So, Samson switched to the Omnipod after I put his Medtronic pump into the wash. Anyways, this came with a wrinkle: It needs 80 units to run, and shuts off automatically at 80 hours, and he doesn’t use anywhere near 1 unit per hour. Also, his current insulin prescription is for less than would be needed for a 30-day month.
However, I figured out that if you inject the insulin very slowly, you can get to the two beeps after injecting just 50 or 60 units. We’ve been doing this the last couple times, and it seems to work pretty consistently. I’m not sure exactly how low you can go – for instance ideally we’d get it down to more like 40 units, but I’m not sure yet if that’s possible.
Anyways, thought that might be useful info for anyone else who is very insulin sensitive.
Yeah, I noticed that too! I was gonna post on that but just had not posted it yet.
There are a few things that I have forgotten to mention. Like the expired insulin one I saw today, I forgot about the unrefrigerated NovoLog test. I had done one for unrefrigerated Humalog but have not gotten around to my unrefrigerated NovoLog post yet.
And my recent glucagon-while-running micro-dose experiment.
I need a diabetes secretary to help me keep track of these things.
We all need a secretary. Just like our wives need a wife to help handle things. However, in the real world getting a wife-wife seems fraught with problems.
I’m sure you are also aware that you can extract the unused insulin? I extract our used insulin and put it in an airtight vial for later use. Thanks to Eric’s recommendation a couple years back. I don’t do it all the time, but I just put a POD on and it errors and I get less than a days use out of it, I extract it and keep it. This way, no matter what Samson uses, you can take out the unused when he’s done with the POD. I’ve used a lot of previously used insulin and I have noticed no change as far as how it impacts BGs for Liam.
I put 100u because Liam consistantly now uses upwards of the 80u and a couple times he’s ran out before the POD expired.
I put 100u because Liam consistantly now uses upwards of the 80u and a couple times he’s ran out before the POD expired.
Wow!! He must be tall now – Samson is only 44 lbs., so maybe that’s why? His TDD is about 10.6 units right now. Sometimes he uses 14 units per day but rarely more than that.
Soon growth will take care of your low insulin usage. Such an odd way to think about measuring a child’s growth. “I remember the day my child starting using 30 units a day…”
I just looked at the last week and Liam is at an average of 14.6 TDD. He’s probably somewhere between 50-55 lb right now and he’s average height I guess. Not short but not really tall either. But he eats a lot. :D…always hungry and we don’t limit carbs so he eats and he gets the appropriate insulin for his meal - whatever that happens to be.
For instance, his standard breakfast that he likes is a chocolate chip leggo eggo waffle with maple syrup on it, a glass of chocolate milk and a Flinstones vitamin. He gets a standard 4.5u for that even though for the past 2 days I’ve noticed he’s spiked so if it happens again, he’ll be getting another .5 or 1 unit for breakfast. I don’t follow recommendations for his breakfast meal because loop doesn’t recommend enough but I know what works and I just give it. The other meals I usually just let loop give the insulin and I don’t even bolus - I just let loop/microbolus do all the work and it does it well for us…breakfast is our “pain meal” of the day and yes, I could make things easier by not giving him the aforementioned breakfast but it’s what he likes so it’s what we gets. He can/does eat what everyone else eats and we just figure out how to bolus him for it.
Interesting! Yeah it must be because Samson’s a shorty – maybe between 10th and 25th percentile for everything. He eats about 45 to 60 g of carbs per meal I’d estimate, with maybe two 10-15g snacks in between. We don’t limit it but that’s what his appetite sort of dictates. He is not hungry that often, he’s sort of a picky eater.
I have one child who is also a picky eater - fortunately that’s not Liam! lol. He would probably eat a live horse if you put it in front of him and told him it’s for dinner.
