Brace yourself – it’s a long one!

I’ve split my journey into four legs, yes FOUR, to give you an insight into my journey and experience travelling with type 1 diabetes, carrying all my supplies, and managing my blood sugar levels.

I’ve arrived in Melbourne safe and sound to tell the tale, which should be enough reassurance that if you’re in this position, everything is going to be okay. Enjoy the read!

First leg: Belfast City to Exeter

After a very emotional goodbye to my family, I began my journey to Australia. My first flight was a regional Aer Lingus flight from Belfast City to Exeter. While this was short and sweet, I appreciated the fact I had a test run with all of my luggage before the I encountered the blessed London Heathrow.

I checked in my suitcase which came to 18 kg, surprisingly low considering I had all my wordly belongings in there. They didn’t weigh my hand luggage despite this being a new irrational fear of mine, as I managed to pick the two airlines in the world which only allow one 7kg carry on luggage, and no second bag.

To be fair, my carry on may be 10kg, but it’s also technically a medical bag full of diabetes supplies & electronics, I couldn’t really make it any lighter. And believe me I tried!

When I finally made it to security, my parents were still in view waving me off. They ended up befriending an American couple, who whilst I was having a pat down by a security guard, the woman shouted to her husband to tell my parents I was okay. I told them thank you & that I was feeling emotional, to which they responded that they’re emotional to be leaving too because they love Ireland. Relatable.

None of my bags were pulled aside or searched in the Belfast City airport which is always a blessing. After a speedy security screen, I happily went on my way to pick up a croissant and a cup of tea, with my blood sugar levels rising nicely due to the emotions and stress, so eating the croissant had to wait a little while.

The gate was called, and as I arrived, I saw everyone with a carry on suitcase was being pulled aside to have their bag measured. Almost every single one was bigger than the regional size allowance, and so everyone was being charged to have their hand luggage placed in the hold. And here’s me, with a big bag full of diabetes supplies and electronics, aka nothing that can actually go in the hold. Thankfully, they seemed to only be concerned with the suitcase style bags, and not my massive backpack. So I thanked my lucky stars I wasn’t pulled over, as I don’t think I had the emotional regulation to deal with that sort of situation at that exact moment.

Now, physically getting my bag on to the regional plane, that was a whole other story! As I boarded the plane, I was greeted with a very friendly air hostess. She kindly offered me the emergency exit seating, to which I declined, as I really am a stickler for the rules as type 1 diabetics technically shouldn’t sit in these seats. While initially I was sad about this, the interaction primed me perfectly for what was about to happen next.

I went to put my bag in the overhead locker, and to the naked eye it looked like it would fit. But, when I first attempted to place it in, it simply would not fit. There is a bit of give to my backpack, so I started shoving it in whatever way I could, but to no avail. The air hostess came up to me and explained that if it isn’t fitting, it would need to go in the hold. I explained that it was a medical bag, full of my diabetes supplies.

In all my preparations, this is one of the worst case scenarios I could come across, so internally I was panicking a little bit. But to my delight, she started shoving my bag into the overhead compartment with me, explaining that there was a lock which was catching my bag and preventing it from fitting right. Eventually, it fit! Alas it was super snug, but it fit. I was extremely relieved and very, very thankful to the lovely air hostess. It definitely restored my faith!

And right before take off, she let me know that the row behind me was empty, and I could move into it and have a row all to myself. What a treat!

While this flight was very short and sweet, it really reassured me that I was going to be able to deal with whatever the leg from London Heathrow would throw at me.

Second leg: Exeter to London Heathrow

After a weekend in Devon with my best friend Immy, and my boyfriend James’s family, his parents very kindly drove us three hours to London Heathrow.

We stayed the night before our flights in a Radisson Red hotel, which included a buffet breakfast in the morning which prepped us nicely for our long haul flights. But first, we had to get through security…

The last time I went through London Heathrow was for our two week trip to Costa Rica. While that’s a story for another day, the security process was probably the worst I’ve experienced, and I’ve been through airports a fair few times. And so, I done what anyone else would do, and took advice from a facebook comment which said to use Heathrow’s special assistance lane.

So, I rocked up to the Heathrow special assistance lane, and asked to go through. To which the security guard responded “no, I’ll get fired”. Sorry, what!! Aghast, I explained that I was disabled and carrying a lot of medical supplies. After James backed me up saying I had type 1 diabetes, he let me through. But the best part was, he let me through to what was basically an area to sort out your liquids, before actual security.

So the next security man, within what I assumed was special assistance, scanned my boarding pass. He didn’t say anything, so I believed the worst was over.

Off I trotted, in an area I assumed was for special assistance, only to clock I was alongside people from the regular queues, and there was yet another security man splitting the crowd up. I took a deep breath and said I needed to use the special assistance lane. He bluntly said “nope” and had his arm out blocking me from getting past.

