Insulin Issues by Kasenya

Maintaining access to insulin was a big component of planning our trip to SE Asia. Kasenya requires several insulin injections per day to manage her Type 1 diabetes. Accessing insulin presented a couple of major challenges:
    • insulin must be refrigerated until used
    • the types of insulin that Kasenya uses are not available in Laos, Cambodia or Vietnam.

After considering our options, We decided to bring a four months supply of insulin with us. Our contingency plan was to fly to Singapore or Hong Kong , if need be, if our insulin was lost or became unusable. In a desperate situation we would have used whatever insulin was available locally, although this could have presented some problems because of different concentrations and questionable quality. Insulin is a vital hormone and a person with diabetes can only manage a day or two without insulin injections before becoming ill.

In order to take insulin with us we would need some method of keeping it cool. We extensively researched portable refrigeration units and discovered a device called a Medi-Fridge which is made to store insulin for travel. The only down-side of the Medi-Fridge it that it does not run on batteries, so access to electricity was important. We had electricity in every place we stayed however in most hotels to you must insert your room key into a slot to turn on the electricity to your room. This is a brilliant way to ensure that guests don’t leave the air-conditioner on because you must remove your key from the slot to lock your room and unlock it late. But it meant that the Medi-Fridge was not running when we were out of the room. The Medi-Fridge will stay cool for a few hours  but insulin refrigeration was definitely compromised at times.

We learned from the Diabetes Clinic at the Children’s Hospital in Saigon, that refrigeration is a large challenge for families and suppliers in Vietnam. For us, it was merely an inconvenience. In the end we had no problems.