Flying with KLM and Aviva insight?

[Amy.W]

Hi everyone

Looking to see if anyone has flown with their pump on a KLM aircraft? I have sent the an email to see what there procedure is but no response as yet (I fly on Saturday).

Also if anyone gas advice on time zone changes and pump, I'm flying to Thailand which is 7 hours ahead. Only done long hale when on the pens.

Thank you in advance xxx

 

[noblehead]

Not travelled abroad since starting on a pump but will tag a few members who may be able to help @azure @CarbsRok @iHs

Hope you have a safe and hassle-free journey.

 

[Mrsass]

Hi Amy, pump shouldn't be a problem on the flight I've flew a couple of times since I had mine, although not long haul, so hopefully someone can help with that, only thing I would say is during take off unclip your tubing from your set as you can sometimes get a load of air bubbles with the pressure.. Then obviously check, prime if needed before reconnecting, hope you have a great trip X

 

[azure]

Hi everyone

Looking to see if anyone has flown with their pump on a KLM aircraft? I have sent the an email to see what there procedure is but no response as yet (I fly on Saturday).

Also if anyone gas advice on time zone changes and pump, I'm flying to Thailand which is 7 hours ahead. Only done long hale when on the pens.

Thank you in advance xxx

I haven't flown KLM, but I've flown on a number of airlines with my pump. For me, my concern is always Security - ie will they be familiar with pumps? I've never contacted any airlines and I've never had problems on board. I haven't mentioned it and no one has mentioned it to me (although I always explain to people sitting near what it is).

At Security, I tell them I'm wearing a pump, ask to be patted down not scanned, and show them my doctors letter. I also explain I'm carrying lancets, insulin, back up insulin pen, etc. They usuallly swab my pump for dangerous materials and I have to wait a couple of minutes for the Ok for that.

When I fly long haul, I change my pump time in two stages - so for an 8 hour difference, I'd change it 4 hours on the plane. Then the remaining 4 hours when I arrive. Sounds obvious but make sure you don't mess up AM and PM if you're using a 12 hour clock.

Have a good trip

 

[Amy.W]

That's great advice. Thank you so much x

 

[iHs]

I never take my pump abroad so use insulin pens instead as I don't like to risk the pump developing a fault and having a day of the holiday ruined waiting about for a replacement pump to be delivered to wherever I was staying. Also, I would worry a bit if I disconnected the tube from the pump and went for a swim..........there's a lot of pick pockets about and pumps on the black market could be worth a lot of money in the wrong hands so I don't like to take any chances.

 

[Chas C]

As everyone has mentioned - you should have no issues, I fly with my insight loads and not had any issues.

My flights are normally 8 hrs time difference, so on boarding a move forwards 4 hrs and on landing I move forward the remaining 4 hrs.

On my return I do it backwards, go back 4 hrs on takeoff and then remaining 4 hrs when landing in UK.

You could do 3.5 hrs each time.

On the insight you change it all on the handset - main menu - pump - scroll down to settings - date and time it changes handset and pump.

Also make sure your handset if fully charged in both directions before you board the plane and put a new battery in your pump before you leave.

Have a great time

 

[Amy.W]

Thanks everyone. I had a great holiday. No issues at all. I took my pump off for one security and kept it on for another. There were no issues with scanner. Time change was great so thanks for that advice. My blood was a bit erratic. I think that might have been due to the heat and different food and carb counting.

 

[TorqPenderloin]

I think a lot of people worry about this, but when you do the math, you realize that there's very little to fear.

-Roughly 1 in 200 people has type 1 diabetes so we'll assume that's how many wear an insulin pump (accounting for T2s on a pump and T1s on MDI)
-On average, about 8 million people fly a day.

Using those numbers, there's about 40,000 insulin pumps (and their wearers) flying through the air on any given day.

While we're an uncommon breed, there's more of us than we realize sometimes.