placed in the 2^nd children category.

Days beforehand I had completed all my diabetes prep for the journey as well as for the compulsory 14 day quarantine to follow. This meant calculating my diabetic inventory of things such as needles, injections, testing strips, lancets and lots of snacks.

In the airport I’m not allowed to walk through the x-ray machines as it could’ve disrupted the functioning of my constant glucose monitor (cgm). Just a reminder, my cgm is implanted into me and sends live glucose readings to my phone.  Dad likes showing off my cgm as he thinks it makes me look like a uber cyborg human.

To pre-empt any altercations between my cgm vs the staff vs the x-ray machine, I had secured a letter from my Doctor in Malaysia making my situation clear. I felt a bit like a celebrity being plucked from the “regular” queue and escorted past the x-ray.

An entourage of airport staff assisted me as I did this and I think I may have uttered, or at least thought, the words “no photos please…” Unfortunately, my celebrity status was short lived as 5 seconds later, I was reunited with my family. My eldest brother queried whether or not I may have exploded along with the cgm should I have walked through the x-ray machine. He found this a little too funny for my liking.  My younger brothers requested that I went back and walked through the x-ray machine to prove the science. 

When my cgm sends my blood glucose reading to my phone it alerts me with an alarm indicating that my blood glucose level is too high or too low.  I have the freedom to change the alarm sound which is a tiny bit entertaining. Currently my “too high” is a doorbell ringing but I don’t think it was very amusing to the woman sitting across from me on the plane journey.  She looked around quite a few times trying to identify the location of the possible doorbell on a plane.  No doorbell. Just me haha! Sorry lady in 40C. My too low sound was of a baby crying. I changed this when my family wondered aloud whether people thought that I was a teen mum whenever is sounded. Yikes!  (Of course nothing against teen Mums.)

The plane journey was a smooth one. The Scoot and Singapore Airlines crew did a great job of looking after us all. My blood sugar level was relatively stable (though a little high though hence the doorbell). The only challenge on board was changing the time of my basal insulin dose because of the time zone difference. This basal insulin is used to keep blood sugar levels consistent during periods of fasting aka sleeping. I always give myself this basal insulin shot the same time every morning. This morning had to change from the Malaysian morning to the Kiwi morning in mid-air. This practically meant that my insulin regime has no jet lag.

I wonder when Halle Berry (famous type 1 diabetic) gets treated even more specially than ordinary VIPs?

Glucose upon publishing: 5.6mmol/L