(Martha in Ecuador)

What a serendipitous week this has been!

I was being interviewed on the radio last week, and Martha Iskyan happened to be listening… She emailed me straight afterwards to say that her husband, Howard, is diabetic, and they’ve travelled all over the world – to many of the places we’re going! I immediately asked if I could pick her brain and learn from their experiences. And what a lot of experiences they’ve had!

Here’s what she had to say:

1. Hello! Please could you introduce yourselves – names, ages, how long your husband has been diabetic?

I am Martha Iskyan, 63 years old, married to Howard Iskyan, 69 years old, who’s been diabetic since he was 33 years old.   Diabetic for 35 years now.  We’ve been married for 42 years in September.

2. Where have you traveled?

We have lived in the US for 30 years in 12 different States. 10 years in Madrid, Spain, 2 years in Johannesburg, and 8 years in Cape Town, South Africa.  We have a house in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where our daughter, Kara lives.  She is an internal and trauma medical Doctor.

We have traveled in Latin and South America to:  Mexico, Guatamala, Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, Curacao, Netherlands Antilles Islands, (Martha was born and raised on the island), Ecuador, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Peru.

In Europe:  We have an apartment in Amsterdam, Netherlands, where we spend a lot of time.   Lived in Spain for 10 years and saw all of Spain.  Martha lived in Portugal for 4 years.   We have traveled to:  Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, some of the Balkan countries, Greece, Italy, Sardinia and Istanbul (not Turkey itself).

The Near and Far East:   Bahrain.  Martha lived in Tokyo, Japan and Sydney, Australia for 1 year, each country.  We visited Singapore and Thailand and Hawaii in the Pacific.
In Africa:  Gabon, Ghana, DRC, Angola, Namibia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Zaire.

3. What was the most difficult thing about traveling with diabetes?

Adjusting the long term insulin to the time zone changes, especially going East or West across the Oceans.   Howard would set his stopwatch when the plane lifted off and stop the watch when we arrived.  He would adjust his regular watch to the time of the country that we would arrive in.  We paid particular attention to the pilot giving this information, or asked the flight attendant to get this information for us.    The stopwatch would keep track on when the long term insulin had to be taken again.   This meant that it was sometimes at 11am, whereas at home he would inject at 7am local time (because of the 6 hour difference in time, going forward).

Howard had made a daily schedule for each month, on which he recorded each glucometer reading and subsequent insulin amount injected.   This way he could keep a record.   This was for both himself and the Doctor to see a “trend” if there was one of highs and or lows.

Adjusting meals and snacks to somewhat “normal” times, while flying, was a juggle, because meals came right after take-off (whether it was 11am or 2pm), then there would not be anything served for 8 hours!  Each airline has its own peculiarities.

We ALWAYS had sandwiches, fruit, nuts and raisins, cookies and, oh yes, chocolate.  We asked for a small carton of fruit juice every time the flight attendant came around, but kept this in our little “stash” bag.

Howard kept the insulin he needed during the flights and during the day when we were “on the ground” on his body at all times, so that the temperature stayed about the same all the time.  The extra insulin was in the suitcase, some in mine and some in his and some in my backpack and in his backpack.  (I read that you have already thought of that).

Howard had a jacket on that had many pockets, so that he could have his glucometer, insulin, baggie of nuts and raisins, cleaner wipes, or small bottle of gel and a small tube of antibacterial cream, bandaids,  one pair of clean socks, little woolen hat for drafts in airplane and hotel/B&B rooms, 10 paracetemol, (if you feel hot or feverish, take 3 and the fever will go down by the time you arrive at the airport, so that you are not send back with the next returning plane!), passport, inoculations card and money on him.  Do not rely on anyone else to carry “your diabetic stuff”!

We suggest that you buy a packet of protection masks and put one on in the airplane (and remove this before deplaning).  You do not want to raise suspicion that you might be sick, but it will keep you from getting the bugs that are so generously “flying” around the plane.

Try to get seats in the middle of the plane over the wing, and ask just before boarding if you can have 3-4 seats for the 2 of you (if plane is not full) so you can stretch out and put your legs and feet up.   I would massage Howard’s feet regularly on long flights and he would get up and walk and do knee bends in the aisle, every 2 hours. These are just a couple of the things that helped make the trip easier for us…

(Another pic from their travels in Ecuador)

What a wealth of information! And there’s more – this is only half of the interview. Check back tomorrow for more priceless Travelling with Diabetes tips!