Anyone struggling to get it right?

Hi Cheryl,
Know exzactly what you mean re hypos. I am lucky, in that I have gone teh other way since being on th epump. I used to have more than 1 a day, but this has now reduced to perhaps 10 a month.

The pump has helped with this, in fact, this is why I was lucky enough to be given one. My issue is exercise...so I spend my time on a temporary basal rate. I have 2 young children and a full time job, and no two days are evr the same....if I drive, this (in my diabetes control book anyway,) counts as exercise, and can make my BG plummet.

When on MDI, I could plan for some of this...gym trips etc, but unexpected exercise, a heavy day at work or a quick dash to T escos would send me hypo, sat at my desk all day...I would go high. The pump allows me, to somwe degree at least, react to my hectic lifestyle. Not perfect, adn I could do more, but so much better than MDI for me.

I wondered if you are similar? If so, the temporary basal rate is really your friend. It does mean that I find the fasting tests difficult too. It took me over a dozen atttempts to get the early morning to early evening one completed..and it very annoying to fast all day, only to have to eat, 2 hours before the end of the fast.

For some reason, I missed this thread when Johnny first posted it, but reading back, I think there is a lot of sense in teh post about some peoples diabetes beingeasier to manage than others, although effort does play a big part too. Thats life I guess!

I was a pump hater. There, I said it.

But after 4 months and my best HBA result in 15 years I have eased up on the hate. However, I think that for 25 years I was in denial and my diabetes was just a mild inconvenience so going from a regime of testing my blood now and again to testing circa 8 times a day was like a huge smack in the face with a wet fish!

So many things upsets blood glucose levels and each one of us are unique that we are not going to get it right all of the time and we should expect it to be out of our control at times. We can't factor in a stressful day, a surge of adrenalin that triggers bloods to rise etc but at least we can be armed with the knowledge and tools to try for the majority of the time ..... Hey, I must be having a good day on the pump!?

For me it's having to wear it, to be attached by a length of tubing and trying to hide it in a place where it doesn't show and where I can fish it out to bolus. I am on the list for the omipod which hasn't yet been approved here in france and hope that this will then be my ideal pump.

Well, I've taken a few days off work, skipped breakfast & lunch on Monday, dinner yesterday & didn't eat until 1100 today. The result is that my basals are pretty much OK, maybe the odd tweak here & there, moving a couple up 0.1 early in the morning & a couple down 0.1 mid-morning. But at least I know I'm getting the right background dose. My DSN will just have to put up with my basal/bolus ratio being 35/65 not 50/50. I shall now reduce my insulin to carb ratio from 1/10 to 1/12 & see how that goes.

I think that I will just have to put up with never meeting post-prandial targets as I'm always in double figures 3 hours after a meal. As long as after about 5 hours I'm back to normal. My hba1c will no doubt rise, but that's better than so many hypos (27 this month already).

Thanks for all the tips & suggestions. My next goal will be to sort out my exercise regime, quite a few hypos down to that I think.

Hi Cheryl,

So sorry to hear your having such a difficult time on the pump.

I have about 5 hypos a week 2-3 if i'm lucky but a lot of the time its down to me deciding to clean, hoover or run to the shop and back - similar to sugar2 really cos when in the office I run a little higher during the day.

Your not alone though It's a lot of fiddling and you will get there in the end - I've had the pump over 2 years and I'm still learning. Still 50/50 whether i'd go back to MDI's though.

Have you tried extending your bolus's to cover your meals over an hour or so - could be why your high 2 hours after eating? Don't forget you do a lot of excersise so it will certainly affect how your insulin is used once you bolus/basal.

Keep your chin up - you'll get there.

Hi liklejojo,

Actually, I'm just the opposite in that although I am pretty sensitive to insulin, I have fairly poor absorption. I have found that I generally need to get as much of my bolus as possible into me at least 30 mins before I eat. I've pretty much nailed down breakfast which is nice & routine, I get up, test the BG, bolus, shower, dress then make breakfast. With this routine, I can usually keep my BG below 10 by 3 hours afterwards, but it always takes 4 1/2 to 5 hours for the insulin to shift from my system & get my BG back to normal. The difficulty occurs lunch & evening when it's not often practical to bolus then wait 30 mins.

However, I've had 3 hypo free days this month (plus none so far today), that's as many as the whole of last month, so I'm making a little progress.

I shall keep plugging on, more fasting next week to test my basal changes, for now it's off for a wet weekend in a tent in Derbyshire doing too much cycling & trying desperately not to let my diabetes interfere too much with having fun.

Yeey 3 free days, that sounds like a great improvement. I see what you mean about your boluses now, it's interesting that absorbtion rates can differ so much in us all, Keep going though you'll get there soon. Maybe around lunchtimes work could let you organise things for an hour so that you can sort your sugars out?? ALthough if your like me I never like to bring things up in work

Enjoy your weekend away