A little over a year into using Tandem t/slim I’ve grown appreciative of how the mobile app shows its basal adjustments at a fine scale, dialing back to 0 on the low and gently increasing as it climbs the upper end of good.
I am still learning to fight my anger at unexpected highs (13.1! I calculated breakfast perfectly) and not doing my usual reach to over correct when it suggests a measly 2 units.
@cogdog (OMITIf I read the screenshot correctly your basal rate is 1u per hour. With so much variability you might benefit from bumping up basal a bit - maybe to 1.3 or 1.4 and see how that works for you.)
Actually on 2nd and 3rd look forget what I wrote above. I have no clue what your basal rate is. It is the extreme basal variability that shows that your pump needs some adjustment.
I’m not sure where to begin. Basal, meal bolus and corrections all sort of affect one another. How did you come to use the numbers in your pump?
I had fine tuned my dosage from when I was on MDI. That’s went in to the pump initially. Over time those numbers have been tweaked to achieve a better result. It’s all me and not my endo, but he is perfectly happy with the results.
Basal testing is best done after a 4+hour fast. One indication of being on target is if your overnight basal is fairly flat, without a lot of highs or corrections.
Actually I am going to stop here and hope that some of the wise folks here will help to to more stable BG
Thanks @CarlosLuis the vertical axis scale is for blood glucose. You can see some of the basal in the plateaus, I have it set to 2.1 to 2.75 units at different times of day. I have monthly reviews with a nurse educator, and we have been fine tuning basals as well as adjusting correction factors and insulin carb ratios.
It’s all ongoing, but I have gone from about 50% time in range previously on Omnipod to more typically 70-80%. Some of variability is irregular schedule, other is my love of food. But I have felt better since switching to this pump. The other tell is that my retinopathy from laser treatment in the mid 1990s seems better as I had typically had bouts of small floaters in my eyes, and none this year (will confirm with opthamologist in a few weeks).
Thanks, I dont do much tweaking myself with the settings.
That’s my experience. I had a sign of early retinopathy before I started using C-IQ. Both eyes a healthy except for cataracts in both eyes that have been stable fo 15-20 years.
I am not able to see enough history to reach any conclusions. I likely would not try, even if I could. But one thing I do notice and I suggest, is talking to your Educator about your coverage.
How long is insulin active, (I forget if you can shorten it on Tandem) and sensitivity. In the above example you are showing 13.1 with 3u in progress of dosing. Just taking a stab at things, you educator might desire increasing the effective coverage.
Obviously we are all very different and your situation is not mine or vice versa. But I would push more insulin to lower my blood sugar than 3U if I were that high.
Now, this may be perfectly right for you. But it might answer part of the disconnect. It may also be that I am way off base. It is just want I noticed, no more.
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I appreciate all ideas. I am not quite clear what setting is “effective coverage” — it sounds like the correction factor. I do get fuzzy over the 3 variables in play.
and my thought is usually- WTF? 3 units will not reduce that 13.1 but I feel like it is accounting for the 2.5 basal per hour too, and it’s aiming for a more gradual reduction over time than a full drop.
I loathe my tendency to over correct both highs and lows. But we look the trends and patterns in detail.
