martina said:
Thanks for all the advice,I am slowly working it all out.I was wondering about the correction boluses.I havent been told anything about that at all.What happens?Is it that when I check and get a high reading I press for bolus advice and it works out the correction dose??Also what happens with the snacks?Do I put in the carbs and it lets me know if she needs insulin with it.This is so frustrating,the nurse is on leave at the minute and Im so impatient just wanna get going with it.I have looked through and from what I can see all the ratios seem to be correct.
Hi,
to give a correct and accurate insulin dose you need a few things:
Amount of Carbs.
Your ratio of insulin per 10g carbs pre-set into your handset.
Your correction factor pre-set into your handset.
Your Blood glucose target levels pre-set into your handset.
Your carbohydrate factor pre-set into your handset.
So for example myself at breakfast...
I test my BG and it's 8.5..
I'm about to eat 2 slices of toast which is 30g or carbs.
In the morning i have a 2:1 ratio. Which means i take 2 units of insulin for every 10g of carbohydrates eaten.
My correction factor is 2.5:1 which means one unit of insulin will reduce my Blood glucose by 2.5 mmol.
My Target levels are set to be between 5-7mmol.
So...
Because i have pre-set all this information into my handset it will calculate it all for me to give me my required dose.
It adds up the insulin to cover what im eating.. (30g carbs = 6 units)
It knows my BG reading is 8.5, so it will work out how much insulin it needs to give me to bring my BG down to the middle of my target which would be 6mmol. so becuase my BG is 8.5 it will add on one extra unit to bring me down by 2.5mmol to meet my target of 6mmol.
I also mentioned a carbohydrate factor which means how much 10g of carbohydrate will increase my BG by, this is if i am UNDER my target it will reduce the insulin calculated to cover the carbohydrates to allow my BG to RISE to my target.
I hope this makes sense and is clear enough, I use the accu-chek combo pump and handset and this is how it works for mine.
........
As for snacks, your handset will also have a setting for time allowed for insulin to be active in your system, this is so you don't over correct and cause a hypo..
Mine is set for 4 hours, which means if i have dinner at 1pm then snack at 3pm my handset will now work out a correction dose if i test my BG and input carbohydrates i'm about to eat. But if i ate at 5pm my handset would allow me to add a correction if my BG's were out of target.
You can also bolus without a BG reading. For example if i just ate a meal with 40g of carbohydrates i would calculate that normally. but then after the meal i was still hungry or wanted a dessert i can bolus again without a BG reading by just inputting the amount of carbs so it wouldn't offer a correction dose then either.
Sometimes i also use the bolus without a BG reading if it's a small snack around 10g, say a small apple for example.
It's about experimentation and lots of testing to know what your able to do.
....