The travel report from @Irish and @walkingthedragon88’s travel thread are making me wonder, since I am taking my son camping next month:
How do you deal with diabetes camping supplies? How different are they compared to your travel supplies? What do you take to a “real” camping trip?
We went camping last summer with the boy, but it was a tame camping trip This time my two boys and I are going kayak-camping in the wilderness for a week. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that nothing serious happen to the boy – UNLIMITED!
We backpack, although we haven’t gone for a week long trip since he has been diagnosed, we have gone for several nights at a time. We don’t pack anything different for going to a hotel than going in the woods.
Insulin in a frio, all the pump or injection supplies you normally would use +3. If relying on a pump, we always have backup syringes available since pump failures happen. Carbs aren’t a problem, since my older son is a walking carb monster, so he can always hit his brother up if he needs more carbs
We also bring an extra dexcom, and a small external battery to charge the pump and dexcom receiver. The only special precaution we take is to put all of this in a small waterproof bag.
We keep a “go bag” packed and ready. Plastic container that has everything we need for a week minus the insulin but assuming we have various problems such as technology failure, bad site change, etc…
Anytime we leave the house intending either an overnight or more than 2 hrs travel away we grab the box and then also get the current opened vial of insulin (non-refrigerated) and any extra unopened vials from the fridge as we think required. (Unopened vials would go in a small cooler bag with ice pack.)
I try to bring enough that anything can fail and I have another option. But yet keep it somewhat managed and contained so it doesn’t take over and become the focus. I want any unexpected issues or failures to become minor annoyances that are quickly dealt with and do not escalate to the level of an emergency that end up derailing the trip.
It may not always work but not for lack of trying.