[karen]

For the last week I have had consistent higher bgs readings, and have been through many site changes, but I am thinking that perhaps now that winter is here, I need to bump up my basals.

Does anyone else have different basal settings, because of change of seasons?

[xMenace]

Gary Scheiner in "Think Like A Pancreas" states on page 167 that we need less insulin in warmer weather. He suggests that seasonal changes may require a modest 10% - 20% adjustment in basal rates.

Test to confirm.

[SueM]

OK I will be different.
I have just lowered my basal by over 2 units.
Winter is here so that means a lot more work with the horses to muck out each day.

[UpNorth]

Doesn't matter what i do each season, i always need A LOT more insulin in Winter than in Summer! I'm currently struggling with quite a few higher readings due to winter arriving and i haven't yet found the right basal for now. it's not full blown winter yet, but yes, we do have snow! December-February is the months with highest basals for me... the colder it is, the more i seem to need

[Subby]

Like so many things diabetic I've noticed the variation of this amount (if required) is so huge. I must say I can't see a way to possibly have guidelines except to watch out for the issue and try and modify for your body.

Myself, I have about a 20% increase in hot weather. I don't know if it's a sliding scale or not, but applies when going from say 18c to 33c.

On the pump I would LOVE better tools over modifying basal rates like being able to increase evenly by 20% with a few button clicks. When you use a lot of basals it's quite a bit of work to shift things around, create alternate patterns, etc. I hope there will be more simplicity/flexibility in programming basal modifications, the next generation.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by Subby

Like so many things diabetic I've noticed the variation of this amount (if required) is so huge. I must say I can't see a way to possibly have guidelines except to watch out for the issue and try and modify for your body.

Myself, I have about a 20% increase in hot weather. I don't know if it's a sliding scale or not, but applies when going from say 18c to 33c.

On the pump I would LOVE better tools over modifying basal rates like being able to increase evenly by 20% with a few button clicks. When you use a lot of basals it's quite a bit of work to shift things around, create alternate patterns, etc. I hope there will be more simplicity/flexibility in programming basal modifications, the next generation.

New version of the Cozmo ( 1800 ) lets you store multiple basal patterns -

After running temp 130% basals 72 hours at a time for 3 -4 weeks each fall - I finally added a basal named 130% - so now rather than having to set temp basal and renew it every 3 days ( I wish the pump made more of an alert when a temp basal ended ) Now with a few clicks I can switch between the normal basal and the 130%

Ive been meaning to add a 115% basal in to the menu - just havent done it yet

[Subby]

Originally Posted by Doug

New version of the Cozmo ( 1800 ) lets you store multiple basal patterns -

After running temp 130% basals 72 hours at a time for 3 -4 weeks each fall - I finally added a basal named 130% - so now rather than having to set temp basal and renew it every 3 days ( I wish the pump made more of an alert when a temp basal ended ) Now with a few clicks I can switch between the normal basal and the 130%

Ive been meaning to add a 115% basal in to the menu - just havent done it yet

That's great to hear Doug, it sounds like it's really working for you. I always find it interesting and useful to hear details how others use their pumps. I also would like more feedback about temp basals in that kind of way, I understand the ideas behind how they do the feedback but I'm sure it could be a bit more informative and yet not be annoying.

The minimed has multiple patterns too. My problem with programming patterns for this scenario is that my basal rates are many (9 at the moment) and often changing (my background ebbs and flows a lot, over days or weeks). So I find it's quite the undertaking to deduce and program say an overall 20% increase, for my brain it involves writing it down and even cracking out a calculator, especially since I can't look at one pattern while I program another. Then by the time I might want to move back to a lower overall basal, the profile is usually different again to some degree, even if it was just a few days of hot weather, and might involve a similar 30 minute process to reconvert back. In the end I may as well use the same pattern, but then again I want to keep the old one for some kind of comparison, too - so patterns end up being a feature I can't quite decide is useful to me, and I find the maths laborious whichever way I do it.

Anyway not meaning to complain, it's wonderful how many features the pumps do have, I'm just hopeful one day I'll be able to bypass that work and (for me) uncertainty with more "maths for dummy" features like "permanent +20% basal please" or "permanent -10% basal please" click...

Maybe there's something on the web that could help deduce these changes... hmm I shall have to look.

Sorry about the sidetrack into pump specifics.

[Doug]

I just busted out the calculator

It took a few min - but in the end its a good thing

Im not sure how many basals I can store but if you could store 4 or 5 you should be able to cover your bases pretty well

You could also just put up a quick spreadsheet with columns for basals

The first column is your current basal and the next 4 columns are set to add say 10% to the previous column

Then all you have to do is update the first column if your numbers change and Excel does the rest

But I agree the pumps are mini computers - it would be nice if they could do some of this for us

[Subby]

Good tip about the spreadsheet, thanks for that.