Three days until I’ll get to experience the wonders of traveling with insulin pumps and CGMs and newfangled security measures. I’m not really nervous about it, because of course I’ll take the pat-down over killing my pump and CGM transmitter any day. But today I read an interesting account of Sara Knicks’ experience with the scanners which lead her to some important information.
Two types of scanners apparently exist on the market. One of them, called the L3 ProVision scanner, actually doesn not use the x-rays that might harm our pumps (“our” meaning “belonging to us people with diabetes”). So, if your airport
and your checkpoint uses these types of scanners, you can actually go through the scanner with your medical devices on. Score! I am still not positive that the airport in my small town will even have a scanner, but I am nearly positive that flying back, being that I will be going to a bigger airport, I will have to deal with this stuff.
Even if I have to get patted down, I’m not super worried about it. As I mentioned before, I experienced this the first time I flew with my pump and CGMS, and it wasn’t a big deal. But the lady was very nice and the airport wasn’t really busy, so that helped.
Traveling with diabetes is stressful enough without airport security. And yes, I could just unhook my pump while I go through the scanner, but I will not be removing the transmitter from my CGMS. There’s too much risk of knocking the sensor loose and causing it to fail, thus wasting money on the sensor. And I won’t fly without Dexcom, because with the stress of travel having a close-to-real-time idea of what my blood sugar is doing is pretty essential to avoid highs and lows.
My four-day trip home will be over too soon, I already know. But I already have some get togethers planned with friends and, of course, family. I am pretty excited that I get to go to Christmas Eve service at church, since I haven’t attended church in forever due to working every Sunday. Family is so important to me, especially around the holidays, and I am blessed to have the opportunity to spend this holiday with my family.
What are you doing for Christmas? What is your Diabetes travel plan? Do you do anything specific every time you travel (besides test-then-drive)?