At this point I’ve stopped the whole flow of traffic to argue with yet another security man. I explained again, I’m disabled, I have type 1 diabetes, my bag is full of medical supplies, and I need to use special assistance. I glanced behind me to see a sea of eyes just staring at us, all wanting to get through security, while the man still has his arm up. He eventually lets me past, but not without adding to my already enormous sense of guilt and dread!

Now, I got through to the special assistance lane, but at the apparent cost of a mans job and livelihood. I can really only hope he didn’t actually lose his job because of me. But maybe London Heathrow shouldn’t place such stress and poor training on their employees, that it resorts to this, no?

On the bright side, when we finally got through to security, my insulin pump was spotted by the security guards before I could mention it, and I was allowed through to get a hand search. They didn’t even make me go through the metal detectors, which I’m usually happy to do, but at this point I was just doing as they said.

I explained I had two cool bags filled with insulin, and they had defrosted ice blocks in them. Now, before you wonder why they were defrosted, they’d travelled over night to get from Exeter to London. But still, the cool bags temperature was nice and chilly.

Alas, the ice blocks needed to be swabbed. And where were they? At the bottom of the cool bags, of course! Queue all of my insulin vials and back up insulin pens being dumped into the trays.

Honestly, I get why it needed to happen, but inside I was very concerned, as this is essentially my entire supply of insulin for Australia. And once insulin is above fridge temperature, it is only useable for 28 days. I guess the silver lining of this situation is I get to test how long insulin really lasts for after it hasn’t been properly refrigerated!

Third leg: London, Heathrow to Doha, Qatar

After getting through what was an extremely bizarre airport security experience, I was overjoyed to have made it through. In hindsight, I would have just went through the regular queue like I usually do, and will probably continue to do this in the future. No man’s livelihood is worth it…

But there’s one thing that James and I are mutually concerned about, and that is meal times. Our flight was at 14:15, an awkward time that’s just after lunch. We didn’t want to risk any delay in food service, and so we got ourselves some sandwiches and pastries as our final UK meal. While they were delicious, the food on Qatar Airways was plentiful and very tasty.

On our first six hour flight from London to Doha, we got pretzels, a hot meal of peppered beef, potatoes & veg, along with a “chicken sandwich” which was actually a sausage roll, but with chicken instead of sausage meat. While it doesn’t sound appetising, it was pretty tasty.

My blood sugar levels were pretty good, as I was bolusing insulin continuously for what felt like a never ending stream of food and drink service. One thing I’ll mention is the fact I didn’t drink any alcohol on the flights, as this is a known factor for sending blood sugar levels haywire. With the myriad of factors already affecting me, e.g. stress,I didn’t feel like adding alcohol to the mix.

Fourth leg: Doha, Qatar to Melbourne, Australia

Once we landed in Doha, I began to get nervous all over again for another security screening. However, when we arrived, we seemed to walk right into the main airport. We only had a 1 hour 45 minute layover, so after a quick toilet stop we quickstepped it to our gate. I was still baffled by the lack of security check but I’m glad I didn’t get my hopes up, because I soon realised that each gate had their own security checking area.

Once we found the gate for our flight to Melbourne, we finished off the water in our bottles, as we found out we weren’t allowed any liquids over 100 ml, despite being in the main airport where that’s usually not the case. I asked the security guard if I needed to take anything out of my bag, to which he said no, as long as I didn’t have any liquids. I mentioned I had insulin, and he said that was fine. I went through the metal detector, and despite my insulin pump setting off the beeper, they waved me through. What a relief!

The next 14 hour flight is a bit more of a blur, but one thing I made sure of was to make sure I ate every meal, even though my body was definitely confused at this point because it was the middle of the night, but technically it was already the next morning in Australia. So I adjusted the time on my insulin pump and hoped for the best.

My blood sugar became slightly more resistant on this flight, as it went high and stayed high despite lots of insulin. I probably didn’t help matters by constantly going up to the snacks area for kitkats and packets of crisps, but it had to be done.

While James slept the entirety of the flight peacefully, I watched a few movies and kept myself entertained. I’m sure I drifted in and out of sleep a few times, but before we knew it, we had landed in Melbourne, Australia.

Once we got off the plane, we had to fill out the customs declaration form. I ticked the box which stated I had medication, and nervously went through the “items to declare” line after we picked up our suitcases. Once we got to the front, the security guard asked me what medication I had with me. I explained I had insulin and thyroid tablets, to which she said ok go through, and to my delight I was successfully through Australian customs with absolutely no problems!

Suffice to say, I was very happy to check into our holiday inn at midnight Australian time, midday UK time, and put my insulin into the fridge. After thinking of every single situation that could have happened but didn’t happen, I was extremely relieved to arrive here safely, and with relatively few issues in the grand scheme of things.

Thank you so much for reading. I fear I have a knack for dramatising the events which occur to me on my travels, but rest assured this is what I LOVE to do, and every dramatic event makes for a good story I reckon.

I am so excited to be here in Australia, and even more excited to be able to share my experiences living and thriving with type 1 diabetes. Stay tuned!

Love, Lydia x