Okay…relearning things that I knew to be true about my body during 7 years of MDI prior to these last 4 years on a pump…
This rule of thumb: “If your blood sugar is level, your basal level is correct. If you are level too high, you need a one time correction dose to bring you down to a lower point at which to stay level.”
Yeah…my body looks at that rule, throws its head back, and laughs and says “hold my beer, that’s not true”.
My blood sugar can stay level at 180, 200, 220, 240…and a correction dose might bring it down…for 45 minutes. If I don’t have enough basal, it bounces right back up to the higher version of level.
Temporary basals are my answer. Case in point:
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Yesterday, I needed +20% all day long based on my hormones. This temporary basal expired at 7PM, I didn’t hear the beep or forgot to reset it or whatever, and went to bed (with snack IOB) and stayed level at 150. Very level at 150. I woke up at 4AM for whatever reason, looked at my graph, and thought hmmm…maybe I should take a unit. Then I realized, oh sh!t, my temp expired last night. So I restarted it at +20% (and did not take a correction dose) and it came down to rest at 113 or so the rest of the morning. And quickly. Correction doses almost never work that fast for me.
When on Lantus, I knew as my hormones ramped up each cycle I had to add Lantus. My doses were 13/14/15/16 through each month. And it wasn’t bc my bg was climbing…it was bc it’d get “stuck”. Once my numbers got “stuck” at 170 or 180 for a day or two, I’d add a unit of Lantus and I’d start over back around 100.
So I’ve been told I’m wrong about this by doctors and CDEs, but I don’t care. My body laughs at convention. And this is a big mental block I’ve had for the last four years for how hourly basal rates are “supposed” to work and how you are “supposed” to not need extra basal if you are high and level. Whatever. Not true in my case.