Long Distance Travel and Basal Rates

[Auckland Canary]

Hi

Was hoping I can get some advice with pump basal rates and travelling. I am off to Australia and New Zealand for Christmas in a few weeks and would like some advice on how I manage my pump basal rates for the trip. I have travelled long distance many times before with MDI but this is the first time since being on a pump.

I have some quite complicated basal rates set up (about 8 different rates per day) and remember being told that I should keep the timings as at my starting time for the duration of the flight. However what do I do when I get to my destination? If I just change the time on my pump my body will not have caught up with the change in time zones and surely all the rates will be between 10 and 13 hours out from what my body is until I acclimatise? Also my rates are very specific to my normal day to day activities which will then get thrown out as I am on holiday and won't be doing the same things at the same times so I will be even more out .Should I just set them up as a "flat rate" for the whole day at a lower rate and adjust each day depending on my readings? I will be away for about 3 1/2 weeks in total.

God I love being diabetic, it just adds that little bit more stress and worry to things that are supposed to be fun!

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[noblehead]

You should ask for your pumps clinic's input on this matter, I'm sure they have dealt with this sort of query many a time.

However I'll tag some experienced pump users who might be able to help @CarbsRok @iHs

 

[Chas C]

I fly to Malaysia a fair bit and use this site - it works very well for me.

http://www.diabetestravel.org/

 

[CarbsRok]

You should ask for your pumps clinic's input on this matter, I'm sure they have dealt with this sort of query many a time.

However I'll tag some experienced pump users who might be able to help @CarbsRok @iHs

Only border I cross is the Devon and Cornwall border so not much help sorry

 

[iHs]

I just go back to using my pens when going on holiday and leave pump at home. I take enough junk as it is without worrying about pump, sets, cartridges etc and dealing with any problems that might occur in another country if the pump develops a fault and need to get help or replacement.

 

[Auckland Canary]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I was wondering about whether to go back on to MDI for the trip because I am fairly used to dealing with that over long haul flights and time zone changes but I would like to be able to use the pump in these situations as well rather than having to revert back.
I'm not worried about any malfunction as I will take spare pens with me so if there are any emergencies I can just swap over. I also used to live in NZ so understand how the system works over there so could deal with it fairly well.
I will talk to my DSN as well and see what they say.