Out of step Basel IQ

Type 1 & LADA
1

I have been successful in my T1d journey by going my own way. With the ending of G6 CGM being forced to go to a G7, I use Basel IQ and manually bolus as needed. Now I have a choice of using Control IQ or go back to a “dumb” pump. I’m told I can C IQ in sleep mode and manually bolus but it will still adjust the Basel rate I set (other than my Basel or off). This may sound strange for most who want the pump to as much as possible. I have found the secret to control is what I eat (very low carb home cooking).

Background: range 70-120; 60 years T1d; have used a pump 40 years; last A1C 5.1.

I’m trying to determine if I load Control IQ on my X2 how much control do I have? If I turn off Control IQ will the Tandem app still work? I love the small size of the X2 but the screen is of limited usefulness. Going back to no automation at all is no big deal. I used the pump that way for 30 years.

thoughts-recommendations?

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Yes, the app will still work even with Control-IQ turned off! You’ll still be able to see your CGM trendline and bolus from the app, as usual.

Control IQ has a few settings you can’t change:

  • Target BG will be set to 110. (ETA: My diabetes educator says the ability to customize this is in the works, hopefully sometime in 2026!)
  • Insulin Duration will be set to 5 hours.
  • Control-IQ turns on an auto-bolus feature which can deliver a bolus if your BG is rising and you haven’t taken any insulin in an hour, unlike Basal-IQ which just increases basal for highs. However, the Sleep mode of CIQ turns off the auto-bolus feature so it only makes basal adjustments!

There are some settings you can adjust though:

  • Weight and Total Daily Insulin. I think the algorithm probably uses this to help determine how insulin resistant you might be. (Set this under Options / Control IQ.)
  • Basal limit. If you don’t want CIQ to be able to double, triple, quadruple your basal to bring down BG, you’d set this at the max basal you are comfortable with. (Set this under Options / Personal Profiles / Pump Settings.)

I’ve liked CIQ in general! I don’t know if you were also eligible for the recent X2 extended bolus update – I can never remember which updates are prerequisites – but being able to set an extended bolus up to 8 hours has been awesome.

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Welcome, you have come to the right place and I trust many other people here will correct anything I say:

So just do it. If your HbA1c goes up, so what? You have lots of room to experiment, every single one of us, despite the fact that we are all diabetics, are different diabetics. If your HbA1c starts creeping up your endo will probably start suggesting things but he won’t be that forceful because almost all of his patients have an HbA1c over 7.

If it doesn’t work there are many other possibilities depending on how much work you want to do (myself, none). There are other pumps (iLet, Omnipod, twiist if you can get it). There are other CGMS (Libre3, EverSense). There are other AIDes (AAPS, Tidepool Loop, “Loop” in general.)

There are lots of possibilities now.

The people here who have spoken here seem to draw back from the commercial offerings because they don’t give the control they are used to but I want something I don’t have to think about so I’m prepared to surrend all the control I have (I use AAPS) for something I don’t have to think about. I am yet to be convinced that any of the systems on offer require no thought on my part.

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