I wanted to share some data with you all.
Before going onto the pump we were having real problems with waking BG readings. There was nothing predictable about it at all, one day she'd be high, the next day at an ideal reading. It seemed that never were any two days the same although more mornings were high rather than ideal. Nothing seemed to give us a workable and predictable solution.
I think the problem was the small injection of Levemir at night time was wearing off too early resulting in a blood glucose rise from 4am. If we increased her Levemir at night time in an attempt to avoid the high morning readings then we ran into hypos at 2am, even a half unit change in dose caused a problem.
For a period of time I started getting up at 4am each morning to give her an injection of Novorapid (when needed, some days she didn't seem to need it) to keep the readings down a little but fatigue eventually got the better of me and I wasn't coping very well with it all. It simply wasn't a long term workable solution.
Jess loss hypo awareness and we had readings as low as 2.1 mmol/l without her being aware that she was low (during the daytime). I believe this was a result of regular hypos at 2am. I was becoming increasingly worried about the potential damage high morning readings were doing to her health and the possibility of a serious hypo as she had lost awareness.
I've been looking at some of the data now that we've had our first full month (Feb) on the pump. I've attached a chart showing the difference of waking readings from Feb (using a pump) and Dec (injections). The readings on the pump are so much better but in addition they are a lot more predictable and consistent. The gap between the lowest readings and the highest readings is much smaller, no more massive swings in the readings. Bear in mind that we are still experimenting with foods like pasta, pizza and paella which have resulted in a higher waking reading (the 9 & 8 mmol/l readings).
My only regret now is that we didn't get a pump much earlier. I am so grateful for having the pump, it's the best and most positive thing that's happened to us since we started this bumpy ride dealing with diabetes.
Sorry for the long story but I had to share it with people who will understand why I'm so happy
The blue line represents data from the pump, the red line represents data from injections.
Before going onto the pump we were having real problems with waking BG readings. There was nothing predictable about it at all, one day she'd be high, the next day at an ideal reading. It seemed that never were any two days the same although more mornings were high rather than ideal. Nothing seemed to give us a workable and predictable solution.
I think the problem was the small injection of Levemir at night time was wearing off too early resulting in a blood glucose rise from 4am. If we increased her Levemir at night time in an attempt to avoid the high morning readings then we ran into hypos at 2am, even a half unit change in dose caused a problem.
For a period of time I started getting up at 4am each morning to give her an injection of Novorapid (when needed, some days she didn't seem to need it) to keep the readings down a little but fatigue eventually got the better of me and I wasn't coping very well with it all. It simply wasn't a long term workable solution.
Jess loss hypo awareness and we had readings as low as 2.1 mmol/l without her being aware that she was low (during the daytime). I believe this was a result of regular hypos at 2am. I was becoming increasingly worried about the potential damage high morning readings were doing to her health and the possibility of a serious hypo as she had lost awareness.
I've been looking at some of the data now that we've had our first full month (Feb) on the pump. I've attached a chart showing the difference of waking readings from Feb (using a pump) and Dec (injections). The readings on the pump are so much better but in addition they are a lot more predictable and consistent. The gap between the lowest readings and the highest readings is much smaller, no more massive swings in the readings. Bear in mind that we are still experimenting with foods like pasta, pizza and paella which have resulted in a higher waking reading (the 9 & 8 mmol/l readings).
My only regret now is that we didn't get a pump much earlier. I am so grateful for having the pump, it's the best and most positive thing that's happened to us since we started this bumpy ride dealing with diabetes.
Sorry for the long story but I had to share it with people who will understand why I'm so happy
The blue line represents data from the pump, the red line represents data from injections.