Eternal422
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- He/Him
In March we are off on a 6 week holiday to Australia to mark the start of our retirement (exciting times !)
I am looking for some advice from those who have travelled before as to what is best with regard to adjusting basal insulin when crossing time zones.
I am currently on 28U of Levemir which I take once per day around 10pm. From basal testing I know that this lasts me for around 22 hours.
For the holiday we will always be heading west : London > San Francisco > Sydney > Singapore > London.
I found online an American paper which suggests for westward travel, taking a person's usual 10pm Levemir dose and splitting it, taking half at 10pm origin time and half at 10pm destination time.
On the day we travel to San Francisco, I would take 14U at 10pm UK time (2pm time in San Francisco) and a further 14U at 10pm San Francisco time (6am UK time) . The next day I would simply revert to taking 28U at 10pm San Francisco time.
Travelling from San Francisco to Sydney crosses the international date line, but I could still take 14U doses around 7 hours apart and end up on my usual 10pm single dose of 28U Sydney time on the day after arrival.
I've done a little table of proposed doses to cover the parts of our trip that cross time zones :
Of course, I fully expect my BG to be up and down during the flights and a bit out of whack with the time changes. I've done the trip to the US West Coast several times before (admittedly without the Libre so not totally aware of BG changes) and not had any issues, quickly settling down to a regular pattern.
I'm probably over thinking this and making it too hard. I could always supplement with Novorapid until the regular Levemir at 10pm local time steadies things down. My DSN suggested either gradually changing the time of the Levemir in advance of travelling or just changing to 10pm local time straight away, accepting I may need additional Novorapid in the meantime.
I'm interested to seek opinions from others who have done similar travelling before and welcome any advice and ideas. Thanks in advance.
I am looking for some advice from those who have travelled before as to what is best with regard to adjusting basal insulin when crossing time zones.
I am currently on 28U of Levemir which I take once per day around 10pm. From basal testing I know that this lasts me for around 22 hours.
For the holiday we will always be heading west : London > San Francisco > Sydney > Singapore > London.
I found online an American paper which suggests for westward travel, taking a person's usual 10pm Levemir dose and splitting it, taking half at 10pm origin time and half at 10pm destination time.
On the day we travel to San Francisco, I would take 14U at 10pm UK time (2pm time in San Francisco) and a further 14U at 10pm San Francisco time (6am UK time) . The next day I would simply revert to taking 28U at 10pm San Francisco time.
Travelling from San Francisco to Sydney crosses the international date line, but I could still take 14U doses around 7 hours apart and end up on my usual 10pm single dose of 28U Sydney time on the day after arrival.
I've done a little table of proposed doses to cover the parts of our trip that cross time zones :
Of course, I fully expect my BG to be up and down during the flights and a bit out of whack with the time changes. I've done the trip to the US West Coast several times before (admittedly without the Libre so not totally aware of BG changes) and not had any issues, quickly settling down to a regular pattern.
I'm probably over thinking this and making it too hard. I could always supplement with Novorapid until the regular Levemir at 10pm local time steadies things down. My DSN suggested either gradually changing the time of the Levemir in advance of travelling or just changing to 10pm local time straight away, accepting I may need additional Novorapid in the meantime.
I'm interested to seek opinions from others who have done similar travelling before and welcome any advice and ideas. Thanks in advance.