Untethered Regimen - going on vacation need info

[Ginger9909]

We will be going away in two weeks and wondering if anyone has any information on this. we plan on doing alot of swimming & waterparks during our vacation and just wanted to know if anyone has had success with this program and exactly what you did. My daughter is 2 years old and has been on the minimed pump for about 2 months now.

[momof2]

Hi

We did a two week trip earlier this year, just 5 weeks after Ben's diagnosis. Needless to say I was totally freaked out and anxious before we went.

This site gave me loads of advice and envouragement, and when the time came to go I was relatively calm about everything.

I took lots of extra snacks for the travelling there, and doubled up on medical supplies to ensure we had enough for 2 weeks x2! Just in case. During the travelling we tested Ben every couple of hours, and gave snacks as approriate. He was absolutely fine.

Once there he was in the pool constantly, and running about, going for long walks, having lots of fun, lots of late nights!! Again we tested his sugars religiously, which was needed as he was staying 'low' most of the time due to the energy he was using. This prompted us to reduce his insulin dose.

I think the main thing was his whole routine changed for two weeks, but after the first day or so, it was fine, everything just happened later then normal and we all coped really well.

It certainly gave us an insight into factors such as exercise that needed to be taken into account and the really cool thing was....Ben was allowed a small ice cream every day!!. His average blood sugar over the two week period was 6.5mmol, so we were very pleased with ourselves and Ben!!

Sorry, I can't advise on what effect your trip will have on the use of the pump, as Ben is still injecting.

I hope you have a fantastic time!!!!!

:)

[EmmasMom]

In theory you just give the daily basal insulin dose w/ Lantus, and then hook up to the pump only for boluses at meals and for corrections.

I would have some reservations about using her normal amount of a 24 hr insulin when her insulin needs may be lower than normal, (running around at a water park). Once it's in there's no changing it. But, I do know that many people do it.

We had horrible blood sugars on our recent vacation to FL. We found that the heat and stress caused her to run very high all day and then drop when we got back to the resort. It was very difficult to manage and we needed the pump on at all times, (other than a few swims) for the constant adjustments we had to make.

Good Luck, I hope it goes well.

[BrendaK]

We just went on a waterpark vacation a couple of weeks ago and I was REALLY nervous. I disconnected Carson from the pump and checked him often. He was SOOOO active at the waterpark, he needed snacks even after being disconnected for over 2 hours.

Our endo told us that if you don't want to use the untethered regimine (which I didn't want to use for the first time on vacation), then, if needed, you can just hook him back up to the pump every hour and give a small bolus -- the amount he would have gotten for a basal rate. We didn't need to do that at the waterpark because he was so active!! At the end I was giving glucotabs, not a bolus!!

We went to the beach last weekend for a party and I just hooked Carson back up to the pump when it was time for lunch and the cake and gave him a regular bolus. Then I took it off again when he went in the water.

Our endo did tell us that if we wanted to use the untethered regime, to give 75% of the total daily basal amount, not 100%. I've never tried it, though. It seems like the untethered thing would be more appropriate for maybe an athlete who was going to be disconnected for a very long time for a game or something like that on a regular basis.

[selketine]

I've seen that Minimed sells a waterproof case for their pumps - maybe get one of those and leave her connected?

William is young too and sensitive to insulin. I just have this feeling if we went on a trip and tried the untethered thing it would be ME that would become untethered - to reality. :p I'm not sure vacation is a good time to try something new with the insulin. If he was older and I wasn't with him all day I might give it a try. Of course if you try it and it didn't go well you could always go back to the pump full time after 24 hours.

If we disconnect we keep the pump handy and give him a bolus every hour or so to replace the basal (if needed) and bolus for food. I keep it with me at all times (don't leave it in a cooler by your chair or something while you go swimming in case someone could take it).

I would think get some directions from your doctor for the lantus dose (I like the 75% thing) and perhaps try it before you go to see how it works out?

[wendyc]

We do a lot of water activity over the summer, and this is how our d-nurse suggest we handle it. Unplug in the water and test every hour. Every 3 hours, sit down for at a minimum 30min for a hook up and bolus. We generally planned meals and snacks around this window. It worked well. What did happen was that Abby stayed in range most times, but would drop at times during increased activity. She would then run high around 10p due to lost basal earlier in the day, so we were told to increase her overnight basal 10% for 2hrs and do a check. That seemed to do the trick for us.