Basal test no. 2

If you've given yourself a correction dose, then no, it's not a true basal test. FYI I change my basal almost every day because it varies a lot depending on when I last did exercise. Some days I just can't be ***** to exercise, and sometime I can; therefore I need to adjust my basal regularly.

Here are my rules:
- No eating or injecting around 4 hours before going to bed. Insulin and carbs will interfere with the reading.
- Don't have too much fat or protein the night of the test. Fat can cause a delay in glucose absorption, excess protein is converted into glucose.
- To calculate how much basal you need, calculate the difference in your before bed and before breakfast readings. For every 1.6 mmol/l change adjust your basal by 10%. This calculation is from Gary Scheiner's Think Like a Pancreas. You must buy this book, you will learn loads!

I live by this calculation, it works a treat.

If your pre-breakfast reading is in the teens, you can still use this in your calculation, but there will be a bit of error in it. BG meters are accurate to around 15%, so the higher the reading the less precise. You can use it as an indication that your basal is too high, but you won't get an accurate basal calculation from it.

Finally, if like me your insulin sensitivity changes significantly according to exercise - and if you're lazy like me and can't stick to a regular exercise routine - then change your basal injection time to the morning. This way, if your before bed and before breakfast readings are different, you can act on it immediately, instead of waiting all day to fix it.

It wont alleviate problems with your sites, but having one needle for two or three days should.

Bio oil is good for sites. I use one side of my bum for about 4 weeks and bio oil it for 4 weeks everyday pre bed before going back to it. Then I do my other cheek for 4 weeks with bio oil. Just a little each night.

It will certainly help with the amount of injections but you would need a pump with a large reservoir. Otherwise you would be changing your cartridges often.




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Usually, when people are being assessed for pump therapy, they are asked about scar tissue building up due to injections.

Is there anywhere on your body that hasnt been used for injections yet and would you be able to insert an infusion set?

I havent got a bump or lump anywhere, so cant tell you if the bio oil works on lumps. I know my bum has less wrinkles than my face though!!-lol!! IHs put me on to this when I went on to pump, so I also had nigh on 25 years injecting too without using anything at all, so I have been lucky.




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