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Insilin pump adjustments

Madelinelowery

Madelinelowery

Well-Known Member
Messages
135
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
This is for all you pregnant ladies on a insilin pump.

How often are you having to adjust how much insilin doses your having?
I'm struggling so much now, having a lot of 10's. Iv been so well controlled up untill now.
I'm 17 weeks pregnant, I don't no if the hormones are effecting my sugars Evan more but they haven't been this bad!

Xxx
 
I have an insulin pump. I adjusted my afternoon basal rate quite early on (kept going higher than normal after lunch). I also had to adjust my nighttime basal quite early. I increased the basal rates that deal with my dawn phenomenon.

Also, my carb to insulin ratio has increased, especially for my evening meal. I used to have I unit to 10g of carbs, now its 1 to 6g. Quite a big change.

Everyone will be different. All you can do is test, test, test. Choose a segment of the day to deal with and try increasing your insulin a tiny bit. It took me a number of days to get rid of my highs, and a lot of testing. You shoukd know when you've got it right.

Another thing to add is that my correction rate has almost doubled. One unit of insulin used to bring my blood sugar down 4 mmols, but now one unit only brings them down by 2mmols.

As always, proceed cautiously if you're increasing your insulin. I made tiny adjustments and inched my way to the correct dose.

Good luck : )

Edited to add - I'm 24 wks pregnant.
 
Hey,

I'm already on a 7 grams to 1unit ratio, Iv having to put a temporary Basel on to get my sugars down quicker after my meal.

I'm doing a diabetic pregnancy trial for Cambridge and they said I'm doing brilliantly, I feel I'm not! And worry when I have BG above 10!

Also I'm craving sweets like you wouldn't believe .. Trust the baby to want that!!! Haha. So that's not helping!


It's just so frustrating when there high!
Xxx
 
No personal pregnancy experience but just keep up with the temp basals and watch out for lows........you sound like you know what your doing....:)
 
I second that. You sound like you're working really hard on your blood sugars : )

I totally get the frustration. Pregnancy can mess with your sugars a lot. Nobody can be perfect all the time. I've had highs too and it really stresses me for baby's sake. But as long as you get them down, it should be ok.

I see you're using a temp basal after meals to get your blood sugar down, I do that occasionally, but I usually just have a corrective bolus. I was always taught to do that, but maybe your team have a different approach?

If it's any consolation, my consultant said that one of her patients was on a one unit to 10g carbs ratio at the start of pregnancy, but by the end was on a one unit to 1g of carb ratio! That's a huge increase! So for a normal 50g carbs meal where she Would have had 5 units of insulin, by the end she would have to have 50 units! : O

Have what insulin you need to keep your sugars in range as much as possible, keep testing frequently and correct any highs. You'll do fine : )
 
I was on a pump and found I had to adjust my settings every week or so, especially from about 16weeks. Whilst I had to make some changes to my basal rates during the pregnancy , the biggest and most frequent changes were to my I:c ratios which went from 1:8 pre-preg to 1:1.5 by the end. Also had to reduce my sensitivity.
Like you I used temp basals to help prevent post-prandial highs...sometimes over correcting far too much and ending up hypo but that was something I was prepared to do to avoid any highs. Remember to use your diabetes nurses as much as you need.

Good luck with it all, we all know how tough it is and you seem to be doing really well.
Xxx
 
Thanks jess!!
It's all so frustrating lol I'm having to adjust it quite a bit atm.

Hopefully it will start levelling out soon
Xxx
 
Don't know how long you've had a pump.. Whether prior to pregnancy or not.

However, on a pump nothing really stays static forever even if not pregnant!! The necessity for tweaking basals / bolus etc can come and go...

Good luck by the way..
 
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