Philippines Trip 2025
"The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry." This pretty much sums up my 2-week SCUBA trip to the Philippines back in July. As you may have read from one of my earlier posts, I believe in plans, back-up plans, and back-up to the back-up plans when it comes to my diabetic supplies! I’ve learned some hard lessons recently, and I’ll do my best to lay it all out here for posterity and in the hopes others can learn from my mistakes.
Atlantis Azores Liveaboard
The trip was a two‑week scuba & island adventure in the Philippines. I began by boarding a liveaboard boat for 7 nights to explore the Visayas islands, diving 4 to 5 dives a day across sites like Cabilao, Gato Island, Kimud Shoal, Balicasag, Sumilon, and more, encountering thresher sharks, whale sharks, turtles, vibrant coral walls, and muck dives. Then for the second week I stayed at a resort, settled by the beach in lush gardens—diving as much as I wanted to, relaxing by the pool, enjoying local tours like Apo Island and whale‑shark snorkeling in Oslob, city/market excursions, and savoring fresh food, cocktails, swimming in waterfalls and checking out the local wildlife. It was a trip of a lifetime!
Apo Island
Pulangbato Falls
Swimming with whale sharks in Oslob
My diabetes plan and strategy included the following:
- 10 Omnipod pumps, twice the amount I would need for 2 weeks
- 2 vials of Fiasp insulin (I meant to bring 3, but still more than I should need)
- 5 insulin syringes
- My old Medtronic Minimed 770 with 4 infusion sets
- 2 extra Dexcom G6 sensors (no extra transmitter)
With the above supplies, I was a little complacent and overconfident that I would be just fine for the two-week excursion overseas. Additionally, I have been SCUBA diving with my Omnipod 5s for several years with almost no issues, diving often and in all conditions imaginable and depths up to 130 feet. So, I had very little reason to expect multiple failures…
And another one bites the dust!
Well…that was dumb! From day one, every single Omnipod failed on every dive. In the first 3 days of diving, I went through 6 of my Omnipods, even trying to go without wearing one for several hours throughout the day. My blood sugars went haywire and off the charts. As any T1D would know, extended high blood sugar feels pretty terrible. I would describe the feeling like having the flu and zero energy. But I am a SCUBA diver and couldn’t imagine skipping one of these incredible dives. I informed my dive buddies of the situation and asked that they keep an extra eye on me underwater.
Thresher shark at Kimmud Shoal
Subsequently, my Dexcom also decided to fall off due to the excessive moisture, leaving me to use up one of my additional sensors.
By now, we were on day number 3 of my 2-week trip. I was feeling wretched and I was beginning to get pretty scared. I was on the other side of the earth, on a boat at sea and my life sustaining supplies were running low. My next step was to move to my Medtronic pump, which I can remove between dives. This worked fantastically and I was able to get my blood sugars under control…Until day 5...
Ain't nuthin but clowns down here
So many cats!!!
Tarziers, the world's smallest primate
On day number 5, yet again, another unexpected failure. My trusty old Medtronic pump bricked itself and turned into a fancy paperweight! Complete black screen and unable to reboot! I now have 7 days left in the trip with 4 Omnipod pumps and a few syringes left. Now the fear really began to set in. As I was the “trip leader” for this excursion with 22 other divers, I could not show any of this fear or uncertainty to anyone.Keeping these feelings on lockdown and working my own survival logistics in my head certainly took it’s toll.But again as any T1D knows…what choice do we have other than to just keep moving forward?
Red Rock hotsprings
Knowing the Omnipods would fail during diving, I had some hard decisions to make. I could switch to the Omnipods and stop diving for the rest of the trip, or I can squeak out a few more dives and go back to my old school days and revert to injections for as long as I can. For the next 3 days, I used and reused every syringe I had way past their useful lifespans. But, it kept me alive and it kept me diving. At this point it was time to switch back to Omnipods and my last Dexcom sensor and sit out the dives for the last day and a half. I spent my time exploring on land and preserving the last of my diabetic supplies for the journey back to California.
Atlantis resort, Dumaguete
So, what did I learn???
Bring more supplies and make sure your back up equipment works!
Contact your pump manufacturer and ask about a loaner program
Most companies will loan you an insulin pump or CGM. In many cases they will not charge you if you don’t use it
Bring an old school finger prick blood sugar monitor with test strips
If you’re SCUBA diving, switch to a removable pump for the trip
Bring pre-filled insulin pens as an alternative to syringes
Do some research on the local availability of insulin and supplies before your trip and know what you’ll need to purchase them (prescription, doctor’s note etc.)
The diving and scenery were amazing and worth every bit of worry and stress that came along with my diabetic challenges, but I'll definitely learn from my mistakes. If there is one thing life has taught me recently it's best summed up in a quote from Rafiki in The Lion King “the past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it, or learn from it.” Going forward, I will remember that when I travel I need to plan for every contingency. Plan for catastrophic failures with each and every system I have in place, and hope I never need to act on my back up plans!.
For now, I’ve booked myself a full calendar of SCUBA and adventure travel over the next several months and I plan to update this blog as I go.
Safe travels my friends and T1Ds stay strong, and keep fighting the good fight!!
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