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Basal profiles

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ebony321

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hiiiiiii,

I usually start with 'quick question' but it never is :lol: so i'm gonna go with it!

I'm wondering if anyone using the accu-chek combo, or any other insulin pump can set different basal profiles?

As i've now gone back to work after a lovely week off, it's become quite apparant that my basal level is slightly too high whilst i'm at work.

I want to set a work day basal profile, and a seperate non-working one.

I saw my nurse on monday and she's happy with my results so far, around 95% of my readings are within my target of 5mmol-7.5mmol.

So far in this working week i've had a fair few readings below my target and a few hypo's, i'm testing very regularly at the minute anyway so i may be catching in the 4's before i drop below.

I work 8am-4am monday to friday and i've set a profile to try tomorrow as follows..

midnight-8am - 0.85uph
8am-4pm - 0.75uph
4pm-midnight - 0.85uph

Before this i was on 0.85uph as a flat 24h rate.

So i'm wondering if anyone uses profiles for work, or maybe a lazy day? and any tips?

I absolutely hate having hypo's and they can make me very frustrated at times, i'm sure like many people, and i also want any improvement in my HBA1c in may to reflect hard work and not be lowered by numerous lows!

but apart from the work issue, everything is still going great and my readings so far are making my face do this = :D

Thanks for any tips/advice guys :)
 
Hi Ebony, we set up a seperate basal rate for Lily when we went on holiday because the weather was so hot, it is very easy to do and you can select them as you want. When we got back we just reverted to her original basal profile and she has been fine.
We now have a profile set up ready for when we go on holiday again, or if we get some hot weather here :D wishfull thinking perhaps, but you never know.

Harry
 
Someone else who has a better idea of what they are talking about will be along soon I'm sure, but from my recent reading of all the pump training literature I think it said to change basal levels a couple of hours before you identified an issue. So if you spotted that you were going low at 10am during the basal testing then you would reduce the basal setting from 8am onwards to try and fix that.
 
Our pump can have different basal programmes but we havn't used it yet. We have used the temporary basal but not set up a separate basal profile. I think it is something we might use in the future, especially for days when there's sport or more activity than usual.
 
It is easy enough to set up another basal rate profile on your pump for workdays and non work days etc, and then you just have to select the one that you want to run.

You need to try and establish what is the starting time of you lows, and lower your basals 3 hours before you go low. For example if you go low at 10.30am you will need to lower them from 7am, 8am and 9am. With the combo pump you can alter everys ingle hour of the day if you want. I have alot of varying rates on mine on an hourly basis.

Depending on what you eat and when you eat and when you feel low, it may be that your bolus needs attention i.e my consultant told me if I was high/low 2-3 hours after bolus and eating then it would be my bolus that needed changing.

I now recognise that to keep my basal/bolus at a 50/50 or 60/40 ratio, if I alter my basal rates lower/higher, then I may also have to nudge my bolus 1 gram lower or higher....
 
donnellysdogs said:
II now recognise that to keep my basal/bolus at a 50/50 or 60/40 ratio, if I alter my basal rates lower/higher, then I may also have to nudge my bolus 1 gram lower or higher....
Click to expand...

My nurse did mention this but hasn't gone in to detail about it, can you possibly explain why it's expected to keep at a 50/50 basal/bolus ratio?

It's been commented on that my background requirements are quite low compared to my insulin:carb ratio.

For example when i told the Rep i was on a 3:1 ratio at meals, then told her i took a total of 28 units of background insulin, she was fairly surprised it wasn't much higher.

I'm now on, breakfast - 2.1/2:10g. Dinner-2:10g. Tea-2.1/2:10g.
And my total basal is 20.40 without any reduction for working.

So my insulin requirements seem to have reduced already..

I've always been told everyone is different and requires different amounts, but am i really expected to keep my doses 50/50 or round about?

----

Also, after reducing my basal a little today i still had one mild hypo, i am wondering wether it was down to miscalculation of carbs so i will see what tomorrow brings.
 
Sorry, I haven't got a clue why it is worked out on a regime of either 50/50 or 60/40- I wish I knew. However, to me if it is possble to get a basal testing that works for you and a bolus that works for you- and it isn't within these parameters I myself won't worry. Mine just so happens to keep at the moment within the parameters that they wanted. Perhaps somebody else will be able to tell us why?

I can't work out bolus regimes well unless they are a straight 1 unit to 10g or 1 to 9 or 1 to 8 etc.

So when you went low yesterday after having lowered your basals, what time was your low? If it was 2-3 hours after a bolus my COnsultant told me it was my bolus that would need altering. It may be that you didn't alter your basals low enough, how much did you lower them by, and was it for the 3 hours before your low?
 
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