Type 1 Parent

Traveling with diabetes and taking insulin on a plane was something we experienced right away. Our son was diagnosed while he was visiting Thailand and so only a week after getting out of the hospital we were on our way back to the U.S.

Not only were we still shell-shocked with the diagnosis and not really understanding of how to manage our son’s condition (turns out what we learned in Thailand was pretty lacking), but we had certainly never had to carry needles onto a plane.

We survived all 17 hours of the flight however and here’s how we did it:

1) Organized: We were very organized with all of our gear and snacks. We separated out all of our needles and insulin (pens and syringes) and we separated out a couple cartons of juice and some snacks. We had all of this in an individual bag.

2) Prepared with Documentation: We had 2 copies of a note from our physician there in Thailand, both in Thai and in English. The note clearly explained that our son had diabetes and that it was necessary for him to take insulin via injection at regular intervals. This note was absolutely necessary getting through security and on-board.

3) Open: We were very open at each stage of boarding our plane. Before getting to the airport we called the airline and alerted them. When we checked in, they saw the note in our file and we once again reminded them of our need to carry needles onto the plane. At security, before getting in line, we alerted the officials and they worked with us to move through the line and the bag checks. When we arrived at the gate we told them once again of our situation.

4) Persistent: When we got to the gate, the cabin crew required us to surrender our insulin and syringes, explaining to us that they would hold the medication with the head crew member. We accepted this, but before the doors of the plane closed, we sought out the cabin crew manager and had her physically show us that she had possession of our insulin. Soon after takeoff, she actually came by our seats and gave us all the medication to hold onto.

Once we were in possession of everything we needed, we simply managed as normal, giving our son his injections right in his seat. And with all long flights, we made a point of getting up and walking around in order to keep our legs and minds fresh.

There were a lot of steps to go through to get our insulin on a plane, explain our situation to the airline, and ensure we could manage our son’s diabetes in a normal fashion. But with a little forethought and persistence, we found that traveling with diabetes on a plane was not that difficult.

Here’s an interesting news video talking about three new medical inventions to help reduce the number of punctures associated with diabetes.

It includes discussion of a new device to help diagnose diabetes by reading glucose levels through the skin, a new breath-based glucose monitoring device that would hopefully replace your normal glucose monitoring pricks, and a new injection ‘well’ that provides a painless way to take your daily insulin shots.

Reducing Insulin Punctures

Product: EatSmart Nutritional Scale

By: EatSmart Website or Amazon

Review: Highly Useful!

We’ve been really pleased with our EatSmart Nutritional scale.  As we begun to learn about carb counting we really had no basis for understanding portions and carbs within different foods.  The EatSmart Nutritional scale came to our rescue.

It is one of the only scales out in the market that provides detailed nutritional information for various foods.  It comes preset with 999 foods already stored into the scale’s memorty but you can also program your own using the nutritional labels available to you.

The scale is good looking and quite easy to use.  The informational booklet that comes along with it enabled us to use the scale within minutes of taking it out of the box.  You are able adjust the scale based on the weight of the plate or container you are using and the accuracy appears to be spot on.

We’ve used the scale daily now for months and have not had a single problem with it except for the booklet that came with it that lists all the codes for the pre-programed foods.  It is not put together well and pages have already begun to fall out.

Overall, for anyone looking to really get an accurate understanding of the carbohydrates associated with their foods and what portions really look like, this scale is fantastic.

Valencia biotechnology company MannKind Corp. thought it had encouraging news about its experimental insulin inhaler on Tuesday. But Wall Street wasn’t buying it.

For months, skeptical traders have expressed concern that the diabetes drug, if approved by the Food and Drug Administration, might end up with an FDA cancer advisory. Fears that the inhaler would never take off were still lurking Tuesday, even though MannKind said that trials of its Technosphere insulin delivery system showed no elevated cancer risk.

Analysts said those concerns helped push the company’s stock down 14% to $2.92 on Tuesday. MannKind shares have fallen 54% since April 1.

MannKind’s founder, Los Angeles billionaire Alfred Mann, remains optimistic. He says independent market surveys suggest that, even with an FDA warning, Technosphere will be a “blockbuster product.” It could pull in more than $1 billion in annual sales, he said in a phone interview.

And a warning label, which would probably blanket the entire class of insulin inhalers, is unlikely, he said. Technosphere should fly through the approval process and be relatively cheap to produce, he said.
“We fill a really poorly met need,” he said. “So we don’t understand the negativity.”

MannKind said Tuesday that results from a year of study suggested that Technosphere was as effective as traditional injection treatments, according to the company. Patients with Type 1 diabetes experienced stable or lower weight and better blood sugar levels between meals, MannKind said.

The company said the drug had no negative effect on lung function, a problem that had loomed over other inhalers.

