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Question about active insulin on the spirit combo remote

S

submarinerLV

Active Member
Messages
27
Hi guys

I've been on the accu chek spirt combo just over 6 months now & still getting used to everything.

When it comes to bolus delivery, etc etc via the meter / remote, where I'm really confused is with the active insulin.

Now I see this as an absolute crucial feature to tell me if I've still got insulin present in my body from any previous bolus, but it seems that this is only visibly available if I give myself a straightforward bolus in the form of a correction, whereas if I'm about to eat a meal or a snack and I put in the exact amount of carbs to give me the correct bolus on my meter / remote when I go to test my blood later on (say 2 or 3 hours) the active insulin option just reads nothing or 0.0 whereas if I give any correction, I'm able to see the exact amount of active insulin that's left in my body and this acts accordingly to subtract this from any bolus I give myself for food.

Just wondering if I've got to unlock an option on the remote to display the active insulin when I give it as a carbs bolus or what?

Hope that makes sense

Appreciate people's advice and comments

Thanks

Jonathan
 
Hi Jonathon,
as I understand it, from another forum poster, the combo ignores insulin you have used to cover carbs with. As far as the pump is concerned x carbs = x insulin. So it's ignored. Any correction given though is counted as insulin on board.
 
just have to test your sugar before a snack otherwise it just says what to give for those carbs and doesn't take in the IOB. it's annoying.
 
Yeah, it is so annoying. It's like a half baked job. Why oh why can't they just so all active insulin for the set duration regardless or carbs taken as a bolus or any corrections. It makes it sound like it shows true insulin stacking, but it doesn't!
 
Hi I think the Combo has it right because it assumes you've no insulin in board due to that insulin already having been allocated to the carbs you've eaten. Surely if it showed the IOB every time, the user might try to second guess the machine and it's been devised so that you don't second guess it. I might be misunderstanding this as we're only 7 wks into pumping.
 
I don't think I'm mistaken but the Medtronic pump takes account of all active insulin into account on both a correction bolus and a normal straightforward food bolus - it's set to 4 hours on my pump so maybe you need to check your setting for this?
 
when I got started on my Combo pump the 2 pump reps that I have seen have just said to leave the Acting Time at 4hrs, Offset to 1hr and meal rise to 4.

It now appears according to this website http://www.diabetesnet.com/about-diabet ... lin-action which is posted in a thread by Dragonflye that the acting time with some insulins can be a lot longer than 4hrs. :eh: I think Novorapid has a far longer action than 4hrs due to its slower onset and then longer duration but I've been able to compare this with other bolus insulins - Humalog and Apidra which are a bit faster and shorter duration.

It would have been nice I think for Accu chek to take into account a bit what bolus insulins people were going to use and then set the pump up accordingly instead of just leaving everything to the default.

I'm now going to do a complete basal test again and then sort out carb bolus and correction factors all over again so that I can get the Combo to deliver correctly. Most annoying......


The Combo as Candi and CarbsRok has said wont always tell you how much Active Insulin you have as it will presume that your carb ratio is correct and that your acting time is correct. What can happen for loads of people will be if they eat a snack and bolus for it and then go to eat a meal 2-3hrs later and then bolu for that. The pump wont tell you that it was only 2hrs earlier that you used a bolus and if your bg is higher when you do the next bolus although it will give you a correction, it wont take into account the bolus for the snack..... so insulin stacking can occur. This is why I now realise the reasons for getting the acting time somewhere correct..............especially with the Combo.
 
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