Category: Traveling with Diabetes

Let me first say, that I am not talking about the honeymoon period when you are first diagnosed with diabetes. I am talking about the honeymoon that I just came back from last week and having diabetes. My honeymoon consisted of a cruise to the Bahamas, as well as a stop in Key West. I have been cruising before with diabetes, so I wasn’t too concerned about the supplies issue. The last time that I cruised with diabetes, I was using an insulin pump, but this time, it’s all syringes and vials.

For anyone that has ever been on a cruise, you know the first thing that you do as soon as you get on the boat is sprint to the lunch buffet and start the weight gain process as soon as possible. That’s what I did. I was feeling a bit low from the process of checking in, walking through the lines to get on the boat, and carrying two bags with me, so I knew that eating first was the right choice. I went to the restroom to take a shot in-between plate one and plate two.

We were planning on taking the day trip to Atlantis in the Bahamas and doing the watermark and pools there. We did this several years ago when I was on the pump, and I had to disconnect and connect every time that I wanted to go into the rapids river (their version of a not so lazy river). This time around, it was so much easier. Just go in and out whenever I felt like it with no worries about disconnecting at all.

All the diabetes supplies were in the locker that we rented and I only went back to the locker about once every hour in order to test and grab anything else that we may have needed.

The second day of the cruise included a day at the private island of Coco Cay. This place was truly tropical paradise. Quick side note. One of Amanda and myself’s favorite combined movie is Couple Retreat. We watch it every chance we get. So, this honeymoon had nonstop references to Couples Retreat. Coco Cay felt like Eden West and East, depending on which side of the island you were on.

Back to the story.

While we were there, we decided to get our first couples massage, once again from Couples Retreat. As crazy as this may sound, I’ve never had a massage before, so I had no idea what to expect. I was concerned that I was going to go low in the middle of the massage and would have to stop the therapist in order to eat some candy. So, to prepare for this, I had a little snack before I went into the massage. My blood sugar was around 200, but I was fine with that because I didn’t want to stop the massage because of a low. I did alert the therapist however that I was diabetic and that in the case of a low blood sugar, I would need to drink some juice or eat candy.

No lows, just a bit of snoring because I fell asleep in the middle of the massage. The rest of the day was a bit of the same. Food, sunshine and paradise.

By the time we were on night 3 and after all the testing that I had done, I said to Amanda, “we need to cruise more often because other than one bad high after breakfast today, my blood sugars have been nearly perfect”

Who would have thought? On vacation, a honeymoon at that, breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets, and alcohol and my blood sugars would be better than when exercising, dieting and counting carbs. I will admit, I went through more insulin than I normally would, but who cares how much insulin I have to use if every time I test, I’m showing a number under 160.

Finally, we spent the day in Key West. We have been there several times, so we decided to not spend money on lunch there and just eat the lunch buffet one last time. BAM. Great blood sugar after that also.

On the last night, I ran into our room attendant, who I swear was in the hallway to greet me every time I opened the door, it was kinda scary, but well appreciated. I keep my diabetes stuff hidden in the room because they tend to make a big deal about it on a cruise ship. I have my own sharps container, so that’s why I didn’t alert them about it. However, I left a syringe out when we left the boat to go to Key West and he saw it when he came to the clean the room. He didn’t ask what it was for, but just asked if I needed a container to put it in for safety reasons and I let him know that I had my own container and we were all good.

That was the last of that.

As I was walking off the boat on the last day, not only sad that the trip was over, but I thought to myself, that my diabetes didn’t effect me in one single way this trip. I didn’t really have any lows, only 1 bad high after those amazing pancakes and french toast, and it’s just another reason why I am lucky to have the technology and equipment we have today to manage our diabetes.

Honeymoon is over and life is just beginning!