I have another question.....

[jentoe_22]

Hey all. Seems most of you know I started pumping on Monday and have had quite a few problems. I went to the Dr. today and he said he thought that setting a temp basal while I was at work would help the lows in the middle of the day. The thing is, I still got a tad bit low today at around the same time as yesterday. Even though I am not at work. I am still on a .65 basal all day. At least for the weekend. I know a ton of you all have different basals for different times of the day. How did you go about figuring those out. It seems that the .65 holds me pretty steady through the night, but then I get high in the morning. Then around 2 each day, I tend to drop low. I have been having mixed results for dinner. The Dr. even said he was confused, because he did not see a trend there. I have been taking the same meal ratio for dinner for the past two days, and on Wednesday I dropped to fifty after dinner, and last night I rose to two hundred after. I am really confused as to what to do. The Dr. kind of freaked me out by saying he was hesitant to do anything at the moment because he can't find any trends. Help!!!!! :confused: :confused: :confused:

[Lloyd]

"The thing is, I still got a tad bit low today at around the same time as yesterday. Even though I am not at work. I am still on a .65 basal all day. At least for the weekend. I know a ton of you all have different basals for different times of the day. How did you go about figuring those out. It seems that the .65 holds me pretty steady through the night, but then I get high in the morning. Then around 2 each day, I tend to drop low."

Start with your overnight basal. If you could test a few times in the middle of the night to see about what time you start going high, that would be a big help.
If, say, you start going high at 5 AM, then you need to set the pump to give you more insulin at 3 AM (2 hours ahead of time) and on.
DON'T MAKE BIG CHANGES!
You make a small change, then see how you do the next couple of mornings. If it is too much ( not likely) then back off. If you are still too high, then ad a little more and watch it for another couple of mornings.
When you are happy with your morning readings, then delay lunch an hour or two, and look to see how your readings are from 2 hours after breakfast until you eat lunch. Eat nothing during this time. If your bs is drifting up slowly, then you are not getting enough insulin during that time period. If it is drifting down, then you are getting too much.
It is very important that this basal testing be done while you are fasting, so that food and bolus insulin does not confuse the issue.
You work on it a little at a time, and gradually it gets better and better, but it literally takes weeks to get everything just right.
Once you have the info to know what you have to do with your rates, you can eat or bolus correct or take glucose tabs to get yourself back in line.
Gradually work your way around the clock, making small changes as necessary, things should get better this way witout getting worse at any time, but it is a slow process.

Best of luck, you will get lots of help here!

-Lloyd

[xMenace]

It is very important that this basal testing be done while you are fasting, so that food and bolus insulin does not confuse the issue.


What Lloyd said.

I'd start with mornings tho then follow with lunches as daytimes seem to suck right now.

- skip breakie and test hourly.
- plot a graph
- add/subtract basal to match the total fall/rise
- spread that adjustment according to the curve.
- you may rise then fall or the opposite. In this case don't add any, simply move it around to flatten the curve.
- be conservative as not every day is the same.
- do this for several days then move on to lunches.
- while testing morning basals, you may have to up your lunchtime bolus - sort of a delayed dawn phenomenon. I double my dose.

any questions, pm me please.

[frige]

I am in a similar situation.
Started pump 2 days ago
.75 basal
I know I go low at night, so I jacked the basal down to .6 at 1am.
I was 56 at 3am, popped 5 tabs, was 109 for the low check.
149 at 6am, 110 at 9am, 119 at 10am.
If I'm low at 11am, I might move my overall basal down a little. I think it would be easier to be high all the time, and aim lower, instead of low, aiming high.

I'm not really asking any questions. I'm just relating to let you know you are not alone. I'm confident we'll figure it out.

-john

[KritterMom]

I'm just impatient, and want it all figured out right this minute, lol. I know that eventually I will get the numbers right, but it seems like I'm either too high, and that will affect my A1c, or I'm too low, and miserable when I'm low. We'll just keep on keeping on!:)

[Lloyd]

I am in a similar situation.
Started pump 2 days ago
.75 basal
I know I go low at night, so I jacked the basal down to .6 at 1am.
I was 56 at 3am, popped 5 tabs, was 109 for the low check.
149 at 6am, 110 at 9am, 119 at 10am.
If I'm low at 11am, I might move my overall basal down a little. I think it would be easier to be high all the time, and aim lower, instead of low, aiming high.

I'm not really asking any questions. I'm just relating to let you know you are not alone. I'm confident we'll figure it out.

-john
You need to get the right amount at the right time. You might find lowering your basal at 3 AM to take effect by 5 AM might work for you.

-Lloyd