Swimming in public pools

[Ergates]

Went for my first swim today since I've gone on a pump. First swim for my toddler too, he loved it! I took the pump off, and put a cannula cap on the cannula. We were only in for 20 minutes or so, but if you were swimming for longer, would you give yourself a small bolus before disconnecting the pump?

With a 45 min swim, say perhaps 0.4u if your basal rate is 0.55u?

 

[shiv]

It's something I would definitely consider, but would want to see if it was actually necessary - the swimming may be enough in itself to stop any highs from the lack of basal?

However this comes from someone who hasn't been swimming for a long time - so I could be wrong. Just my thoughts?

 

[Mel]

If you were swimming continously for 45minutes you probably won't want to bolus before hand as the exercise alone will drop you, you may even need some short acting carb to keep your levels up ( we use jelly babies 1= 5 carb). Watch for the potential to hypo fo r several hours after .
If you are just having a splash then you may need to give the bolus.

 

[Twitchy]

Hiya...

I quite often take the kids to waterbabies on a saturday morning- half an hour of lugging them round the pool, ducking then under (it's ok, apparently they can hold their breath lol! 😱) and trying to persuade the older one to let go & have a go at swimming, and the younger one to stop trying to swim off by herself & splash all the water out of the pool (she's only a baby, but brave lol! So not exactly swimming, but hard enough work. 🙂 I take the first kid in, then there's a half hour break before the second kid's turn. I usually check my BG before going in then if it's high I'd bolus at least 5 mins before removing the pump but not otherwise (I have a hazy idea that maybe the insulin would need time to dissipate or something, not sure how scientific this is though!). I tend to check towards the end of the half hour break & if I needed to would briefly reattach & bolus, before re-removing & going back in (if that makes sense?!) but I haven't had to do that yet - possibly though this might be cos my rates are quite a bit higher first thing than any other time of the day (DP!) so maybe there might be an element of insulin stack that's helping carry me over...again not sure how correct this assumption is though.

I think the best thing is have a go without bolusing, & just test before & after...and enjoy! 🙂

Take care,

Twitchy xx