I think your 100% right. I think my meal time spikes are higher because Control IQ is withholding basal.
Use it at night for some protection, but go old school during the day.
To be honest I don’t think it all that great at preventing lows. If I’m going down fast, CIQ isn’t going to help much.
I do like CIQ, but there are limitations to what it can do.
My feelings and suspicions as well. I also think it is slow to cut the basal when the cgm is going down fast but still in the 120s/ 130s. It’s going to keep sending insulin.
My endo wants me to put the exercise mode on when I’m bike riding. Often I find it’s just safer to stop all insulin when I’m working out.
Hi @RachelMaraii,
I just thought of something you can do for this. I apologize for not thinking of this sooner.
Here is a possible workaround for you. I know it is not perfect, and requires you to interact and be aware of what is happening. But at least it fixes the pump’s IOB issue.
When you see the need for your pump to add some IOB for any increases to your basal, simply unplug your infusion, do a little bolus of whatever number of units make sense, and then reconnect your infusion site.
Don’t add carbs, just do a bolus of X units. And then the IOB will be increased without any other changes to the calculations of the pump.
Does that seem like a useful workaround? I have never used that pump, but is seems like it would work, right? 
That’s an interesting idea! I’ll have to think that through.
One of the other potential difficulties is that it doesn’t notify me when the basal is increased, except by happening to notice the “B” in the upper right corner is darker blue and clicking through to see what the current rate is. Downloading my pump data gives me a graph of how much it’s been changed and for how long… But that’s not super convenient on the fly.
I haven’t had any luck getting the Tandem app to work. Besides the phone bolus feature that would be nice, I haven’t missed it enough to really give it another go. Does anyone know if the app shows you the graph of adjusted basal rates?
One possible downside is that your total daily dose recorded by the pump would be inaccurate.
But maybe that does not matter too much to you. It does not matter to me. I don’t really pay attention to mine too much. I take what I need! I don’t care what the pump says it is.
It doesn’t really matter much to me either. On the rare occasions I do go through it, it can really vary day to day. I agree – take what you need!
It does. The marks above or below 1unit shows when it has increased or decreased basil.
The mobile app and mobile bolus is a great tandem feature. I was on the fence prior to getting it, but I really like it. Not perfect, but is nice not needing to dig my pump out of my pocket all the time.
Thank you! I’ll have to give it another shot after all!
I was using the app for a while and it was draining my pump battery. This was a known problem - has it been fixed?
I haven’t had that issue. I use the android app.
I use the iphone. They might have fixed it; I should try the app again. I thought it was pretty good except for that.
Fixed but you need to delete the app and download the new one. The glitch that got it to the app would drain my pump battery uber fast. That’s what I remember worked best. I updated to vers 2.8.2 and still had the issue. I deleted the app and reloaded from the Apple App Store and the battery charge life returned to normal.
Alright, y’all – coming in for any expert tips!
Seasonal affective disorder season has hit, and I’m feeling it. I’ve had a couple anxiety-related dissociative episodes and one panic attack in the past month… And lows and low symptoms have been the main triggers I can identify. Now I get nervous when I’m going even slightly low.
I had a counseling appointment yesterday, and they reiterated focusing on what I can control – including research and community to move more strategies into my toolbelt. I’m working with my endo on basal rates and ratios. I’m considering seeing if a diabetes educator session might be helpful – but 22 years into diagnosis, I dunno. 
Also spending winter break with a T1D friend, and maybe we’ll revisit Think Like a Pancreas together. Probably will schedule an appointment to evaluate my anxiety med dosage. I’ve got my SAD lamp going every morning.
A struggle I’ve identified is that I can be overly aggressive when treating highs, or more accurately potential highs. I’m coming up on a year using a CGM. Honestly I feel like I never fully grasped my diagnosis until having a CGM. My numbers are better than ever, but in some ways I think the constant stream of data has made me too conscious of what my BG is doing. That amount of data combined with a 4.0 student brain makes me want to be “perfect.” But obviously what I’m doing ain’t working!
Have any of you struggled with being too invested in your numbers? Shame feeling like you should be an “expert” but really not feeling like it? Any other suggested strategies for preventing lows?
I am not sure if this helps. You mentioned looking for tips, so just a few things to think about.
For obsessing with numbers, maybe just try to force yourself to not look as much. Set some high and low alarms, and if it beeps, take a look. But don’t continually look at it all day long.
Some on my doctors would say that I am too investedwith my numbers, but not my endo.
As to treating lows too aggressively, I was guilty of that in the past. Mostly I would eat everything I could put in my mouth until I felt better. This caused my BG to soar into the stratosphere. At the time I had no way to correct that as a T2DM not using rapid insulin.
I learned to be more judicious, actually treating lows as a medical condition rather than fueling angry hunger. Many find glucose tablets objectionable, gritty, flavor or whatever, preferring some favorite candy or treat. For me that’s one of the pluses to using them, I don’t like them. That means I will not scarf down a bunch. I am weak and I know it.
The other plus is they are exactly 4g of very fast carbohydrate so I can meter correctly for a low. I am on a Tandem pump with G7 CGM. Depending upon the number and trends I may have half a tab or 4, never more. Often with C-IQ adjusting basal rate to zero or near zero when low I will wait a bit and BG will rise out of the hypo.
My rule is don’t go crazy, you know what will happen.
As to SAD, Have you tried lights that are suppose to help?
It seems super simple, but yeah, this might help. Just now I found myself wanting to look, and asked myself, “Why am I looking?” If it’s to make a treatment decision – then OK, go ahead and look. If it’s just to look – maybe don’t look right now.
Changing to something like this has helped me a lot! I’m gonna go back to my “treat then set a timer” method too. The timer helps me remember that the glucose is ingredient #1, and time is ingredient #2.
I’m actually trying one right now. I found the SAD Lamp Database helpful to buy one. It’s only been a few weeks, so I’m not sure I’m seeing the full effect yet. January and February are usually hardest for me, so I’m hoping it helps by then. Next year I’ll start using it on September 1 to hopefully get ahead of SAD!
It would mean paying yourself and then seeking reimbursement from any insurance you may have, but IDS (Integrated Diabetes Services as https://integrateddiabetes.com/) may be helpful. They work online/remotely and some in-person (if your near Lancaster, PA) and prices seem reasonable. They’re run by Gary Scheiner, who wrote “Think Like a Pancreas”! I have not used them and do not have a connection otherwise, but check their website regularly. They seem common sense oriented, have people from multiple disciplines, and I believe all of their people have T1 or T2, so they understand the issues we all face. They’re worth looking into…
Thank you! I forgot about them. That might be more helpful than a general diabetes educator I might get through my endo’s office. I’ll have to look at their website again…
ETA: Just a few minutes in and already found this course: Dealing With Diabetes Burnout & Stress – Type 1 University Certainly seems worth $25. Thanks for the suggestion, Tom!
The last time I made an appointment with a CDE, I specified the sole purpose was to talk about pumps, look at samples, find out about the various pumps that were out there. This was when I was still on MDI and I had never even seen an insulin pump up close so it was quite useful and interesting to have that session with the CDE. It was sort of fun to discuss features of various pumps with another person with the appropriate background. My recollection is we never talked about “the numbers” the whole time which kept things very forward focused.
Maybe there’s a diabetes related topic other than “the same old same old” that you can read up on, talk to CDEs about, look at websites etc to get your mind looking forward (rather than backward at your numbers).