The data came with news of a collaboration between MannKind and Pfizer Inc. and anticipation of MannKind’s Sept. 23 presentation at the UBS Global Life Sciences Conference.

“These observations confirm the results of earlier studies and build on the important differentiating features of this product, including its positive effects on fasting glucose levels,” Dr. Peter Richardson, the company’s chief scientific officer, said in a statement.

But for all its promises of producing a super drug, MannKind has been battered by bad buzz for much of the year.

Pfizer stopped selling MannKind’s Exubera powder in October after abysmal sales, sparking an exodus from inhaler development by pharmaceutical companies, including Novo Nordisk in January and Eli Lilly & Co. in March.

When Pfizer revealed in April that Exubera may have caused lung cancer in six patients, MannKind’s stock promptly plunged nearly 60%.

MannKind and Pfizer said Tuesday that they hoped to transition some Exubera patients — particularly those with severe fear of needles and negative reactions to insulin injections — to the Technosphere inhalant.

If approved by the FDA, Technosphere “will find itself in the unenviable position of having to entirely rebuild a decimated market in the wake of the notorious failure of Exubera,” Cory Kasimov, an analyst with JP Morgan, said Tuesday in a note to investors.

As reported in Los Angeles Times, September 17, 2008

This will be our first year celebrating Halloween since our son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.  We hope we do it right.

Our primary philosophy is to allow him to experience as normal a Halloween as possible.  He’s got his school costume party, a separate one that he is heading to at the local hospital just for kids with diabetes and on Halloween night he’ll wander around with all his friends just like years past.

We’ve already discussed with him the need to not gorge on candy that night and he actually volunteered the idea to give his candy away to his friends (as he does at school when rewarded by his teacher).  We’ll let him keep a few of his favorites however and will simply integrate them into his meals over the following days.

All along we’ve maintained our principal that this disease will not fundamentally interfere with his life as a child.  We’re going to manage.  He is going to sacrifice some things but he’s also becoming much more aware of his body, his diet and his mind.  He and we are learning everyday.

So far, so good.

For those of you looking for more information on how to manage Halloween while also managing your child’s diabetes, check out this great set of Halloween tips.

Also, here is a document that outlines the carbohydrates associated with a wide range of typical Halloween treats.

Boo!

Only a few weeks after our son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes he was back on the soccer field. That first game was a bit tough as we ended up testing him once too often and by the end of the game he was complaining about his fingers stinging.

The one thing to remember about sports and diabetes is that strenuous activity can, at times, bring your blood glucose levels down and cause hypoglycemia. As such, it’s important to test blood glucose levels before you start and if your child is low, make sure they eat something [...] Continue Reading…

I hadn’t thought much about unconditional love until earlier this week.  It had never come up, never been forced upon me, never required that I prove it.  I had, possibly like most parents, simply taken it for granted.

Each weekend I looked forward to spending my spare time with my 7 year-old son.  Teaching him about sports, talking to him about anything, including him in my daily life.  Given that my enjoyments simply coincided with his, I was never required to think deeply about why and how much I cared.

Earlier this week however it all came surging forward and as [...] Continue Reading…

As a parent of a child with Type 1 diabetes, hypoglycemia is where all your worst fears reside.  Unlike most other complications associated with diabetes, it is hypoglycemia that is the most immediate danger as severe hypoglycemia can cause unconsciousness and even coma.

Hypoglycemia occurs when the body does not have enough glucose to produce energy.  In people with diabetes, it is typically a result of having too much insulin relative to the amount of carbohydrates you have eaten.  As insulin helps glucose be absorbed by your body’s cells, having too much causes your body to seek out sugars when [...] Continue Reading…

Insulin, and the organ that produces it - the pancreas - will remind you how amazing the human body is.

Before you were around someone with diabetes had you ever thought about your pancreas?  Probably not.  But once forced to understand glucose levels and insulin dosage you’re bound to really want to know what this organ was meant to do.

Essentially one of the core functions of the pancreas is to produce a protein hormone called insulin.  The production of insulin occurs continuously but fluctuates based on how many carbohydrates you are consuming.

As you eat carbohydrates they change into glucose and [...] Continue Reading…

Book: Cheating Destiny:  Living with Diabetes

Author: James Hirsch

Review: Very good

James Hirsch has been surrounded by diabetes his entire life.  He was diagnosed with Type 1 at age 11, his older brother is a leading diabetologist, and as he was researching this book, his 3-year-old son was diagnosed with Type 1 as well.  It would be very easy to expect him to write a passionate portrayal of life with diabetes.  But Mr. Hirsch is also a well known and respected journalist for the New York Times and Wall Street Journal and as such he is able to combine his own [...] Continue Reading…