We were discussing going from pump to MDI, and how to do the conversion. I came up with a spreadsheet that lets you enter various amounts of basal injections and different times, and it automatically plots it against your current basal profile. That way, you can test out different times/amounts on the spreadsheet and see what the best fit is.
This lets you try to match-up how you would do MDI basal injections if your pump broke or if you wanted to take a pump break.
You can use this for Lantus or Levemir, and for 1-3 different basal injections. You can even use the spreadsheet if you were to do both Lantus and Levemir at different times!
If anyone is interested in this, I can share the spreadsheet, but I need @Chris’s permission to upload a spreadsheet.
Here is an example picture with a made-up basal profile, to give you an idea what it looks like.
This is awesome. Would it also work for Tresiba? My insurance no longer covers Lantus so I had to switch to Tresiba. I only have the Tresiba as a backup to my pump if for some reason it fails. Thus far, I’ve not had to use the Tresiba, but in the back of my mind, I was wondering HOW I would know how much to inject if I actually needed to! This spreadsheet would be very useful in that situation!!
That is why I do not like Tresiba. I don’t have a flat basal profile like that. I like the flexibility that you can get with shorter durations and various amounts of injections. I just don’t think you can get much variability with Tresiba.
You might look at if they cover Levemir. That is a great basal if you want a variety of rates.
Two things to note -
Levemir is covered by the Novo Nordisk $99 price guarantee deal.
You should be able to get a doctor PA for a different basal, if you can show that you have variable rates. That should not be a hard appeal to win.
Do you mean my average hourly basal? I just use 0.4U/hr and then let Loop do its thing. I generally get much less than 0.4U/hr, but that is my standard. Then, multiple that by 24 hours to get 9.6U of Tresiba / day?
Thanks, yes, I agree, I will see if I can switch to Levemir, seems much safer for a basal. I didn’t really understand one could take it various amounts of injections with shorter durations. I have an appt with my Dr next month, so this will be another request for her! I’m also going to ask her for a sample/prescription for Lyumjev just to try it.
Yeah, I think that sounds like a good starting plan.
It takes Tresiba a few days to ramp-up, but after 3 days, you are getting the daily dose amount divided by 24 hours, so your “9.6 units / 24 hours = 0.40 units per hour” sounds like a good starting point.
