I can...

       

So it's that time of year ago when Diabetes blog week comes around. As I had time I signed up again because last time it was good fun and hopefully provided insight into what life can be like. 

The idea is that each day you get a new title to write about. Today's title was "I can..." This made me think, is there anything I have done that I thought would be difficult. As soon as I questioned myself I thought about the number of times I'd heard "there's no such word as can't" I then came across a photo of the one thing I though would be impossible and so I decided I'd write about that! 

A while ago my friends decided they'd up and move, not round the corner or South of the sauce boundary but around the world to Australia! With new technology it was quite easy to stay in touch but it wasn't the same. Then one night in December after a lot of alcohol we decided we'd go and visit. 

Been that I'm not that brave and hate flying this was crazy! Worse still I'd never taken my insulin pens further than Spain never mind my pump. Discussion one - are we sure this is a good idea? My husband was adamant we should go so on January 2nd I found myself in a travel agent booking flights. This all seemed very straight forward until I said the D word. All of a sudden there were countries I couldn't take my medication into therefore we couldn't fly through, countries that would take us but would place charges on the medication being transported, it seemed never ending. 

Finally we settled on flights from Manchester to Dubai then Dubai to Singapore then Singapore to Melbourne. Seemed easy enough. 

We then had the insurance conversation - I was lost completely in all the legal terminology so Dad took over and eventually we found some that was suitable through Diabetes UK. 

Then the hospital conversation - are you taking a spares bag? Do you have enough resources? Do you have all the documents? Are you sure you'll manage? 

However before this post becomes War and Peace, we made it to Dubai without any trouble. The airport staff and the flight crew were amazing. Can't say the same for Singapore. They insisted on scanning my pump with a hand scanner as it can't pass through the body scanner or X-ray machine. As we got back into the air the pump beeped to say it was going off. No Delivery NIGHTMARE! After a quick reset we seemed to be running again. 

When we landed in Melbourne we joined the queue for something to declare. We seemed to be fast tracked through the airport; customs, bags and out in half an hour. 

Everything seemed to go fine until midway through the first week. We'd been to the night zoo and I felt awful. BM was hugely high and pump had stopped working. Thank god for the documents and a mum at home. We managed to get onto an insulin regime using the pens and thanks to a very helpful man at Medtronic in Australia we had a new pump in 48 hours. 

After that it was fun fun fun and we had the holiday of a lifetime. 

I met a very nice but MASSIVE tiger at dreamworld. 

Had a cuddle with a beautiful koala.

Found some amazing sea animals! 

We visited Philip Island to see the Penguins and made our way to the top of sky deck tower. We did loads of other amazing things but the main theme of my post is I learnt I can do anything if I put my mind to it, Diabetes or not. If I can do it everyone else can. 

And it was worth EVERY minute of doubling up resources and panicking over what to do. Sorting insurance and surviving the fear of flying!