I live in Boston and am going to L.A Cali next month. There is a 3 hour time difference. Does anyone have experience with time zones and insulin pumps? I'll only be there for 6 days so should I even bother to change the time on it while I'm in Cali?
If I should change it, when should I do it? I'm confused and this will be my first time zone change with my pump.
Any feedback would be appreciated!
Thanks!
I agree with John. Since you’ll only be changing a few zones, it shouldn’t be all that difficult. Just change it once you are on the ground in Cali, and make sure to test a little more than normal.
Also, I assume you will be flying. In the US, you are allowed to take juice with you through the security checkpoint, but expect to be hassled about it. A much better alternative is to take skittles or a bunch of glucose tabs. They will go right through security with no problems at all.
Have fun!
I changed mine when we landed (both when we go back home to California and when we traveled to Japan). Having a CGM helps too, as you can stalk monitor your blood sugars in flight and in transit. If you don’t have a CGM, just be sure to test often so you catch those nasty highs and lows! Enjoy California…I miss it dearly!
you need to disconnect your cgm transmitter from the insertion needle when you fly, due to faa regulations
and don’t try to pass it off as you can’t because it’s a medical device, because even the device manufacturers tell you to do so
What are your basal during the 24 hours. The easiest way I have found is to just change the time on the pump and leave the basal rates set to the same as in the other time zone. It takes about three days for a basal change to take full affect, so you may want to just leave it as is and make a few changes to your sleep and wake hours in LA.
Have fun!
I’ve found that the best thing that works for me is to change the time right before I go to bed. I have only two basal rates; the nighttime one is a bit higher than the daytime one because I need more insulin when I’m sleeping. So changing the time on the pump before I go to bed immediately puts me in the correct basal rate for sleeping. When I come back, I do the same thing…I wait until bedtime, and then change to the local time.
I recently went on a cruise through Europe, with several time changes (6 hours total over two weeks, and one 6-hour time change on the way home), and I did the same…changed the time before I went to bed…it worked perfectly.
Ruth
I find it the easiest for me , when flying , 3 hours or more time difference , to change my pump clock as I travel through the time zones.And I do not turn off my CGMS .
I also add a temp basal when flying , as my activity level is way down …even up there 