I was very fortunate in two ways. First, that I really really enjoy vegetables. Because kids (especially little boys) wanting to have/eat everything their dad does (at least that’s how it has been in my house), at a very early age they would “want some of papa’s food” and I would share whatever I’m eating with them - which was a lot of vegetables, salads, etc., As they aged, because of that exposure early on they just all enjoy vegetables now. No matter what…asparagus, brussel sprouts, carrots, the list goes on. Not sure if that’s why…but it’s the only reason I can think that they would like them since most kids hate vegetables.
After raising two of them, one who started out a picky eater and one (my diabetic) who will always eat anything put in front him, including deer heart tartare this Thanksgiving, I suspect that most of the picky eaters that grow up to not be picky, is just a power and control thing that is in response to the typical, you must eat your vegetables to get your dessert type of parenting. Which was the trap I think we fell into. Thankfully my picky eater now eats everything and having been in college for 1.5 years appreciates that we cook everything and it tastes great!
Well that could be it too in my house. My rule has always been that you don’t have to eat what we prepare for dinner if you don’t want too. We can try again tomorrow. If they don’t eat what’s prepared, then they stay hungry / obviously aren’t that hungry. Maybe that’s why my kids love vegetables also then? lol. I think it’s a little of both…because they never (all but 1) have had objections to vegetables.
I don’t know, I think some of it is about control, but I do think a lot of it is about sensations. I could not stomach the smell of eggs cooking growing up without vomiting, and I had to systematically desensitize myself over months and months in order to eat them in college. The kid who is picky (Samson) also has the strongest sense of smell, whereas my less picky kids are less sensitive to smells.
I decided to do a natural parenting experiment and have five kids of the same gender, using the same approach to food (lots of variety, you can choose to eat, all, some or none of what’s for dinner, there’s no link between dinner and dessert, and you can snack whenever you want as long as it’s a fruit, veg or dairy – ie not a beige carbohydrate)…and got wildly differing outcomes including a vegetarian who’s up for everything else but grossed out by meat, one who eats everything, a couple of in betweeners, and one kid who has been extra sensitive to texture and taste since infancy…he’s not exactly picky, he just likes foods just so. For instance he will like a certain food well cooked, but if the egg boils too long or the vegetable is mushy or banana too ripe, forget it. So I’m pretty sure at least some of it is innate, but I think it’s fascinating!
The kid with D is the vegetarian which overall works for us (less saturated fats) but a lot of the veg proteins like soy can get tricksy in large quantities in terms of their delayed effects, as can complex carbs with high fiber like beans, and I think a teenage boy can eat a lot more tofu than hamburger before he slows down!! For some reason lentil soup with barley and rice is like his nemesis. We have to have a unique bolus formula just for that recipe!!
However, we do NOT have problems with not filling the omnipod now that he is the tallest person in our home! He’s about a 50 unit a dayer now, and there was a point at peak puberty where we actually had to change pods early for reservoir running out. But our endo gladly increased the script to cover that, and our insurance didn’t fight the increased quantity, of either pods or insulin.
I shudder to think about this, because with two teenage boys in the house currently, and my T1 eating low carb, we cook 4 pounds of chicken thighs for a meal and it is gone in 24 hours. If we want leftovers for a few days we need to cook 6-7 pounds. That is a lot of Tofu!
Very good to know, I suppose the insulin could be taken out as well, I’ve done that a few times when the pod hasn’t bothered beeping but I havent reused a pod after taking insulin out.
I often stick the needle back into to expired pod and draw out unused insulin to avoid wasting it. Then I just top off the syringe and fill the new pump.
He gets a standard 4.5u for that even though for the past 2 days I’ve noticed he’s spiked so if it happens again, he’ll be getting another .5 or 1 unit for breakfast. I don’t follow recommendations for his breakfast meal because loop doesn’t recommend enough but I know what works and I just give it. The other meals I usually just let loop give the insulin and I don’t even bolus - I just let loop/microbolus do all the work and it does it well for us…breakfast is our “pain meal” of the day and yes, I could make things easier by not giving him the aforementioned breakfast but it’s what he likes so it’s what we gets. He can/does eat what everyone else eats and we just figure out how to bolus him for it.
but I havent reused a pod after taking insulin out.