Basal check

Hi all.
Can anyone out there tell me in detail how to check my basal or background insulin.On insulin pump (minimed)for approximately 4 years.
Fergal
Kilkenny
Ireland

Hi Fergal,

You could start with your morning Basal.

To test this you need to check your BS when you wake. Fast then if possible until lunchtime. If you blood sugars are higher then you need to increase your basal - if they are lower you need to decrease.

Lunchtime Basal

Have your breakfast as normal and take your insulin. Test your BS at lunchtime and then apply the same principle as above.

Dinner time Basal

Have your lunch as normal and take your insulin. Test your BS at dinner time and then apply the same principle as above.

Nightime Basal

Have your dinner as normal and take your insulin. Test your BS before bedtime and then again first thing when you wake. Then apply the same principle as above.

Hope this helps :-)

I quite surprised that you are unaware how to carry out a basal test considering your on a pump, and have been for nearly 4 years........

how did that happen...?

I ask because I personally had to have done DAFNE first and prove that despite a very specific dosing regime using DAFNE didn't work.....


Have a look at this:

Beyond The Basals

This will take you through the process for pumpers like yourself, its asks you to look at your BG levels inside a 5 hour window and then adjust basal rates if and when needed, usually if the levels exceed 1.7mmol in either direction....

I've been Type 1 Diabetic for 5 years and it was only on my refresher last week (4 years after diagnosis) that I learned the 'theory' of basal testing (basically fasting for one meal - or having a carb free meal - and monitoring BG levels). Currently my background feels spot on so I'm not going to do a basal test just yet. When I need to, I'll come back here and ask advice first!

Do consultants consider putting injectors onto pumps when they can't 'dafne' they're way around serious 'dawn phenomenon' problems?

I'm an injector and my consulatant wants to consider me for a pump. I'm curious (I love techology!) but not convinced, yet.
If I haven't got the DAFNE principles as second nature, then having a pump is not going to make any difference to my control.

The plan goes like this: Feb 2016, I'll be given a CGM (Constant Glucose Monitoring) patch which will stay on for about 4 days so that I can sit down with my SDN (Specialist Diabetic Nurse) and unpick the data that it provides about my BG levels, with particular attention to Dawn Phenomenon (ask me! :-).

Did anyone else have this preliminary?

Felix

It varies all over the country as to what criteria you need to meet to start using a pump but there are some areas where attendance of a DAFNE course isn't required, or any dose adjustment educational program......

some people have built up their own knowledge and understanding and as long as this can proved then a pump could still work well.......

in my opinion though there is no point putting some one on a pump for them to then keep needing assistance from the HCPs either face to face or by phone, this is just no use really....

what you definitely need to be able to do on the pump is test, evaluate, and change your basal rates [the most important dose] and also do the same for the bolus.....

a CGM will be good for information, but it will only reveal whats happening at certain times..........which is good for identifying/confirming the DP...

Thanks. You really know your onions! :-)

I agree. Endless qustions and appointments is not independence.
I agree, I need to able to be able to make informed basal changes independently if the pump is be a useful change. Otherwise it is just a layer of technology.

The BEYOND THE BASAL article/site that you linked earlier is very useful.

Thanks

FG