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Justinjroberts
DAFNE Graduate
London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust 9 posts |
I have just returned form a couple of short business trips: Dublin last week and Amsterdam the previous week. For both trip I was only away from early Wednesday morning returning Thursday evening. On both occasions my blood glucose level hit 10 15 13 10 12 10 while in Amsterdam, then 15 18 13 12 11 10 14 16 12 15 when in Dublin, prior to my travelling my levels where normal 5 and 6 with a 1 to 1 ratio. When in Dublin I doubled and tripled my fast acting insulin and it still had no affect, instead of taking 10 I would take 30 and still it stayed high. I always find I need to up my dosage when eating in hotels and restaurants , however it always goes back to normal and I have never before experienced such a run of very high levels. I would be interested to hear any comments as I can only think on either not travelling or eating nothing while away. The whole experience was utterly unpleasant and made it very difficult to work normally due to the extreme tiredness the high levels caused. |
Peter
DUAG Committee Member
University College London Hospitals (UCLH) 109 posts |
In my experience the biggest problems with traveling are caused by time zone differences and dietary differences at the destination. These typically make long distance travel more different than short haul. Based on your DAFNE centre I'm assuming your travel was from UK and so neither of the factors mentioned should have had a large impact. The other possibility may be stress arising from whatever business activities you were undertaking whilst abroad. I certainly find it more difficult to maintain good control whilst traveling, but never to the extent you're describing. If I were to triple my QA I would end up in hospital, but I do find that it's very easy to eat more carbs. than usual at all meals, so do ensure that you are applying the DAFNE principles correctly to each meal. Also do you stick to the same routine whist away e.g. same time of day for BI injection(s), same time difference between QA and eating? For me the latter is always more of a challenge when traveling as when cooking at home I know in advance both when the food will arrive and how many carbs. there will be, allowing insulin to be taken in advance. Neither of these are certain when traveling which results in more post-meal corrections which, in my case, are nothing like as efficient as insulin taken 15-30 minutes before eating. |
Garry
DAFNE Graduate
North Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust 328 posts |
Welcome to the forum Justinjroberts |
Justinjroberts
DAFNE Graduate
London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust 9 posts |
Thanks for your thoughts, and when I visit my HCP in April I will certainly ask about the CGMS. Regarding my insulin my QI is Novorapid and my BI is Humalin I! I was on Lantus but had some problems last Autumn and had to split the doe to morning and evening and was also having to check my glucose levels and correct with Novorapid around 5.30am every morning, at that time of day my Novorapid worked on a ratio of lowering of 1 to 1 so one unit of Novorapid would only reduce my glucose levels by 1. I have only been on the Humalin I for three weeks after spending a week on a DAFNE course, having last been on the course 11 years ago. |
Justinjroberts
DAFNE Graduate
London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust 9 posts |
Dear Peter, |
Peter
DUAG Committee Member
University College London Hospitals (UCLH) 109 posts |
Justin, I got the CGMS through my role as Chairman of DUAG which means that I am one of the user representatives on the DAFNE Executive which is the group the runs the DAFNE Programme in the UK and RoI. One of the other members of the Executive mentioned in a meeting that their centre were reviewing CGMS and so I commented that I'd be interested in trying one. A few weeks later I was contacted ans asked whether I'd be prepared to provide input into the instructions that were being written for the use of a CGMS in "exchange" for getting one to use myself for a period. Unfortunately not a route that will help you or others much. |