1 month on pump and not seeing much change in blood sugars

[kellyrae]

Hi,

I will have been on my combo pump for a month tomorrow, this may sound a little impatient but i don't seem to be seeing any great difference with my blood sugars....so far i go to visit with my nurse every week and keep in constant contact (most days) over the phone.

The sensitivity when we change the basal rate even by 0.1 seems to either nose dive them or they go the other way if we lower one.....seems like i can't win.

Trying to get my basal rates seem to be taking forever, don't get me wrong, I love the pump, not having to do 6 injections a day is fantastic and the ability to correct blood sugars at such a precise form is great but they don't seem to be changing too much from before the pump :s

I seem to be running at between 7-13 most of the time and i really don't want it this high especially when I am trying to get a hb1 of 6.5% for pregnancy.

How long did it take for others to get it right?

Any ansers or advice would be great.....thanks in advance

 

[jopar]

Re: 1 month on pump and not seeing much change in blood suga

Hi Kelly

It can take time to pin the basal rates down so don't over worry about it..

I take it from your post, that it's your DSN making a lot of the adjustment calls for you...

If she is, is she getting you to do fasting tests to collect the data required to make the adjustment, or is she just looking at your results and saying let's try this?

Without doing fasting testing tests and testing BG every hour to collect BG data, you basically making stabs in the dark... As anything from a high protein/fat meal or slow adsorbing carbs, bolus or correction insulin can be impacting on your blood glucose levels, skewing the information...

Fasting testing is hard work, more so over night but worth it in the end, you don't have to do the fasting over a straight 24 hours, but do it in blocks, over night, morning and afternoon...

 

[kellyrae]

Re: 1 month on pump and not seeing much change in blood suga

Hiya, thanks for that, yeah my nurse is looking at them and telling me what to try, I've already done fasting tests during the night and we thought we had it but then my bloods started to be raised again in the morning......and then just rapidly drop within an hour of me getting up, even when we lowered the basal.....my body just seems to drop once I get up.

I'm not really a big carb eater anyway, I'm quite happy to eat salad and omlettes for tea etc.....so i might just suggest that I do it over a 24 hour period just to see what its doing, the other day i purposely didnt eat from waking till lunch time and it was up and down all morning :s

I understand its going to be hard to get it right, just getting me down abit now xxx

 

[CarbsRok]

Re: 1 month on pump and not seeing much change in blood suga

Hi Kelly,
your nurse should not be making any changes. YOU should be.
Here's a simple basal test http://www.diatribe.us/issues/13/learning-curve.
It doesn't matter if your numbers go up and down and all over the palce. This is what a pump is for so you can map the basal pattern and set it to suit your needs.
Do you have the book pumping insulin by John walsh? If not best to invest in it. There's a 5th edition out now and it's silly money :shock: So have a look around for a 4th edition second hand as the prices for that one have gone up as well. :thumbdown:

 

[kellyrae]

Re: 1 month on pump and not seeing much change in blood suga

Hi Kelly,
your nurse should not be making any changes. YOU should be.
Here's a simple basal test http://www.diatribe.us/issues/13/learning-curve.
It doesn't matter if your numbers go up and down and all over the palce. This is what a pump is for so you can map the basal pattern and set it to suit your needs.
Do you have the book pumping insulin by John walsh? If not best to invest in it. There's a 5th edition out now and it's silly money :shock: So have a look around for a 4th edition second hand as the prices for that one have gone up as well. :thumbdown:

Thanks for that.....thats really helpful