How many different basal rates in a day?

[fairylights]

I'm just interested to know how many different basal rates people have in a day.
I'm already up to 5 and after 4 weeks I'm still really trying to sort out the 3am to noon rates for me.
Pumping insulin says that you shouldn't really need more than 6 in a day, but I have done basal testing with a steady basal rate and I dip between midnight and 4am dip more between 4am and 6am rise loads between 6am and 10am dip between 10am and noon, so I am gradually tweaking thing to try and stay steady.
But I already have 5 rates and I've not even started really testing between noon and 8pm or 8pm to 2am.
I can see me ending up with a new basal every two hours at this rate!

 

[Nicola M]

I currently have 6 different rates haha! I'm expecting that to change though to having more but need to find days to do basal rate tests to figure it all out. I've never heard you shouldn't really have more than 6 but hey when needs must! Most of my daytime basal rates are only 3 hours apart from each other but that's because of dawn phenomenon/work.

 

[Deleted member 83869]

I used to have a different rate for each hour!

 

[donnellysdogs]

I too used to have a different rate for each hour but ended up with 4 profiles.

It depends if you work rotating shifts.. That could be 3- thats cos of my husband.. Then a weekend one... And a hugely busy 9-5 pattern.

You have to work to your body snd your lifestyle.

Now back on mdi I still work the same for my basal pattern and my waking bolus. I find it easier now back to mdi because I don't have to remember to switch basal rates each night. Now I just think what activity I have done during the day before my night basal and then in the morning I figure out the day ahead for my basal and waking bolus.
Saves me constantly having to remember at tea time the night before to switch pump over and back from different profiles....

 

[dancer]

I have 12 basal rates at the moment. My DSN said that was a lot and was suggesting going back to the beginning and starting all over again with one basal rate, and hourly testing (I was having lots of hypos). As this involved no dancing, I talked my way out of that.

I always tried increasing/decreasing basals I already had and, if this didn't work, I put in another rate which seemed to do the trick.

 

[yingtong]

I have 10 different basal rates,I am basal testing at the moment,so this could increase.

 

[CarbsRok]

I have 10 basal rates.

 

[candi-girl]

i used to have 3 on the pump. now, like donellydogs i think about what i have done in the day, how active my shift has been at work i work 3.30pm til 9.30pm and adjust my levemir accordingly, and also always different at weekends. also what i have eaten at dinner or evening snack as that can have an effect. i don't believe in a rigid set basal rate and it should be the same each night. things change constantly and this works well for me.

 

[neels]

I have 4 rates in my day programmed into my pump - seems to work well for me.

 

[azure]

I have 8. I need less the early part of the night, but increasing amounts to cover my DP so that accounts for most of them.

 

[noblehead]

6 at the moment but was using 7 at one point.

Interesting what you say @fairylights with regards to Pumping Insulin, I was just looking at this last night and Walsh says no more than 5 is necessary.

 

[tim2000s]

Stephen Ponder has a similar view @noblehead Many diabetic practitioners believe that you only really need a few and I think I can understand why.

 

[donnellysdogs]

So are you just referring to how many daily changes of rates you have over a day only?

Does anybody else have to swith actual profiles for their days off to working days or different shifts?

 

[candi-girl]

yes, i did. i needed different profiles for the weekends, mondays and thursdays then a third for tues, wed and friday. usually. was switching all the time.

 

[xAoifex]

I have 9 different rates varying from shed loads in the morning to barely nothing at night. I have 3 different basal patterns set up for work days, work nights and days off

 

[CarbsRok]

6 at the moment but was using 7 at one point.

Interesting what you say @fairylights with regards to Pumping Insulin, I was just looking at this last night and Walsh says no more than 5 is necessary.

So why are so many time slots included in the profile for use of?

 

[novorapidboi26]

6 for me......could do more but I don't want it to get confusing....

 

[tim2000s]

So why are so many time slots included in the profile for use of?

Because there's a difference between what you really need and how many features can a pump manufacturer stuff into a pump?

 

[fairylights]

So everyone's quite different then. My levels were quite good but having just gone on the pump I was testing every couple of hours and doing lots of corrections. So this week I have not been doing the corrections and testing to see what happens without them - it makes it a bit clearer I think. I am wondering if I am tying to be too much of a perfectionist though - I am still working on the 4am to 4pm segment after 4 weeks and still not happy! My DSN did say it would take months, but I'm not the most patient person in the world.
I haven't really thought much about having different patterns for different days yet, I am trying to be restrained as I could see myself having one for every day of the week to fit my different evening activties!

 

[noblehead]

So why are so many time slots included in the profile for use of?

Do you mean Basal Programmes @CarbsRok?

I'm assuming he means no more than 5 basal rates in any 24 hour period, I'll have to have a look later to see what it says.

Stephen Ponder has a similar view @noblehead Many diabetic practitioners believe that you only really need a few and I think I can understand why.

Sorry @tim2000s I've not heard of this guy but interesting that he says the same as Walsh.