Alton towers and pumping

[Fee]

Hi all

My daughter will be fitted with an insulin pump next Tuesday. We will be visiting Alton Towers on the following Saturday. Are there any rides that we need to take the pump off for?

We have had this day planned for a long time, with some friends so am reluctant to change it.

Many thanks

 

[Copepod]

Would be a great shame if having a pump meant avoiding certain theme park rides for life. Main issue will be water, so answer depends on pump specification - ask your trainer about waterproofness / water resistance. If worried, you could take some ziplock plastic bags or roll top bags as sold for mobile phones etc. As you'll have to leave a tiny gap for tube, bag won't be totally waterproof. Or pumps can be disconnected for short periods - again, ask your trainer.

 

[Mand]

Hi Fee

Just wanted to wish your daughter good luck for starting with the pump next week. My son has been on one for 8 months now.

We are still learning which activities to leave it on for and which not to. Once the pump is off there is no background insulin so blood sugars will begin to rise but we were advised that it can safely be off for upto 1 hour at a time. From our own experience so far, i can see no problem with taking it off for the short time you are on a ride. Just keep it on till you are front of the queue and then pop it back on after the ride. You could do this for any rides you unsure of.

I have made a 'pump box'. I found the right size plastic lidded sandwich box, which i line with a piece of kitchen towel for any drops of insulin that come out whilst it is off body and to keep it snug, then pop it in the box for safety when off for short times. He also takes this box to school in his pe bag.

Hope you all have a wonderful day at Alton Towers! 🙂

 

[HelenM]

Hi, I've just seen this. I remembered seeing someting about this some time ago so googled.
This is a quote from the Animas site

What precautions do I need to follow at an amusement park ride with my pump?

Very powerful electromagnets are sometimes used on ?free-fall? amusement park rides. Insulin pumps should be removed and not taken on these ?free-fall? types of rides.

High gravity forces can be experienced when riding on some roller coasters. It is recommended that you disconnect (NOT suspend) the pump while on roller-coaster rides

 

[Fee]

Hi all, thanks for advise re pump and alton towers. Received this reply from Alton Towers;

Thanks for getting in touch.

All of our rides will generate some magnetic fields as we use large amounts of electricity but we do use very strong permanent magnets on Rita and thirteen. These two ride would create the strongest magnetic fields and I would suspect the pump will need to be removed on these.

I hope this helps.



Samuel Hall
Guest Services

Alton Towers Resort


We all had a great day and I can honestly say it was much easier with a pump! My daughter took the pump off for each ride, over cautious, but it worked. The one thing she said we needed to do differently next time is have the set in her tummy as it was a little inconvenient having to fiddle round to connect to her top buttock area!

Pump so far going well. She is having a well deserved lie in this morning after all the night time testing over the last week and a half.