worried about first night

Hi Anna Marie

I too have found that I don't always need to eat the recommended 12g fast acting glucose when I'm a bit low. About 4 swigs of lucozade or ginger beer is enough for me if for some reason or another I have gone a bit low. Spray Candy or Candy Spray is also fairly good

Well done Anna Marie, this looks very promising. Keep it up.


Harry

ams162 said:

hi all well a much better night last night but a not so good morning heres his results for anyone who is interested

4pm- 3.1 gave 1 4g gluco tab
5pm- 7.4 had 40g for tea 0.8 bolus
7pm- 8.2
8pm- 9.7
10pm- 7.1
11pm- 8.2
2.30am- 9.9
7am-2.2 gave 1 4g gluco tab
8am- 5.5 60g breakfast 3u bolus

besides the 2.2 was chuffed with those numbers i know 9s arnt perfect but its def in the right direction and i feel more confident today

anna marie

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Hi Anna Marie

Must say that I think you are doing extremely well with it all so far.

Looking at yr results I would be inclined to tell you to increase the midnight basal by 0.01 (so if Dylan is using 0.25 for example, increase it to 0.26 and then test at 2.30am to see how much he has dropped. You might have to also increase the 1am basal too.

Somewhere though he is dropping probably from 4am to 7am so you will need to start testing at 4am, 6am to see what is going on and alter the basal down a bit. He might not have too much of the DP so you will need to alter those basals again by 0.01 on each of the 4am, 5am, 6am slots so that when you test at 7am, his bg level will be a bit higher. If it's too high then you can increase the 6am slot. It is all 'trial and error' really until you get yrself somewhere ok.

Anna Marie

Well done....those after tea rates were vastly improved to your first experiences with hypo's, and from tea to 3 hours later they actually didn't rise too excessively either....brilliant....and also seems that 1 glucose tab is all that is required to bring Dylan up to a reasonable level too, and therefore reducing those awful high's!!

From 1am to 7am last night Dylan appears to be dropping by 7.7 mmol which is a lot to drop in 6 hours. I would actually lower the basals even more than the 0.01 that iHS suggested to be quite honest. It is easier to lower BS levels if they go a wee bit high, and I also think that you both need an uninterrupted sleep asap. I worry that if Dylan had been 6.0 at 2.30am, he would have crashed with a really bad hypo by 7am if he had dropped 7.0+ with his readings.

If levels are raised slightly to 7-9's on a short term basis, at least the levels are level and you have eliminated those swings between high's and low's. I think it would be worthwhile to get a 4am reading and 6am reading for a night if possible, and I think you will have cracked it by the next night so that you can all sleep through the night and give yourselves a break. It is exhausting, and you really are both so good.

Just so wonderful to read that Dylans levels stayed so static after tea and you have got rid of the high's already. Just well done Anna Marie and Dylan. A joy to read.....

Hi Anna Marie

I'm not using the same pump as Dylan but usually when I alter my basals by 0.01 it's enough to make a difference of 2mmol bg wise on each hourly change. We are all different though so like I said - it's trial and error and test test test.

Hi Anna Marie, you are doing great, but as Sharon said, Dylan dropped quite a bit from 2am through to 7am. I would lower his basal rate by .025, which is the lowest your pump will do, and this should stop, or at least slow down the drop. He may still be a bit low when he gets up but probably not as low as this morning. I know you are testing and you will catch anything out of the ordinary so you should be OK.
Lily was 3.2 at lunch time today and 1 glucose tablet (4g) took her up to 5.5 within 15 minutes so it doesn't take much.
Don't you think that our kids are heros, it must be really tough on them, and they just let us do stuff and get on with it. You can't help but love them.

Harry

Anna Marie

I took note of Jopar's advice and so now when my bg levels are over the top (for whatever reason lol) I double the correction dose and increase my basal rate by 200% for 2hrs and that usually gets me somewhere to being ok again fairly quickly instead of waiting for 4hrs for the pump to lower me to the default target of 6mmol.

Yep, I do the same....ish...I switch to 250% extra as a temprary basal as well as the correction dose, but I limit mine to 3 hours, and I test between 45-60 minutes, and as soon as I can catch levels between 7-9mmol I switch off the extra tbr, as obviously the extra will carry on working for up to 5 hours. I never double the correction bolus though. There are so many ways to deal with our living with pumps, and we all find the best way for us as individuals.

Anna Marie, you are less than a week in, so really don't panic. Honestly you will both get through this, and everybody with children going through a new pump regime are heroes-and heroines.....it is a lot to take on board.

If you can get the evenings stable after the evening meal, then you will find the bedtime's will be so much easier to monitor. You've had a blip tonight, but totally understandable, as you both must be exhausted and sore fingers from the testing!!!! Everytime I think of Dylan and doing these blood tests, I think 'bless him'........same with Lily. It is such a lot to take on board.

It may help if you possibly can to monitor Dylan every hour possible at the weekend. I did this, as it enabled me to count back 3 hours and look at wither lowering or highering the basals.....I also checked 3 hours after a bolus to see if my carb ratio's were too high or too low.

I think that you also need to rule out the lunch time hypo's and to lower basals for the 3 hours up to Dylans lunchtimes. If he is going hypo before lunch time, you have to get him up by at least 3mmol with his BG's.

You are both doing so well, and I am sure that over the weekend you will get enough bloods to see a pattern....and will know whether it is bolus or basal to alter....
Best wishes that you both can get better sleeps ......Sharon

whoops! Don't worry, I'm sure that you have corrected for it as you have done in the past.
When he is in the 2s you should correct with fast acting carbs and then when back to normal bolus for his lunch as you usually would. I'll bet you have done this lots of times when he was on injection, but somehow we don't think like that when on a pump.
I basically use the pump as I would injections, it's the same principal exept that the background is changable which is what give you the most control.
Let us know how Dylan is doing.

Harry

Spot on Harry...I always found to bring up levels and then do a normal bolus too....

I think of the pump as a needle attatched to a reservoir with a valve, when you need to dilute something (sugar) you turn on the valve and dilute according to taste .
I'm full of rubbish like that :lol:

Harry