Sunday, June 24, 2007

International Travel & Diabetes

In just over a week, I'll be travelling to London for 10 days!! Crazy! I am nowhere near ready.

I do have a question for you guys though--what do you do with your basal rates for your pump when you travel multiple time zones? Do you immediately reset your pump clock and therefore basals switch around? I hadn't thought of this until this weekend... HELP! :)

6 comments:

Khürt Williams said...

I have thought about this at great length. I don't know the answers but I do know that having diabetes and traveling worries me.

Allison said...

Whenever I change timezones, I always change my pump's clock as I go through time zones. For example, I was in PST when I went to France, but we had a layover in Chicago, so in Chicago, I moved the clock forward. That way it was less of a shock to my system.

Of course, for me, my basal rates have to go to a temp setting when I fly anyway because of all the sitting and such. If you use a temp setting, just use that until you land and then immediately switch over to the new time and then monitor your BGs. You aren't crossing as many time zones as I did, so I wouldn't worry. I never have issues when I go from Portland to the East Coast, so you probably won't have many problems when you go from East Coast to London. At least, that's what I think.

Bernard said...

I always change the time on my pump once I get on the plane itself.

This is part of how I prepare for long distance travel (Ireland, coz that's home, and three trips to China over the last 10 years).

Once I get on the plane, I act as if I'm in my destination time zone. So I change my watch and my pump. I also change how I eat or sleep accordingly. Which means I don't generally eat on trips to Ireland because the plane leaves at 7 PM, or after midnight Irish time. I just try to close my eyes and sleep.

Have a great time in London.

Wingman said...

Mel,

You can definetley add me to your blog roll! Good luck with the traveling - I wish I had some advice but since I'm not on the pump just yet and haven't traveled internationally as a diabetic I'm not help.

VTHokie99 said...

Mel, I also change the time on my pump as I go through time zones. And like Allison, I have to increase my basal rate to cover all of the sitting & doing nothing.

Are you taking a back-up pump with you? The only other country I've traveled to has been Canada, but I hope to do more in the next couple of years and I worry about my pump breaking.

art-sweet said...

I follow Allison's advice about changing time zones on your pump as you fly. It's not a huge deal for me as my basals don't alter much through the day. If yours do, I would either try to pretend you're already on a different time zone when you get on the plane (Bernard) or alter it when you arrive. I don't alter my basal for the lowered activity, because I don't want to go low on the plane. I just test frequently and bolus accordingly.

I usually travel with Lantus, Humalog and syringes as a back-up if I'm going somewhere that pump supplies will not be readily available.

Have a great trip!