Most of the planning and preparation for this trip has been going really well but we still had one area of concern: the diabetes medical kit. Today we decided to sort that one out so we could relax a little more.

As a little background, after the last trip where we used very, very little of what we actually took we vowed that any medical kit for future trips would be small, very small. For our main medical kit this maxim will still ring true and it’s a good job because we’re taking rather a lot of medical stuff for Amy’s diabetes management.

So here it all is. Well actually it’s not all there, we’re taking double of everything you see in the picture, split across two different bags just in case one gets lost or stolen. This may seem a little over the top but there’s no way I’m risking losing a bag and being in the middle of nowhere for a few days with no Insulin immediately to hand.

The diabetes medical kit

The Diabetes Medical Kit


Roughly in a top to bottom, left to right list here it all is:
Accu-check control solution, Ketostix, Accu-check sterile lancets, Novo-pen 4mm needles
Accu-check testing strips
Novo-rapid insulin spares, Novo-rapid pen including cartridge, Levemir pen including cartridge, Glucagel, Glucagon, Accu-check blood glucose testing kit
Detro tablets, spare battery for Accu-check meter

Each bag’s worth of supplies can be broken down like this :

To keep any medical supplies cold
     1 x extra large Frio wallet

For blood/glucose level checking
     1 x meter with multi-clix lancing device
     34 x multiclix units, each containing 6 lancets
     150 x Accu-check testing strips
     1 x Accu-check control solution to test the meter if required

For the injections
     1 x Novo-pen for Novo-rapid insulin, kept in a Frio wallet
     1 x Novo-pen for Levemir insulin, kept in a Frio wallet
     100 x Novo-pen 4mm needles
     2 x spare Novo-rapid insulin cartridges, kept in a Frio wallet

For treating hypos (hypoglycaemic attacks)
     2 x Dextro Energy packs – these are easily available in India under brand names like Glucoburst
     we’ll also have other foods to hand at all times
     1 x Glucagel, for treatment of a bad hypo*.
     1 x Glucagon, for treatment of an extremely bad hypo*, to be kept in a Frio wallet
     * luckily we’ve not yet had to use any of this

For anything else
     25 x Ketostix, for testing for Ketosis