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So, today I got back home from a vacation. Or a vacation-business trip. I hopped into a plane on Monday, the 25th of Nov. and flew to Melbourne via Singapore. In Melbourne was the WDC, World Diabetes Conference and just before that the International Diabetes Federations (IDF) Young Leaders in Diabetes programme. I won’t go through the programme itself but rather tell what happened to a common diabetics blood glucose on the other side of the world .

First of all, traveling is not it the best thing for your blood sugar levels. The first flight took off just before midnight on Monday and we arrived in Melbourne on Wednesday morning at 7 am local time. An insulin pump is pretty handy traveling companion, since you don’t have to play with your long-acting insulins injection times. Like basal could be set to the same amount throughout the day, regardless of the time difference. Though the fluctuation in my basal rate is so small that I just simply change the time in my pump when I reach my final destination. Maybe this time I should of done some sort of safety precaution since the first two weeks in Australia my BG was around 17 mmol/l 24/7.

There were no hypos what so ever and only on few mornings were my before breakfast BG levels less than 10. I was kind of wondering why, but I put it all due to the stress from the programme. And I also went to bed pretty late since the free time was mostly only in the evenings. Still every morning I was at the breakfast feeling fresh and rested! However, that wasn’t necessarily that smart to do. The hotel breakfast was in daily basis just toast with jam, scrambled eggs, fried mushrooms , hash browns, beans, corn flakes, juice, fruit and very, very sweet yogurt. That was all that was available . We came to the conclusion that the somewhat unhealthy breakfast was the root of all evil. Every morning my BG jumped after breakfast to more that 20 mmol/l, even if I had bolused ten million units! (okay, I didn’t really try that out…!).

Lunch or dinner wasn’t much better as there were only potato and pasta, which, of course, all full of carbs. And in the evening few beers and my sugar levels had never time to come down.

After two weeks of training and after the conference started my holiday! Yay! 2 weeks more under the Australian sun (although the first 4 days it was less than 20’C and it rained almost all the time)! 🙂 So I moved from the hotel to my budget accommodation to the other side of the city. Breakfast was not improved much, it was again toast with jam and corn flakes. And of course, pancakes on Wednesday. But my lunch and dinner I was able to decide by myself! BG became a bit more steady, they were now closer to 12 mmol/l. Good thing I was travelling with other diabetics, since I was able to witness the power of peer support.

One of the people I traveled with was Kathi (from Germany), who had had diabetes since she was a little kid, like me. She has had a pump longer though. Kathi had things somewhat more under control and I listened round-eyed when she told me she put her temporary bolus up to 200 % for one whole day. It had instantly brought her blood sugar back to the normal level.

I thought that might be worth of a try. Maybe the fact that I lost one full day on my way to Australia messed up my body so it was all upside down and for two weeks I had lacked a one full daily doses worth of insulin. I didn’t quite dare to double the basal dose, but I set the temporary basal rate up to 150 % for three hours. The difference was incredible! I wasn’t thirsty all the time and even though the sugar levels were still more than 10, it was just so much easier to be. I then continued keeping the basal up to 140 % throughout the rest of the day and for the night I just set it back to normal.

The next day I woke up with BG less than ten​​, but the breakfast shot the levels back up. I decided to take a risk and set the temporary basal up for 155 % for 24 hours (and packed my backpack full of hypokits!). And that was it! BG came down to around ten mmol/l and stayed there! You can not believe what a relief it was to measure the 6-8 mmol/l levels! Never ever ever have I felt so good with a BG level of 8.9!

Rest of the vacation went on with good sugar levels, we saw the Great Ocean Road, Bondi Beach and the Sydney Opera House, tried to surf and walked along the hot and sunny streets of Sydney and Melbourne. So we finally got some hot days! The holiday was wonderful, the whole Australia was just wonderful and the whole experience with the conference and koalas as well as blood sugars behaving badly was just insanely  [insert Bostonian accent here] AWESOME.

So now I’m at home in Finland with a bit confusing feeling due to the timezone differences, but at least I now know how to adjust my pump if my BG starts to act all weird again! 🙂