If your A1c is high with the pump its either because the Insulin to Carb ratio is not correct or because you’re not correctly counting carbs. Try lowering your carb intake. Insulin pumps aren’t permissions to eat all kinds of carbs . You still need to take control of your body. Also, when doing exercise make sure you check your blood sugar first because if it’s above 200 it could actually increase with the exercise.
I agree that basal is not used to lower blood sugar. Yes, the purpose of basal insulin is to keep you steady, but to keep you steady as close as possible to your target blood sugar.The goal is not to have to correct all the time, but to have your basal set so you stay in range in between meals. If your basals are “steady” but between 155 and 178, then they are too low. (unless that is your goal range)
I don’t do formal basal testing, but tweaked my basal rates based on what times during the day I experienced highs (or lows) in between meals, at bedtime, and at waking. So if I kept waking up (at 8:30) at 175 I would lower the basal for the period around 6:30 so that my basal rates would make me wake up more like 100. If, in your example, you are waking up usually around 80, no, of course you wouldn’t want a higher rate, your basal rate would be perfect. The whole point of basals is to give just enough so you stay in target without food. Once that is set, then you can look at tweaking I:C rates.
I really recommend you read Using Insulin; John Walsh can explain it better than I can.
Well, bad I:C ratios are one reason for high BG levels. But if the basal is off, you’ll NEVER get it under control. It could also be an issue of bad insulin or mechanical issues with the pump, inset, or cartridge. It could even be something as uncontrollable as hormones that cause high BG levels (leading to high A1cs)…
It’s important to build a solid foundation (basal) before framing the rest of the house (bolus)
Honeybear:
You are right that the basal needs to be consistent, but it also does need to pull you down.
The point of basal insulin is to function as an around-the-clock supply of insulin that counteracts the BG-raising effects of your natural biological processes (or to be more fancy, to create glucose homeostasis). It should not be so high that you constantly need to “feed” the basal with food, but your body should be “feeding” the basal on its own. Using correction boluses to pull your BG down is not enough, because without a sufficient supply of basal insulin your body’s other homeostatic functions (for instance, keeping your temperature at 98.6 degrees, making your heart beat, making your liver function, etc.) will drive your BG up on their own without eating any food.
As a very general rule, whatever dose of basal insulin you take will keep your BG more or less flat if you don’t eat anything (this is not accounting for hormones, dawn phenomenon, and all those sorts of things, which are important but beside the point). The point of adjusting your dose is to change the baseline from which your blood sugar rises or falls when you do eat something.
I would try to figure out why it’s 175 when waking up first. Is it because BG levels have been high but steady all night long? A night time hypo that causes a Somogyi effect? Perfect control while sleeping but DP at wake-up time? Dexcom is the easiest way to see whats going on, but if that’s not possible, there are other options…
Everyone, the point is I started with basal rate testing for ONE time period. Because I have to start somewhere, and the morning one is the easiest to one to do, that’s what I did first. There are many more basal rate testing time periods to come. 
The fact that this one time period is stable doesn’t mean my rates are remotely close at any other time of the day. While testing my basal rates I don’t want to get caught up in why it was high to start. That’s kind of chicken and egg. It may be that my overnight basal or the one for my dawn phenomenon is to low, or the correction factor I used the night before was to low. Hopefully this is what I’ll figure out with the remainder of my basal rate testing.
Scott - EXACTLY! I have to start with the foundation of my basals before moving on to the other parts. I did not exercise on the day I tested my basal rate, figuring I’ll have to figure out how to adjust for that later. And I definitely have a DP.
Oh, ultravires, you explained that so much better than I did! And I consider myself a very good explainer, so that’s a big compliment!
Please read ultravires’ explanation, honeybear, you’re missing the whole point of basal settings!
It is advised that you test the overnight basals first and get that adjusted so that you start with a good foundation for the rest of the times of day. The other factor is that you should start out in range, and not do the testing unless you are. The suggested range is between 100 and 160, so you were not too far off of that, but closer to 100 would be ideal. If you are going to test nighttime basals, your last meal and dose of insulin should be about 6pm and then start the test at 10pm, waking every couple of hours to test.
I don’t agree - I think Honeybear understands what she is doing and is doing it the only way it is possible. Take one time period at a time when food and bolus insulin and exercise are not present, and adjust basal to keep yourself stable while in that time period. That is how it is explained in Pumping Insulin and the other books. As MaryMary said, it is advised to be closer to 100 when starting the test, but she wasn’t that far off.