I am leaving for a much need vacation on Thursday. I have never ever been on vacation and I will be 40 years old this coming summer! UGH! Anyway… We will be traveling by car and staying in hotels that according to thier online list of amenities do not have small refridgerators in the rooms. I am insulin dependant. I take humalog with meals and lantus at night. I have no real good ideas on how to store my insulin while on vacation. Until tonight I wasnt so concerned as I “thought” there would be refridgerators in the hotel rooms. So now Im kinda worried and paniced.
So if you have any wonderful ideas please let me know ASAP as we are leaving this THURSDAY!!!
For those who want to know, we are spending 2 days in NYC and then onto Bar Harbor, ME for 7 days.
Humalog and Lantus will both last for 28 days once removed from refrigeration, though apparently they shouldn’t be re-refrigerated once removed. Do you use pens or syringes?
What you could do is get a small cooler, wrap your insulin very well in dish towels and plastic, and get ice from the hotel ice machine (or, in NYC, a lot of the bodegas/corner stores sell cups with ice) and keep it cool that way. Wrapping it should insulate it and keep it from freezing.
I’d also get some spare scripts; there are plenty of 24 hour pharmacies around the city if need be.
A lot of NYC hotels do have minibars, and you can stash stuff in them. Just don’t eat/drink the stuff that’s in there, because it’ll set you back an arm and a leg
If you have a real problem while you’re in the city, drop me a line on here.
I should clarify - I only know that the pens shouldn’t be re-refrigerated. Can’t speak for other forms of insulin, since I don’t have a PDR here and can’t check.
Your insulin should be fine as long as you aren’t going to be in extreme heat with it. I got myself a couple of Frio bags when I went to Costa Rica. I love those things. You probably don’t have time before this trip to get them, but I find them useful even for day trips to the beach. http://www.frio.ca/
when I’m going away for 10 days outside my home, I put 1 cartridge of Lantus and a new pen of Apidra with my used Lantus and my used Apidra Pen inside my Frio wallet. It’s easy to use and no need to have a fridge or ice. I have only 8 Lantus per day and 13 units of Apidra per day . If you need more insulins you can have two frio, one with your Lantus and one for your Humalog. You only need water, and keep them outside your bag. I used my two frio since 3 years and it’s ok for me. Have a good travel!
Before you freak out too much you might consider calling the hotel and asking if they could provide you with a refrigerator because you need to keep your insulin cold. I’ve had hotels bring me a refrigerator because my room didn’t have one! If not, like some people said, your insulin doesn’t HAVE to be cold at all times. It’s not a brilliant idea to leave it in a hot car all day but I’ve even done that before and still used the vial without problems. Or fill up your ice bucket and keep the insulin in there. You’ll figure it out Relax and enjoy your vacation!
I also HIGHLY recommend the Frio wallets! They are a GREAT investment. I have been using mine regularly for almost 5 years!
But the others are right, that the insulin will be fine out of the fridge for that long, even without the insulin pack. Just avoid having it in extreme temperatures (like in the car under the sun).
While I normally use the Frio wallets, I discovered just before a 3 week trip to the Midwest last fall that my 2 year old wallet no longer worked as well as I needed. Since I too had the problem of no refrigerators in hotel rooms, I bought a small cooler and 2 of the hard blue ice packs (each one large enough to keep my insulin cool) (I flew to my location - but rented a car while I was there). Until I got both of my ice packs frozen (in the hotel’s freezer), I had to use ice to keep my insulin cold, but afterward I just rotated the packs - having the hotel keep the one I wasn’t using in their freezer. I never found a hotel that did not have a refrigerator/freezer they could use. They could keep your extra insulin in their refrigerator if you ask them to. If you have a hotel that has someone at the desk 24 hours per day, you would always have access to it. I choose the cooler method so I had some way to keep it cold while I was traveling in my car.
The Frio wallets are by far the best method - though as some have said it is probably too late to get one now. I used when I was in Europe for 3 weeks - traveling by train & staying in hotels with no refrigerators (in August) - they have the advantage of being small & you can ‘recharge’ them by simply soaking them in water. - they do lose their effectiveness over time - as I found out last fall - but they are worth the cost even if you have to replace them every couple of years.
Thank you all for your great suggestions! First of all, our “intended” schedule didnt go as planned so most of our hotel stays while getting to Bar Harbor, ME were on the fly! But my insulin held up just fine not being refridgerated. In fact I would almost have to say that my BS were better while on vacation than when Im at home. Go Figure! But we had a wonderful time! Im already thinking about where our next vacation will take us!
