Basal Surfing for Insulin Resistance (Sick Days/Hormones/Etc)

[T1Allison]

Is it possible that sick day insulin resistance and hormone induced insulin resistance behave by similar rules?

@Michel wrote the following points in his “BG management when sick” post.

@Michel

The core problem is basal need

• basal needs vary incredibly fast and by a huge range when sick. I now control sickness much better by radically changing basal as opposed to dealing with instant BG level

@Michel

Decreased insulin needs are as much of a problem

• When sickness ramps down, dealing with decreased insulin demand is as hard if not harder, and requires as much anticipation as possible. On the pump, I find half-hour suspends a powerful help when caught (more than that sometimes creates unwanted peaks for us).

@Michel

Daily rhythms

• there are daily rhythms to insulin needs in sick time. For instance, when my child is past the worse but still quite sick, his insulin needs may be radically lower between 2-3am and 1-2pm than the rest of the day (for instance, yesterday he needs +20% basal in that period, but +80% the rest of the time).

All of these quotes seem to apply to hormone induced insulin resistance in my narrow experience. The first and second points are HUGE yes’s when it comes to hormone induced insulin resistance. The third point is very interesting to me…and I’ve been wondering this myself when it comes to managing bg during medium to high hormone times because basal needs do feel very erratic through the day. I have started running 10% more extra basal in the daytime than I run at nighttime during medium to high hormone days. But I do wonder about the second window of circadian low that happens around 2PM: meaning, are insulin needs more elastic than linear when experiencing insulin resistance for a variety of reasons? Do I need more “extra” basal at 9AM than the “extra” basal I need at 2PM? I don’t know…but I’m open to theories and suggestions!

Do FUDders think these experiences (sick day and hormones and puberty and etc) with insulin resistance, and the resulting strategies with basal to manage them, share some similarities in principle?