What temporary basal rate to you use when you're sick?

[Janelle123]

I'm new to the pump and this morning I woke up with a temperature and a slight tickle in my throat. My blood sugar has been steadily rising for no reason so I assume I am coming down with something. I have increased my basal rate by 20%. I know everyone will be different but what rate do you use when you're sick?

 

[dancer]

Every time I'm ill, I start off with a temporary basal of 130%. If that doesn't work I raise it slowly, depending on how bad my b.s. is and how bad I feel. Last winter I reached as high as 200%.

 

[donnellysdogs]

Pretty much same as @dancer

 

[Chas C]

Me too, pretty much same as @dancer, might start a bit higher depending upon how bad I feel.

 

[RuthW]

I'm new to the pump and this morning I woke up with a temperature and a slight tickle in my throat. My blood sugar has been steadily rising for no reason so I assume I am coming down with something. I have increased my basal rate by 20%. I know everyone will be different but what rate do you use when you're sick?

It depends on my blood sugars. Last time I was ill, I found a TBR of 115%, reducing to 110%, then back to normal did it. I suppose it depends on the nastiness of the bug you are fighting!

 

[Riri]

Same as Dancer. Had to run at 200% for almost a week year before last when long term antibioticss started giving me real stomach problems. Scary stuff - even my DSN hadn't appreciated that I'd need to have this amount of extra basal when ill.

 

[Spiker]

I check every two hours and do a correction (using IOB otherwise it's not safe). Every time I have to do a correction I increase the TBR by the amount of the correction / 2.

So if my basal rate was 1.00u/hr, and I was running +50% = 150% = 1.50y/hr, and I still had to do a correction of 1.0u, I would increase my TBR by 1.0u/2 = +0.50u/hr = +50% so to +100% TBR.

As soon as blood glucose starts to come down, start falling, I start lowering the TBR, but not too quickly or it just goes back up again.

 

[donnellysdogs]

I check every two hours and do a correction (using IOB otherwise it's not safe). Every time I have to do a correction I increase the TBR by the amount of the correction / 2.

So if my basal rate was 1.00u/hr, and I was running +50% = 150% = 1.50y/hr, and I still had to do a correction of 1.0u, I would increase my TBR by 1.0u/2 = +0.50u/hr = +50% so to +100% TBR.

As soon as blood glucose starts to come down, start falling, I start lowering the TBR, but not too quickly or it just goes back up again.

Gosh, I couldn't work those figures out if I was ill!! I don't function with my brain at calculations at the best of times!!! Tbr's gor me. If I don't get an improvement after 10 hours with any tbr I increase it...

 

[ChrisMaleType1]

I had a flu-like illness in January and I increased my basal by 34% and bolus by 50%. This is one of the few useful things I've managed to write down about my diabetes!! Anyway, this gave me reasonable bg levels I think. It's interesting to compare numbers!