I made it to the UAE again, but this third trip is a little different because I’m staying for a few months.

The flight from Atlanta to Dubai was the longest flight I’ve ever experienced–13 hours and 17 minutes (my longest before that was last summer when I flew from New York to Beijing 12 hours).

Since my glucose tends to run low on long flights, I had a few pieces of candy with me and knew that I needed to pace my meals. Pacing meals on flights when I’m restricted to receiving meals according to their time and not mine means that I don’t eat everything or at all when they issue the meals. The carb count in diabetic meals can be rather high, but when I split the meal (ate some now and saved some for later) my glucose was fine. By doing this, I didn’t experience any hypos or very high spikes.

As usual (with Delta), I got a nice sticker on my seat that let’s everyone know that I require a special diabetic meal (“DBML”).

Thankfully, the flight attendant didn’t scream “Diabetic Meal” on this flight like I’ve had on other flights.

Chicken, rice, water, roll, salad, and fruit.

The regular meals had a creamier salad dressing and a brownie instead of fruit. I didn’t eat the roll and my numbers were fine.

cucumber salad, fruit, roll, water, cheese and tomato sandwich

Above is a picture of the “snack.” As you can see, it was loaded with carbs, so I did not eat it all at once.

bread, tomato, cheese, and herbs

Just before landing (with only one bun) it hit the spot.

Eventually, we reached our destination. I was SO happy. I spent the time reading on my iPad, playing Angry Birds, Ruzzle, Bejeweled, sleeping, and walking around.

The monitor on the back of my seat displayed the flight’s path across the world.

Last week, I attended a business expo at my hotel. While visiting a local hospital’s booth, I had my glucose checked. I was their first “patient.” When I shared with them that I’m a diabetes blogger, they were impressed and happy to take the picture for me. My glucose was 119.

Next week, I’m attending a diabetes event in the Capital (Abu Dhabi) and I’ll be the only blogger with VIP access…I can’t wait!