18 Comments
When you fly on an airplane, do your blood sugars typically fluctuate outside of your typical patterns?
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I said No. flying in the airplane is the least of my worries. If I am flying, I worry about the hassles with TSA because I wonāt go through the body scanners with my pump on and instead of just patting me down which I am fine with they want to argue about it with me. Plus, my bigger BG worry is going off my healthy eating pattern when I get there HA. Self-discipline is always harder away from home or eating out.
Yes ma’am. The much bigger worry is TSA AND the huge inconsistencies between cities. The BEST experience we had was in Frankfurt, Germany. Despite language barriers, as soon as I said “insulin pump” and pointed, it was clear that they got it.
I am a senior who doesn’t fly in airplanes anymore.
When I used to fly, it was fun with meals served, no fright of covid 19, no masks, snacks of peanuts and beverages, no charge for extra bags…….times have changed and I miss the days gone by.
Mine always runs slightly higher..have to set a temp basal about 30% more when I fly. My sugars generally rise with any significant altitude change
My blood sugar usually runs higher.
During the flight no. But I have had serious hypos upon landing. Read somewhere that takeoff and landing can cause unintended release of insulin, so I disconnect during those times. No problems since. I agree with the hassles regarding TSA, to be polite, I tell myself that their statements about it being safe – means that TSA is concerned about their scanners being safe!. Back in the day when we got meals, I learned early on it was better to order a “regular” meal and pick and choose thann the so called “diabetic” meals. THe D meal was very carb heavy and often unidentifiable food items.
It took me many flights with unexplained high blood sugar while in flight and subsequent low blood sugar upon landing to realize that it was the altitude that raised my blood sugar and when I would try to remedy it it just led to a hypo upon landing. It’s so irritating especially as I didn’t know that was even possible
I said “no” because it was not a consistent pattern due only to planes, I used to travel a lot for work but that’s been a number of years ago now. In recent years I’ve traveled rarely and like many, in the last year, not at all.
Flying causes me a good bit of stress by nature, so my BGs tend to run higher when traveling by air. Plus I would rather run a bit high than have lows during flight.
No, they’re generally higher because of the stress involved in dealing with TSA and making flight connections on time. I use to enjoying flying but not now because it’s become a chaotic mess.
BG tries to fluctuate, but thanks to CGM I can correct and stay on it like any other day albeit stressful. Monitoring the CGM might be more difficult while going through ticketing, TSA or loading. The most stressful is TSA because of the necessary pat down. The pat down itself is not so stressful but being separated from my medical stuff is.
Not just flying, any sedentary long periods will result in low insulin sensitivity and much higher than normal blood sugars. Long car rides, especially after roadside eating are the worst!
When flying my blood sugar does tend to go up so I set a temporary basal of an extra 20 to 25% on my insulin pump. When riding in a car my blood sugar will sometimes go low I assume because passengers tend to sway from side to side acting as exercise.
Sometimes. Like others have shared, I set a temp basal at 20% higher for the duration of the flight and look OFTEN at cgm trending arrows so I know where my BG is at or is heading. I prefer to be a little bit higher than in normal lower range because having a hypo episode in flight or upon landing and navigating to baggage claim or transportation is a hassle I wish to avoid.
Oh my goodness yes… my bs goes sky high.
Plus the stress of traveling… I’m not a good traveler because of motion sickness… and then TSA… had good and bad experiences… my best TSA experience was in Dublin. They just totally “got it”. š
I said No because I have no idea. I am changing time zones, so adjusting my pump regularly for that, plus eating unknown carbs in the meals they serve on long distance flights, etc. etc.
I guess I am not as conscious, or concerned, as others of all the fluctuations. I just adjust as I go along.
Yes, those luggage pickup lows. I now just disconnect my pump during landing.
Haven’t really noticed. And now, during the pandemic, it’s been so long since I’ve flown, I can’t remember! Haha. I think I did have fluctuations, but might attribute that more to the exercise of hiking across terminals and sometimes indulging in airport snacks.