We have a long car trip - about 10 hours without any stops - planned for Memorial Day weekend. When we made the trip over Christmas, Hank ran high from sitting in the car with no activity, but we were still on shots so we just corrected at meals. I'm thinking this would be a case where a temp basal would make sense, but I'm not sure how to do it. We are going to leave in the middle of the night, around 2am, so I think we'll be fine from 2-6am when he would be asleep and idle anyway, but for the remainder of the trip, what would you suggest? His basals currently during daytime hours after 6am are 0.2.
We drive 7 hrs to our endo appts & always start a temp as soon as we get in the car. Actually, we do for any trip longer than 3 or 4 hrs. I usually start with a 20% increase & adjust as needed. ETA: Welcome to Pinging!
For us, travel is crazy. We just returned from vacation with a 12 hour drive. On the way down I ran 180% basals and adjusted her calculations so that meals were giving 150%. Still high (400s). On the way back, we did 200% basals and double meals. On that trip we did okay for about 6 hours but she was still in the 300s for the last 6 hours. And that's with us stopping every two hours! All that to say, it's going to depend on the kid. For us, travel is the absolute highest insulin demand activity she participates in. Not being able to move, excitement about the trip, everything contributes I'm sure. I increase insulin for any trip over 2 hours.
Any trip over 2 hours, can use a temp basal for L. She has ranged from needing 130% temp basal to the latest of 160% temp basal. Her I:C ratio, we keep the same for the most part. If we are driving overnight, I cancel the temp basal and return to the typical basal profile.
I wouldn't adjust anything ahead of time because you just don't know what will happen.. you can start one at any time during the trip. We typically don't need temp basals while traveling.
We just had a speaker at our JDRF meeting talk about travel. She recommended at least a 20% higher temp basal.
We use a minimum temp basal of 135%, and increase it at the first sign of running high. It's so much easier to correct a low in the car than it is to bring down a high.
I never thought about this. Last year was our first summer on the pump, and we did one trip that took about 3 hours...I don't remember if he was high when we arrived. Will have to watch this year and see what happens and may try a temp basal on the way home if he is high. Thanks for making me think about this!
Don't forget, it probably takes an hour or so for the temp basal to have much effect. So if you wait for the high, it's too late. We've found car highs to be the most stubborn.
We know he ran high for long car trips while on injections. Is it faulty logic to assume the same will happen on the pump? I am thinking we'll start conservatively, and see how it goes...
I need about 150%. I think it depends on how active you are normally.. if your basal is set for running about all over the place, you'll probably need a higher temp basal when you're sitting down all day, but if your basal is set for inactivity and you run a lower temp basal when you exercise, you won't need a higher temp basal for car journeys. But, I can go low the second I get out of the car and moving around.
It definitely could be different, or it could be the same.. lantus is different than novolog/humalog.. it acts different so you could very well see a different outcome this trip.. or you could see the need for increase basal as you did on the last trip.. clear as mud?:cwds:
And for added fun, Lauren's car sickness seems to be worse when she runs high (or low). So we really make the effort to keep in range!
