Pumping at Disney, Florida

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NI-Bookworm

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Hi all
We are off to Disney on our first holiday with my 12yo son on a pump. I wonder if anyone can share their experiences of pumping in that type of climate and being active and on the move the whole time. He wears a libre sensor and I am a bit worried about keeping it on with the heat, sun creams and swimming. I know some have said about having to reduce the basal rates so I was hoping to get some idea of how much we may have to reduce. We will be testing testing and testing constantly and I know everyone is individual.

Thanks in advance.

Maria
 
Maria - it varies for the same person at different times and even in the same places. I've had holidays when I haven't had to bolus until my dinner at night - other times the heat has made no difference. Florida is mega humid too - but it didn't actually make any difference to my normal UK insulin requirements, despite the long walks at Disney and other places and the swimming (in hotel swimming pools, not the Everglades with the alligators LOL) etc.

We each have to play it by ear and mum will be loaded down with Haribo or whatever the hypo treatment of choice is - as she will be for a day out in the UK anyway! One thing that's never in short supply anywhere, is full sugar Coke anyway LOL
 
Hi Maria

As TW has said it varies for each person, so as you have said it is a case of keeping a check on the Libre and that all important direction of travel for glucose levels.

I find that if I have an active day, the Temporary Basal rate is very useful and over the holiday you may find a suitable change, but I suspect that every day will be so different from normal that it will be lots of testing/ swiping and correcting or topping up as necessary.

I also found that I ate more fatty food in US and so used some extended blouses. To cater for this we tended to eat earlier in the evening but then we often do, so that CHO and insulin have done their stuff before I go to bed.

Having said that, holidays need to be holidays. So I just accept that things will wobble a lot more sometimes for no obvious reason. Just be prepared for highs and lows and have fun.
 
Sounds wonderful - you lucky things! Completely agree with others of the benefits of being prepared, and expecting more variation that you would normally see. Enjoying the time there is the main thing.

I often find my basal requirements go out of the window when on holiday (for some bizarre reason the first 2 days I often seem ridiculously sensitive to insulin and then it gradually settles back to more 'normal' basal need over another few days)... I find it helpful to copy my 'normal' profile to a new pattern so that I can freely mess about with it knowing that I can always switch back to 'normal' whenever my system seems to have settled down.

Enjoy the holiday!
 
Thanks for the replies. Time to get packed now. It seems diabetes stuff is going to be double the amount of clothes we are bringing!
 
A little tip. Some airlines (certainly BA do) should give you a free extra hold bag for medical equipment. You have to contact their 'medical equipment team' first and they'll endorse your reservation file so there'll be no problem at check-in. You should also be allowed an extra carry-on bag (especially for the temperature sensitive stuff like insulin), but you don't normally have to pre-book that. Look for a reference to 'flying with a medical condition', or something like that, on the airlines's website. Often buried deep in their T&C's.

You might only get the concession for the outbound leg of the journey, but by the time you are coming home a lot of the stuff will have been used. Oh, and take at least 50% more than you think you'll need.
 
The extra carry-on bag is a great tip. I'd not fancy putting any D stuff in the hold tbh.
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
The extra carry-on bag is a great tip. I'd not fancy putting any D stuff in the hold tbh.
Click to expand...

Sometimes needs must. When I go away for the winter I can be taking 5-6 month's worth of supplies. That's a lot of boxes of infusion sets etc. I always put the temperature sensitive stuff in the carry-on, with at least a few weeks worth of other stuff. That way, if a hold bag does go astray I don't need to panic about replacing things. The Medtronic rep has told me that, in an emergency, they could get supples to me anywhere in the world (including a replacement pump) within 48 hours. Thank goodness, I've never had to put them to the test and I kinda think this was a bit of hype.

In any event, when you're going away for an extended period, the chance to get an extra hold bag for free cannot be overlooked.
 
I've been to Florida three times with my pump now. My one tip that has not been covered above is, if going on a coaster that uses magnets to propel you (like the Hulk), you will want to disconnect the pump. The magnets "may" push more insulin through. Check with the manufacturer (I use medtronic and they recommended not using on the magnetic propulsion type ones).

You can put pump in a locker, but I find easier to disconnect in case any issues with getting locker open or being in the queue a long time.
 
ch1ps said:
I've been to Florida three times with my pump now. My one tip that has not been covered above is, if going on a coaster that uses magnets to propel you (like the Hulk), you will want to disconnect the pump. The magnets "may" push more insulin through. Check with the manufacturer (I use medtronic and they recommended not using on the magnetic propulsion type ones)
Click to expand...

He will be on all the coasters so we will read up on it. He has an animas pump so it's waterproof. We are going swimming with the dolphins and think we will disconnect for that too. Don't want the dolphins being scared off with the sounds of the pump!!!
 
Please consider very carefully before swimming with dolphins if they are in captivity. My best job ever was guiding on seal and dolphin swimming tours at Kaikoura in New Zealand. Even before that, I avoided entering anywhere with captive dolphins. Anything other than family groups to large groups (depending on species) with freedom to roam across the seas (or some rivers) is wrong for cetaceans.
 
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