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Type 1'stars R Us

Alison54321 said:
Depends what you want. I let my blood sugar run in the 4s, low 5s in the afternoon, because I can, and I like it. But if it's not convenient that you probably need to reduce it a bit. Be interesting to see if it rises before the next Levemir dose.
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Id be happy with 4’s but 5 is more ideal as I have a little bit of a drive to work.

So my low which I thought was a false low- appears to be an actual low. Dropped back down in the 4’s an hour after libre showed 6 and rising.

At least I know I am steady until lunchtime
 
Gidday from Oz. Windy and wet here and have to do the shopping ! After the washing up (yes, i am house-trained, well most of the time !!) Sinusitis is clearing, down to 10% extra basal. But hypos yesterday when tidying up the garage (despite - 1minus 0% basal - go figure) !!
Thought for the day: The mind is like a parachute. It only works when it is open !!
 
Morning all

OK Captain Stoopid has just entered.

Yes I have been a diabetic for way too long but I am not so familar with some of the "terminology" that is used around here, because the health pros I see do not use it and I have not had cause to use it, so......

Basel - Is this the long acting stuff?
Bolus - I see this used alot, does it simpley refer to the fast acting stuff you stick in you before a meal?

Last one why is @CranberryIce doing a 'basel' test what does it actually tell you and why do some people do it?

Yes I know I should know all this but your never to old to learn.
 
@Knikki 'Basal', is indeed your long acting 'base' insulin, a background insulin there to help mop up any glucose your liver puts out and just keeps the cells topped up with energy/glucose - a bit like a car engine on idle.

'Bolus', the fast (!?) acting stuff that you dose to cover the carbs in a meal. For when you need to put your foot down to get up a hill in a car.

Basal testing - a period of frustration and annoyance - otherwise used to check your basal dose is correct by not consuming any carbs for an extended period of time and testing a lot to ensure your BG levels stay reasonably stable (a CGM type device is a god send for this).

The foundation: You need to ensure your basal is correct first before you can check your bolus ratios are correct (insulin to carb) - you can't build a house without proper (level) foundation.

and after typing that out helen beats me to it , yet again.
 
2.5 and I'm running late taking child to school as I slept thru the alarm, bairn said I looked amusing half hour back when I walked into the door

Anyway I'm getting there but can see this being a grumpy Friday....
 
helensaramay said:
Your basal and bolus definitions are correct (although "Basel" is the capital of Switzerland).
I tend to remember it as basal being my "base" level of insulin.
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It is also where they have a Watch show, in Basel, every year and I had at least one other IE tab open showing watches hence the miss-spell

PS That my story and I am sticking to it

Thank you and @slip for the information.
 
Good morning all. Yet another straight line last nite. Only trouble it was straight at 2.6!! Woke up fine, no sweating or bad dreams. Went to bed on a 6.6 after going to the pics to watch Adrift......small popcorn, tango ice blast and a malteser bar with only a small bolus needed.
Smaller bolus for my breakfast this morning and am now 11.2 *** lol. Rollercoaster ride for moi today
 
Morning everyone,

I'll give my take on this.

@Knikki basal tests were invented for pump users who have far more options for varying their basal dose over a 24 hour period.

They have some use for injections. But, in my view, their usefulness is far more limited. If you are taking a 24 hour basal insulin, then the most important time span is overnight, so if it's stable overnight there is little point testing during the day, to see if it's at the correct level for day time, because then you'd mess up the night, which is far more important. Unless it was running out too early, or doing really weird things.

For Levemir, where the dose is split, it has some use, but it's still over a 12 hour period, and so the criteria used for measuring how well a pump basal test time period, is less useful. The basal insulin will have a peak, and during that time blood glucose is likely to fall more, than during other times. So that has to be factored in to the equation, as well as many other things, does our insulin sensitivity vary from day to day. If people want to know then great, but I'm not, personally, sure it's worth missing a meal for, when the usefulness of the data is quite limited.

So don't feel too bad about not knowing about basal testing. It's a bit like what happens with economics, where they pretend that maths really can predict what happens in a open human led system, there are too many factors to take into account to make it particularly reliable, as a fine tuning method, but it probably has use when it's obviously very wrong. But then wouldn't you know anyway?
 
slip said:
@Knikki

The foundation: You need to ensure your basal is correct first before you can check your bolus ratios are correct (insulin to carb) - you can't build a house without proper (level) foundation.
Click to expand...

"Interesting Mr Bond" ~said in Goldfinger accent~

Altough I have sort of "carb counted" basically look at someting and go "yeah OK add some insulin times it by 4 and divide by the distance to the moon and thats the dose I need", which, before you all jump up and down, I know is/was not right.

After reading around here and getting a Libre (Etch A Sketch thing) I am now learning about carb counting and reading varous labels to work things out.

So far it is going OK.
 
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