Traveling Bolus

Over the Thanksgiving holiday we traveled from Louisville, KY to Gulf Breeze, FL. It’s about a 9 ½ hour trip. It actually took us only a little over 8 hours since we couldn’t leave until I got off work on Wednesday at 7pm. We traveled through the night and arrived about 4:15am! I was so tired when we got there because I couldn’t get comfortable enough (with my big belly in the way) to sleep.


Traveling and eating with diabetes is a pain in the butt. If you pack snacks that you know the carb count for (which I do) then you can time your bolus and have no problems, but bolusing for meals along the way is difficult, especially when all I want is Whataburger (a burger chain that only starts to appear once we get to Alabama). I love Whataburger. It is one of my favorite things and my heart has only grown fonder of it since we don’t have them in Kentucky.

It’s hard enough to figure out a bolus for fast food because all the extra fat can spike your blood sugar hours later. It’s so crazy to think you have it all figured out with a flat, constant sugar showing on your CGM, only to look down 4 hours later and see an upward arrow. So frustrating! Add to this the unknowns of traveling…When will I be hungry? When will we need gas? Do I need to pee, AGAIN!?

I worry when we plan to stop for food because I need to take my insulin 30 minutes before divulging into the bad, yummy food. What if I take my insulin and we have a flat tire before we get food? What if we were to get into an accident? How horrible would that be to take insulin for an 80 carb meal and break down on the side of the road with no food!? Nightmare! I sometimes wait until we have the food in the car and then take my insulin but then I have to wait and my food gets cold and cold fast food is just gross.

I guess the correct answer to all this is to pack the perfect diabetes food with us and not stop for the bad stuff, but get real. I need some self-indulgence every once in a while and I’m not going to let stupid diabetes keep me from enjoying a good Whataburger and fries.