Don't feel stupid, Sarah
. Those terms are mainly pump terms (basal and bolus), so it wouldn't really be common knowledge for non-pumpers like yourself.
Fasting blood sugar is the reading you take upon waking up...after a good nite's sleep
. It's before eating or doing any kind or activity or exercise. A lot of people judge their control by that number they wake up with.
Basal rate refers to the amount of insulin per hour the pump delivers. For example, my pump delivers 1.0 units of insulin per hour for the majority of the day. It mimics what a healthy pancreas does, that is, realeasing little spurts of insulin throughout the day. Now...non-pumpers also use a basal insulin...it is your long acting. You can figure out your basal rate by adding up your total amt. of long acting insulin and dividing that by 24. That is the amount per hour of insulin you are using
.
Bolus rate is the amount of insulin we give to cover the food we eat
. As you know we count carbs to come up with that number. Mine is 1 unit for every 10 grams of carbohydrate. So every time you take a shot to cover your food intake, you can think of that as a bolus rate.
Hope that this helps a little bit!
everyone talks about the basal rates and the fasting sugars... can someone please expa lin these to me... I have never been told about them... and as my control is not overly great just now... (though last A1c was down by a whole %) I think that I need to start learning and fast... 
Basal is considered your background insulin. So no matter if you don't eat you should never go low if your dosage is set. Bolus is the insulin you take to cover what you will be eating. This is how the pump works with a fast acting insulin. If you don't have the pump you need something like Lantus that last 24 hours (basal) and a fast acting (bolus) that you use when you eat.
Linear Mode
