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Changing time zones & basal

ArtemisBow

ArtemisBow

Well-Known Member
Messages
312
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
All my travelling since diagnosis has been in Europe, and I've always just kept my Lantus at the same UK time - I usually take it at 7am, so when I was in France last year I took it at 8am local time.

In March I'm travelling much further and changing time zones to ten hours behind UK, so if I followed the same rule I would take it at 10pm. But the reason I take it in the morning currently is to avoid overnight lows - so I'd be concerned about moving it to the evening. Can anyone with a bit more experience suggest how I handle it? Take it at 10pm but monitor more closely? Move it to the morning while I'm there? If so, how?
 
I Spoke to my Doctor about this last time i was in, they told me to change the time by a couple of hours every day till i was in the new time zone. though i havnt tried it yet. if you hear anything else let me know becuse i will also be going to an 8 hour time diffrence
 
I recently traveled to Philippines,which is 8 hours ahead. I was also wondering and worried how am I going to sort out my basal insulin. My diabetes nurse first told me to either inject bolus throughout my holiday at same time as when I usually inject when I am in UK. That would be 6 am in the morning. I wasn't sure how would that work out.

Other option was to skip injecting my bolus when I am supposed to ( 10 pm UK time) and then cover my insulin needs with fast acting insulin until 10 pm local Philippine time.

She also suggested to check http://www.voyagemd.com, which is supposed to help with working out your basal and Bolus insulin while traveling.

I would definitely check with your diabetes team which one of those is a good option before your travel.

I worked out that according to voyage Md I would have too much bolus insulin, and I would risk of having hypos during the flight.

I decided not to give full bolus insulin dose (10 pm UK time), I had 20% of my full basal dose, just to have some background insulin, I covered the rest of my insulin needs with more fast acting insulin, I checked my BG regularly, and then I injected the full bolus 10 pm local time. I did have few high BG's but I corrected it with fast acting... I did the same for return travel.

I know this might have been the worst option, not very smart thing to do, but I think it was the best option for me. I didn't want to have hypos during my 22 hour air travel, and I wasn't sure what are my sugars going to be if ever I change my bolus to 6 am.

I hope I gave you an idea which you could discuss with your diabetes team before travel.

good luck
 
Other option was to skip injecting my bolus when I am supposed to ( 10 pm UK time) and then cover my insulin needs with fast acting insulin until 10 pm local Philippine time.

I wasn't sure how sensible that was to do but I tried this last time I travelled overtime zones and worked really well for me :-)

Good luck and have a nice holiday.
 
I agree with itconor. I have travelled extensively over the years and try and keep my basal insulin injections at the same time. So you move it a few hours a day until it comes back to the same local time again. Obviously monitor your levels and make sure you keep track of what time your body "thinks" it is so you are injecting at the right time. It's never caused me too many problems.
 
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