My 15 year old son is going on a 4 day band trip. One of the days will be spent at a water park. We have read that it is best to disconnect his pump b/c it could easily fall off on water slides,etc. I’ve read in the pump manual that you can disconnect for an hour at a time. Patrick will be at the park for five hours. If he reconnects every hour, how long should he leave it on before going back in the water? He will be checking his blood sugar every hour (I hope!!!) If it is normal can he wait another hour before reconnecting? He will also be going to Six Flags one of the days. Did I mention it is the first trip he has been on w/o us and that the chaperones will not be staying with the kids in the parks? He will be keeping up with all of his supplies while trying to be a normal 15 y/o hanging out with friends and riding rides. I am really worried about this. Any guidelines or suggestions would be helpful. Thanks, Traci
not sure about the water park w/o knowing if the pump is water proof.
my daughter just started on the pump and our trainer warned that we should disconnect if she is going on roller coasters etc at amusement parks as the force of up/down, spinning etc could cause the pump to discharge extra insulin. this was from the animas rep.
I would be interested to know also with summer coming and being out playing in the water and swimming. I am not sure. I know our pump educator said sometimes when people know they are going to the beach or places where they may want to be disconnected from their pump for a while, they may just disconnect for the day and use a shot of Lantus to cover their background insulin and do the Humalog shots with meals. I know having to give meal coverage by injection may be a hassle for a teen when active with friends in this situation, but it may be more reassuring to know he has the background insulin in his system and just needs to do his regular checks and only worry about covering for when he eats. I would ask his doc about this.
One thing I have noticed when my little 2 1/2 year old has been out playing in the warm weather in the little kiddie pool, the combination of sweating and being wet caused his site to fall out. I had him disconnected for about 40 mins and when we came in to reconnect I noticed it had come right out. I usually put Emla cream on an hour before his site changes so he will hold still better for me since I am usually changing them on my own and I was not prepared to have to put a new site in. Thankfully with just the time it took for me to get everything ready I had the Emla cream on and he cooperated with getting a new site, but I didn’t really like that this had happened. So that may be another thought why using Lantus for the day might be helpful. He wouldn’t have to worry about the site falling out and having to place another one. It may not be such a process for him as it is for me with my little guy, but it might be one less thing to worry about.
Hi Traci,
I hope this will help! Definately have him disconnect prior to any rides, especially the fast water slides. We usually have my son test his blood sugar every 1 to 1 1/2 hours. If he’s running low we dont have him reconnect because with all the extra adrenaline he tends to go low anyway. If he is high we’ve had him reconnect, do a correction bolus and send him off to check out foods or shops then come back in 30 minutes for a retest. If he’s fine we disconnect again. It’s a lot of responsibility for a teen! We also used Skintac (adhesive) and IV3000 which is an extra adhesive strip that we put over his site (we cut out a hole to fit around the connector). We did have to change sites at the end of the day as it was soggy. As for the amusement park rides we definately disconnect and put the pump in a fanny pack then reconnect after. Does him pump have an alarm? My sons can be set to go off at different intervals to remind him to test b.s. etc. Good luck!