[carolyn]

When your bg's are higher than usual, how often do you change your basal rates, even if only a small change?

[Subby]

Hard question to answer. What situation? Is there a known cause for these high BGs?

[poodlebone]

I usually don't change them unless I see the same pattern for several days and I can rule out other things like illness. I do end up making basal changes frequently, maybe monthly (and has nothing to do with my menstrual cycle). My body seems to constantly change and as soon as things settle down and I think I'm okay, everything changes again.

[kgm0612]

I NEVER change my basal rates.

If I'm running unusually high it's either caused by food that I ate, a bad site, insulin, or an illness.

Karen

[orange81bird]

When I first notice higher readings, I look at what I ate. If that's not the cause, I will begin doing some basal testing to see if any of the rates need to change. Once I change the rates, I will do some basal testing again to be sure everything is good.

[zatff]

Originally Posted by carolyn

When your bg's are higher than usual, how often do you change your basal rates, even if only a small change?

I seldom change basal rates but will often use a temp basal adjustment. If I need this for a week or two then I might change the basal rate.

[xMenace]

My basals don't change.

I will temp basal for specific things like long distance driving, exercise, and liver dumps. I pretty much know how these affect me.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by zatff

I seldom change basal rates but will often use a temp basal adjustment. If I need this for a week or two then I might change the basal rate.

Like zatff Ive found that some things effect my BG enough to warrant basal changes. Ive set up 4 basal programs so that I can easily ramp up or down the % if the temp basal doesnt cover it. I think its related to allergies. I take allergy meds so I dont see the symptoms as strong sometimes, but my BG tends to trend up for about 10 days at a time. Last week I was at 140% of my normal basal for a few days. The change couldnt be explained by food or site issues.

[MJM]

Basal rates shouldn't be changed just because you get a variation in bs readings.
Basal rates should be checked on a reasonably regular basis, i.e. perhaps every 3 t 6 months. In reality, they should remain constant and only change for such things as exercise, illness, stress, etc.
What might happen is that bolus amount might be incorrect and should be looked at firstly.
In my opinion the most important thing for a diabetic is having a correct basal pattern, otherwise you will have unstable readings.
When you are satisfied with your basal pattern you will only need to adjust bs readings with a temp basal, but try to find out why the bad figure occurred in the first place, if at all possible.

[Subby]

Originally Posted by MJM

Basal rates shouldn't be changed just because you get a variation in bs readings.
Basal rates should be checked on a reasonably regular basis, i.e. perhaps every 3 t 6 months. In reality, they should remain constant and only change for such things as exercise, illness, stress, etc.

What might happen is that bolus amount might be incorrect and should be looked at firstly.
In my opinion the most important thing for a diabetic is having a correct basal pattern, otherwise you will have unstable readings.
When you are satisfied with your basal pattern you will only need to adjust bs readings with a temp basal, but try to find out why the bad figure occurred in the first place, if at all possible.

I agree with basal coverage being vital.

I can't agree with this vision of a truly stable, static system you tend to encourage here, not for myself at least. Often I need to adjust basals on a systemic level, through basal testing. In general I might be making some changes every month or so, in order to maintain stability, that's before considering temp basals and the like to deal with event driving BG changes. Over the months my basal profile stays quite similar, but shifts around enough to need a lot of vigilance in changing the basic rates.

[carolyn]

Thanke everyone who replied. Your help is really appreciated.

[zatff]

Originally Posted by xMenace

My basals don't change.

I will temp basal for specific things like long distance driving, exercise, and liver dumps. I pretty much know how these affect me.

I have different basal rates set up for these and sometimes remember to use them but often I end just doing a temp rate since it allows me to set specific time and gives me reminder when rate is over. Do you use the pre-programed different basal rates or just set up new temp rate?