Welcome @Kdubs!
Ha! Well, you’ll be in great company then. I think diabetes has taught us that the only thing consistent about diabetes is the inconsistency.
But your temp basal idea (or an extended bolus, of 165% of basal, in the way that I’m thinking of it) makes sense! French fries are the most impossible thing to bolus for. 
Thanks. As you probably know, pods technically don’t have an extended bolus option, only square bolus an extended option…I use temp basal a lot as that option.
I have found this to be so much easier with the CGM. If I am eating a moderate to high carb meal I wait for BS to drop below 75. Even with a standard meal, I wait for BS to show a down arrow. Usually it takes at least 30 minutes for me to see this.
I wish I had that kind of self-control/patience, @Kdubs and @Dc53705. I don’t. I have, however, been messing around with combining a temp basal, extended bolus, AND a regular bolus (on t:slim) in order to get a good, hefty push of insulin in hopes of heading off the spike. I find the combination really has a fast impact. The problem, of course, is that the trade off is in order to force a fast start, it sticks me, potentially, with a bunch of IOB whether I need it or not.
Anyway. I’m in the waiting room waiting to go into the next waiting room that is the gateway to getting into the room and waiting. So lots of time to think. 
Hummm. I’ve got no idea. We are relatively new to podding (2 years in November?). When we enter a bolus in, there is the option for “extend“ which we can then run over a given number of minutes or hours that we select.
Is this what you were referring to as a square bolus? I don’t understand the difference. I could probably Google it, but I could also just ask you. 
Sorry, I was not correct. Omnipod has an extended bolus which to me is the same as a positive extended basal.I.e. more insulin metered out over a certain time period…no square bolus…that is a bolus splits into a couple of deliveries…
I think my autocorrect is getting in my way
Patience…um no, not in my personality…could you please explain the difference between extended bolus and a positive temp basal… I think that’s what you said you were using together?
Well, on the t:slim, which is what I’m currently using, the biggest difference is that an extended bolus is stopped once Basal-IQ suspends insulin. A temp basal or temp rate continues until completion regardless of what’s happening with your trends. That, obviously, would not be the case with the OmniPod. And now I’m trying to think of exactly what the difference would be on your pump… I hope someone will correct me if I’m wrong, but I think one difference is that the temp basal is anchored in your regular basal rate and will reflect any rate changes in its delivery. So if you normally get 1 unit per hour and then go up to 1.5 per hour and are setting a 125% temp, you’d end up getting 1.25 u per hour and then 1.875-- so it’s a blanket change reflecting, and honoring, your actual patterns. An extended bolus–and now I guess it would be important to note that each pump has their own options here–acts independently of your true rates. So if you give yourself 2 units over the course of two hours, it will either be distributed evenly OR will be distributed in whatever weight you choose (like on the t:slim, 25% now with remaining 75% over the remainder of the two hours).
Holy cow, I think I’m talking in circles. I feel like I have a fairly good understanding of this but am having difficulty with the answer because it really does vary by pump. Maybe it’s easiest to address the difference in the pump you’re currently using and ignore all my generalities. Being that I only wore the OmniPod for a month, I definitely wouldn’t be the best one to answer this. Whatever understanding I gained over that time has faded into a dark mass of “loose and likely inaccurate information”. Square and Dual Wave boluses are specific to Medtronic, right? I didn’t even know there was an option for a square……. @Eric. I’m tapping you.
I need to see the specific question. I don’t want to try to pick it out from a bunch of responses, because sometimes the original question can get muddled up that way.
So much of this is just a difference in the terminology from one pump to the other. All pumps offer the same options.
All pumps have the same way of delivering the 3 kinds, which depending on the pump you are using, can have different names. But they all do the same thing for bolus. These 3.
Another image, same thing.
So a lot of this is just a difference in terminology.
And as far as increased basal vs an extended bolus, your body doesn’t care what you call it. Insulin is insulin, no mater what your pump calls it. So it really comes down to what you think is easier to administer and makes the most sense for you. For things like logging, tracking, canceling, adjusting, etc.
But I should really hear the question before I try to offer answers. @Kdubs?
However with t-slim (basal-iq) or looping systems, it may make a difference in automated termination before full dose is delivered.
Yes, of course. Which is why my complete paragraph was this:
Wait… I don’t think all three offer this. The t:slim has just the “extended bolus”. You can mess with the distribution weight and time, but there’s I don’t think there… huh… can you create the dual wave and square wave through the different distributions??? No, right?
Yes, you can do the same thing. I can post the reference from the tandem page in a little while.
If you say 2 units now and also 4 units spread out over the next 3 hours, that’s a dual wave or extended or whatever, depending on what the pump company wants to call it. All the same thing.
You learn something new everyday.
Here is the Tandem link with a screenshot of the relevant section (red box).
And really, all the pumps do the same thing. OmniPod has it too. The names are just unique to all of them, and created by the pump company marketing teams in order to confuse people on diabetes forums.
(It took me a while to connect with @daisymae on the fact that increasing your basal by 20% is the same as the way Medtronic refers to it as 120%. I was always saying it differently and it was confusing to her when I said “…increase by X %…”)
Anyway, here is the relevant stuff from Tandem.
And here is the same thing from Medtronic.
https://www.medtronicdiabetes.com/customer-support/device-settings-and-features/bolus-settings/dual-wave
And I am going to head right out and contact my healthcare professional now…
Good. You’ve got a lot to consult with them on. 
Thank you for the links. I think I’ll actually read it all. 
But before I do… so a square wave then would just be the same as taking nothing up front and taking the full extended bolus over x amount of hours?
Yes.
Marketing foolishness. Same thing. 
Can’t believe I fell for it. 
