True… just as they may be vastly inferior for a lot of people that are still using them… which is unfortunate… that’s why I’m glad to see people trying everything… anyway I don’t want to turn your thread into a debate about the pros and cons of pumping, let’s just see how well this can work!
Tresiba experiment
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Not trying too either except the one observation I have after trying MDI for the last couple of months or so if that there are definitely bolus advantages to the pump that MDI can’t match. I’m sticking with MDI for now, but I hate that I can’t square wave, bolus discreetly, or have pre-programmed carb ratios etc. It can be really annoying sometimes!
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I just ordered some more 8 mm needles to use with my Tresiba pen. I used a 4 mm one to do my injection (the pen came with some needles), and I think that’s why it felt burny and stingy. I prefer the 8 mm needles. Except for IM with Fiasp, then I use 12 mm ones. 
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It’s because Tresiba comes in U100 and U200. It would be too confusing for non FUD people.
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They stopped making Levemir penfills in the US though so there’s something more behind this. Also I think they sell Tresiba penfills in Europe.
Yeah but if you were @eric you would just save some old pen cartridges and fill them with tresiba like this…
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@Jen I’m in the US (well in Texas anyway ) and I’ve been using a novo- pen metal pen since about 1998. I agree that the plastic Tresiba pen pretty much sucks, but the stuff inside it is pretty darned good.
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Interesting… Dropping rapidly (5.2 mmol/L to 4.3 mmol/L in 10 minutes, unfortunately CGM is in warmup) at the moment. I did take Fiasp 2 1/2 hours ago to cover some carbs. Didn’t spike at all, just held steady and now dropping. So either Tresiba dose is too high or I’ll need to correct my ratios with the change.
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And I’m now 3.9 mmol/L so will officially treat.
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There goes that tresiba not working til the third day (joking)
If so then only gradually over time… my ratios seem to be constantly evolving and I didn’t detect any differences to those trends when I switched to tresiba
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I’m guessing that’s a no, then.
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Well it might be different coming off a pump… it’s far more cloudy what’s actually basal and what’s actually bolus when it’s coming from the same place
I don’t think so… To me it’s not murky, anyway. Unless you’re talking about NPH, in which case yes, it’s very unclear about what’s being covered by NPH versus other insulins… But on a pump, basal is either insulin that holds you steady between meals or insulin that the pump delivers automatically, while bolus is either insulin used to cover food and high BG or insulin that you have to manually program in to deliver. I do imagine with some of the automated systems where basal rate is adjusted to cover high BG, it’ll become murky. But with a current-day, manual-only pump, it’s not.
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Yeah but when it’s absorbing from the same infusion site, how your brain’s thought process is conceptualizing it is not always the same as the function it’s actually accomplishing…
I actually thought of a mock-up today… I was gonna make a YouTube video with it… big soup pan in the sink with the faucet trickling into it (basal dose). Then at random intervals I throw an extra cup of water into the same pot (bolus). after it’s in there which is basal and which is bolus? Doesn’t matter what it’s intention was… take a scoop out and it’s all the same
But does that matter? Insulin is released from “all one place” in the pancreas, and in the body there is no distinction between basal and bolus. So it’s not like your body cares where the insulin is coming from or what it’s called. With MDI, basal is one type of insulin that keeps your blood sugar steady between meals and bolus is another type of insulin that’s taken to cover food or high BG. On a pump, basal is a pre-programmed background dose of insulin (that is tested by fasting through meals) that keeps your blood sugar steady between meals and bolus is insulin that’s manually programmed in to cover food or high BG. In the end, those two things are accomplishing the same task and are conceptuatlized the same, even though their delivery is different. The only reason we have “basal” and “bolus” is so we can manage diabetes better. Those terms weren’t even around when I was diagnosed.
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well in my opinion it matters tremendously… yeah in the natural correctly functioning metabolism this stuff all happens automatically, here we are trying to reproduce those processes through two mechanisms…
In my opinion keeping them completely distinct from each other makes it extremely easy to identify where either one is lacking… but combining them has some advantages it can also create a very confusing situation where one doesn’t know what’s truly doing what…
I just don’t understand how they are murky. It’s not like, on a manual pump, your basal is ever magically covering food that you’re eating without you knowing it, or you’re bolusing unknowingly every day to cover some of your basal… If you’re testing basal rates properly by fasting through meals, neither of those are necessary. If anything, those types of scenarios would be more common on MDI where basal can’t be fine-tuned to variations that the body might need. On Lantus I had to wake up every morning at 3:00 AM to give myself 2-3 units of Humalog so I wouldn’t wake up at 10-18 mmol/L from the dawn phenomenon. Now that I’m taking metformin I doubt that will be as much of a problem, but I’ll be very curiosu to see what happens overnight tonight!