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basal bolus

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duncanc1478

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hi my name is duncan i started a basal bolus today i have to take 60 units off levemir at night and 15 units off novorapid at meals now i not been tolde th carb ratio to this insulin anyone out there that can help so i understand thanks
 
Re: basel bolus

Hi,

The insulin to carb ratio is different for every person. I personally have a ratio of 2.5U to every 13g of carbs. As i use an insulin pump i can be much more precise with my doses than with injections.

Have you heard of the DAFNE course? (stands for Dose Adjustment For Normal Eating) among many things it teaches you how to adjust your insulin accordingly to how much carbohydrates you eat. This course or an equivalent is available to insulin users in many hospitals.

You could also ask your diabetes specialist nurse to give you a few tips on to how to get you started. Before i went on the DAFNE course my nurse helped me get started with working out my own ratios as i was desperate to start there and then!
 
Re: basel bolus

You might like to look at this online carb counting course/dose adjustment course which explains the basics
http://www.bdec-e-learning.com/
There are also a couple of good books, Think like a Pancreas Barry J. Goldstein, Gary Scheiner
ans Using Insulin John Walsh (the first is slightly more recent, both are from the US so you need to convert units from mg/dl to mmol/l
In the early days, I think that it can help to keep similar amounts of carbs at each equivalent meal. Then you can see reasonably quickly if you regularly need more or less insulin to cover that amount of carbs. If you have 50g carbs for lunch on Tuesday and 90g carbs for lunch on Wednesday and then only 20g carb on Friday it's more difficult to work out.

I too have a pump and use 1:11 for breakfast, 1:13 at lunchtime and 1:10 at dinner but as you see from Ebony her ratio is very different as she needs 1 unit for slightly over 5g of carbs. There are also people who extremely insulin sensitive and only need 1u for as many as 20g carbs.
 
Re: basel bolus

thanks folks i see i have alot to learn here all the carbs in food has changed i was still stuck on the old carbs from 10 yr ago but all the food has changed now and i never noticed it
 
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