Holiday time difference

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Tina55iom

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Hi
Long time since I have been on holiday with a large time difference, What is the best way to deal with taking Levemir we are going to America and there is 10 hours difference
 
On any flight I set my watch to destination time and work to that (this is a lot easier for me now as I am on a pump so have no background insulin to sort out).

If that means stacking a Levemir injection I would leave it out and use corrections of quick acting until the next Levemir is due in destination time. Others I know have gradually shifted their Levmir over the days before travelling, but I thought I would probably forget. Another option is to keep Levemir at your home times throughout the holiday rather than morning/night. I know I would forget to do those at the right time.

Things tend to be a bit chaotic during flights anyway as meals are total guesswork and sleep is intermittent, so corrections are inevitable for me.
 
Last time I had a big time difference I stuck with Uk time, another time I moved it gradually before I went, but only going for a week so think it would be a bit problematic to do this. Might just stick to uk time.
 
Do the two hour shift rule.

Say you take your Levemir at 6pm UK time (8am US time).

Day 1: take it at 4pm UK (6am US)
Day 2: take it at 2pm UK (4am US)
Day 3: take it at 12pm UK (2am US)
Day 4: take it at 10am UK (12am US)
Day 5: take it at 8am UK (10pm US) - travel to the US
Day 6: take it at 6am UK (8pm US)

Or go the other way instead, whichever works most conveniently. The key point is to keep 22-26 hours between each Levemir dose. Set a timer on your phone. I personally don't like firefighting with bolus correction doses to cover as that means you essentially won't be going to sleep for the duration (as you'll need to be checking every 2 hours). Plus it puts you at far more risk of a hypo in a situation where you're already out of your comfort zone. And you really don't want to be feeling like that when you reach the border to meet someone whose authority encompasses rubber gloves and the term 'cavity search'!

Note this assumes you are taking Levemir once a day - if you're taking it twice a day you may need to do far less movement. Otherwise, 8am isn't too bad a time anyway - the real key is just avoiding a situation where you have to get up at 3am for your basal!
 
Yeah but....if you're only going for a week, you'd just have got it sorted and it would be time to reverse the whole thing. I'd tend to stick with UK time which would just mean doing it at the other end of the day, which wouldn't be too bad, provided it doesn't give you a peak at the wrong time.
 
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