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Basal rate testing

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NicolaAnne1994 said:
Very complicating stuff! ha! and I am on the accucheck combo!
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I thought as much ........ snap so am I as are DD and Brett and others. I think its got something to do with the way the pump delivers the basal rate of insulin (20 times per hour) whereas other pumps deliver it in different ways. Unfortunately, the Combo's accuracy greatly depends on that bg test being done and because there is no IOB function, then you need to either use Mr G.S's insulin on board calculations and get yourself a small calculator or just eat meals 4 times per day and don't eat any snacks unless bg levels have dropped.
 
NicolaAnne1994 said:
Mr G.S? sorry I am so confused haha and 4 meals? why 4 and not 3?
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Mr G.S is Gary Scheiner of Think Like A Pancreas fame. There is a link somewhere on the forum to webpage on insulin that is still active http://static.diabetesselfmanagement.co ... f_2253.pdf which will help with Combo's lack of IOB.

My mistake over the 4 meals, I should have typed 3 .... sorry but remember that bolus insulin isn't as great as its made out to be as many doctors have realised that it can at times have a 'tail' to it and this is why there is a need for faster, shorter acting bolus.
 
Oh I see I shall have a look into that haha! and oh right well this is still all very confusing only time will tell! 6ish years of being diabetic and I still haven't got the hang of things!
 
Thanks iHs for making sense of my ramblings!

I don't find night time testing too bad. I have my kit by my bed, test takes less than a minute and I'm back to sleep. I do it every 1.5 - 2 hours from 11pm to 6am. My partner is a lazy bones and he doesn't even wake!

I'm doing this every 6 weeks or so at a weekend. This is because I'm in the honeymoon period and I'm conscious of the multiple changes to my own insulin production!
 
are you constantly worrying about hypos then? as when I was diagnosed I wasn't told to always test during the night only during my first week! what insulin are you on?
 
NicolaAnne1994 said:
are you constantly worrying about hypos then? as when I was diagnosed I wasn't told to always test during the night only during my first week! what insulin are you on?
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Nope my hypos are pretty rare, but when they come it is always in clusters! Never particularly low though and I've always recovered within 30-45 minutes. I take Novorapid and levemir. I like to keep pretty tight control when possible, so that means the odd night time testing! It's only been 6 months and I hope when the honeymoon period ends I can relax on the night tests. But I am going for the pump in January so really it'll start all over again then anyway lol
 
Oh you started different to me probably because I was only 13 when I was diagnosed! I was on novomix 30 for about 10 months and then novorapid and levemir for 5 years until I wanted the pump! good luck!
 
NicolaAnne1994 said:
Oh you started different to me probably because I was only 13 when I was diagnosed! I was on novomix 30 for about 10 months and then novorapid and levemir for 5 years until I wanted the pump! good luck!
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They offered me the novomix but I said no way lol my cousin is also T1 since she was 11 so I knew what it entailed and I wanted my freedom!
 
I didn't know the difference at the time but I wasn't on enough insulin haha! so I ended up in hospital
 
Hi, home from work now lol. Remember as you are tweaking your basal rates your bolus insulin needs will change. concentrate on fine tuning your bolus ratios after your basal rates are sorted.
Some things I do when testing basal are:~
do my overnight one first, is tiring but worth it. When testing my overnight I eat at 5~6pm wait 5 hours, record 2 hourly. If im too high/low before basal test, abandon test and I have the same meal next day at 5\6pm, not too fatty to ensure all food digests before test and adjust bolus insulin with that meal to enable a good enough reading to start test. make basal adjustments accordingly, re~test same time a few days later to make sure any corrections have worked.
also, I find if I miss a meal from doing a basal test I ned more than the normal insulin for next meal as my body is starving for energy, another reason to work on bolus amounts after basal testing finished.
Once overnight basal done, move on to meal time fasting, again not so much using ratios but adjusting by your reading next day and having same meal prior to test if too high/low to start day previous.
Once your basal is sorted, alot easier to work out bolus ratios.




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Done my basal test today. Currently on 8 units of basal just once a day ( night ). I had breakfast at 9am. fasted til 14:00. Test results as follows:
14:00- 5.3
15:00- 5.7
16:00- 6.2
17:00- 7.4, at this point I was thinking increase basal to 10 units or 5 units twice a day then....
18:00- 5.7 ??????

Weird, the only variables I can think of are an hours cardio on the rowing machine about 12:00 and a cup of tea ( sweetener and semi-skimmed milk ) about 15:30. The cardio is a regular event about 4 or 5 times a week.
Any thoughts on the last reading ?
Thanks, Mo
 
Probably as you'd gone so long without food (which you have to do) eventually your body would think it needs energy so would give you some extra sugar to componsate the missing meal. However, seems you had enough basal working for you to use the small release of sugar effectively.
as you normally exercise at that time should not affect things too much as your current basal dose is used to you doing regular excercise. Should you go a period of time without exercise would probably then need to start increasing basal.
Or, could of been just one.of.those things lol.
Either way your basal seems fine for that time of day. :)
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brett said:
Probably as you'd gone so long without food (which you have to do) eventually your body would think it needs energy so would give you some extra sugar to componsate the missing meal. However, seems you had enough basal working for you to use the small release of sugar effectively.
as you normally exercise at that time should not affect things too much as your current basal dose is used to you doing regular excercise. Should you go a period of time without exercise would probably then need to start increasing basal.
Or, could of been just one.of.those things lol.
Either way your basal seems fine for that time of day. :)
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Thanks Brett. So you think basal doesn't need increasing ? I appreciate you're not a doc and it's only your opinion but to be honest you know more than my entire health care team put together lol ! I don't always exercise that early, day off today. Usually around 16:00 or so. I thought my numbers increased quite a lot until the drop ? Thanks again for all your help and advice. Top man.
 
I'd agree with Brett, yes it rose but not dramatically. My thoughts would be to test again and see what happens!
 
Re:

hale710 said:
I'd agree with Brett, yes it rose but not dramatically. My thoughts would be to test again and see what happens!
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Thanks Hale, think I will. Maybe without the exercise.
 
if that was an earlier time than usual for you to exercise due to a day off, I would repeat test on a working day to be certain. May of been that the exercise you did helped your basal along, If you exercised at a similar time on a regular basis it wouldn't be a problem. As someone suggested earlier it is best to repeat tests to help ensure its not a one off rise\fall in levels.

Disclaimer:~ I am not medically trained, opinions expressed are my opinions only. Please seek proffesional medical advice.

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