on the 6th ill be flying out to california to visit family. what do i do with my pump on time changes? do i keep it the time zone im in (im in massachsuetts) or when do i switch it to california time if i have to do that. any suggestions? help, etc
If you are going to be there for several days, and will switch your body clock over by waking up and going to bed on Cali time, it’s better to switch your pump clock over.
You can do it all at one day, or maybe 1 1/2 hours the first day, and all the way over 3 hours the second day. Depending on how quickly your body adapts.
I always switch over 3 hours all at once and it doesn’t bother me at all to do it that way. It’s easier for me that way.
Just depends on how your body adapts.
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i leave on the 6th and return on the 11th. so i should switch it the day i fly out? i have different basal settings as well. forgot to mention that
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If it were me, I’d make the full pump time change once I got on the airplane. Or you could wait until you land in California; I haven’t seen much difference.
Be careful to mind the a.m. and p.m. distinction. I once made a travel pump time change and mixed up a.m. and p.m. I had some unexpected lows in the early afternoon as the typically a.m. dawn phenomena basal profile kicked into high gear.
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Probably better to do it all at once and just watch your BG closely for a while.
I also just change it over when I get on the plane to the new time zone. Because you will be on PST, getting up going to bed etc. and 3 is that big of a time difference. I also have 2 different profiles and have never had a problem. I just check my CGM a little more frequently and test a little more often that first day. Hope you have a great visit!
thanks guys. the one thing about the CGM is the shipment wont be arriving until i am already in california. i tried to get it to come earlier but because of my insurance it wont be shipped until the 7th. so ill have to check my levels a few more times than normal i guess.
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i don’t change my pump, meter,or sensor clocks when traveling across country. I don’t even change my watch. My phone shows me local time, and that keeps me in sync with what’s going on locally.
you dont do anything? i figured everyone would do the same thing
If the time change is significant, I do change the time on my pump when I travel. If you have just one basal setting then it may not be necessary. I have more than one, so the change keeps me more stable.
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i do have more than one basal rate. so i guess once im on the plane at 6:30a ill change it then.
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when I’m only gone for a week, why would I want to change everything by 3 hours, and then change back again? I have no problem doing things the way I mentioned.
Rule of thumb is change it when you land. That’s when your schedule officially changes to local time, and when you basal rates will need to take effect for the new timeline.
Changing the time literally only changes how the pump stores data, and which basal rate is applicable when. No harm in changing the time.
I travel a good 30-40% of the year and am on a pump, and this is how I’ve always handled time changes - whether they are 1 hour or 12 hour timezone changes.
Hope you have a great trip!
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I don’t subscribe to “rule of thumb”. They way I do it works perfectly for me. 
I’ve tried it your way and it ends up being a PITA and that’s why I switched to staying on my home-area time for up to one-week vacations within the continental US.
I only make a change if it’s more than 2 hours, and more than a few days. But my basal pattern is relatively flat all day.
If your basal varies a lot, it would make a bigger difference.
One time I traveled overseas, and changed when I landed. But when I returned and changed the time back, I accidentally set the time as AM time instead of PM (or vice versa). The next couple days were crazy, but thought it was just the adjustment after travel. At the next reservoir change, I realized my pump time was off by 12 hours, and fixed it.
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I find my body adjusts to the new time zone in about half a week. So if I have a basal segment that corrects for dawn phenomenon, let’s say, and I fly somewhere that’s four hours behind and I leave my pump alone, then after half a week that DP correction will be occurring four hours before it’s needed. That’s way more of a PITA for me than simply changing the time on my pump.
Since I was referring only to travel within 3 time zones, and with my current basal settings not being much different from one another (compared to last year when my nighttime basals were nearly double the daytime rates), it doesn’t make for a compelling case for me to reset all of the clocks on my devices. It’s bad enough doing the daylight savings/standard time resets each year.
My basals generally aren’t that much different from one another either, but they’re different for a reason. I have one shift from 0.75U to 0.70U for 1.5 hours and then back to 0.75. It makes a noticeable difference to my control. If that’s off by one or two or more time zones, I’m going to see the impact. If @Amy2 is similarly sensitive to her basal changes, big or small, then it might be smart for her to change the time on her pump.
If you have basal rates that you can run at local time in different time zones and it doesn’t affect your BGs, that’s great! Not all of us are so lucky.
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my basal rates are the following
midnight to 4a: 0.80
4q-8a: 1.05
8a-noon: 0.95
noon-midnight: 1.10
Because your am basal has a pretty good adjustment, I would definitely do the time change. Otherwise you will likely need to do corrections and so your TDD will be increase…For No Good Reason. I just got back from a time zone change vacation, and as soon as I arrived, I changed my pump time…and when I got home, I changed it back.