@Hammer - I’m confused and feel slow for not understanding - why do you set your basal rate artificially high? Can you explain what you mean? I use Basal IQ and have my basal rate set to what seems correct. The pump suspends often and sometimes I override it, like when eating a meal, etc. My average BG is about 115 and I stay in range (70-150) about 85% of the time.
I’m concerned about the Control IQ decreasing the basal rate if below 112…
Thanks!
Yeah, it was super obvious on how to take advantage of this!
As long as you trust your G6 readings, this is a super simple method of keeping your BG in check!
I found that increasing my basal rates, more at night when I wasn’t awake and couldn’t monitor it myself, but Basal IQ could! was the reason I dropped my A1c from 5.8 to 5.2.
The two things I took advantage of were higher basal rates, and larger meal time boluses.
The larger meal time bolus was easy to calculate.
If I figure my IOB is 3.5 hours with Fiasp, I can use the amount of basal I would normally get over that time, and just add it to my meal time bolus.
Basal IQ would pretty much stop basal when my BGs were coming down faster than it liked. But my BG would drop faster, and I still wouldn’t go low. Kind of like a super bolus.
Can’t wait to try the super bolus idea.
I find that it works great with Fiasp, but with Novolog, for me, it can create too strong of a downward trend of my BG for the X2 to control well.
Obviously this is me, and YDMV, but the idea remains the same, borrow insulin from your future basal to increase your meal time bolus. Most people do this on a pump by setting their temp basal lower, or to zero, after a larger meal bolus. The Basal-IQ just does it for you!
I have a coworker who is intent on switching to this as soon as her insurance will allow her to. For me, status quo is great and I’m thrilled with my HbA1C of 4.9, so I’ll play the wait and see game!
Does anyone know if Control-IQ will let you just do a temp basal percentage. Like if you wanted to do 40% basal for an hour, can you still do that?
Yes, but you have to turn off Control IQ.
Control-IQ Technology and Temp Basal Rate:
Before activating a Temp Rate (see Section 5.9
Starting a Temporary Basal Rate), you must turn
off Control-IQ technology
I received approval to upgrade to the G6 and basal-is a few days ago. Assuming that I could now receive the ok to upgrade to control-iq, is this an either-or choice?
From what I understand none of the new pumps will come with the control-IQ, it’s something that you will have to update the software on. I’m pretty sure that even if you download the control-IQ and it doesn’t work for you, you will have the option to go back to the old software without the control-IQ.
I spoke with my Tandem rep after a corporate visit for product training. I asked specifically about this because of my trepidation about the upgrade. It’s not possible to revert to older software versions at this time, but there are internal discussions at Tandem about adding that capability in the future. If you’re concerned about ‘taking the leap’, I would double check on that point before you do it.
That’s good to know but I meant to say is it a choice between basal-iq or control-iq. In better words I guess: are they mutually exclusive?
I mostly have problems with going low so if it is a choice of one or the other I will update to basal-iq and then, as I learn more about both, choose whether to stick with basal-iq or try control-iq.
Will definitely use it, although I hate the suspend on low feature. My pump is constantly suspending when i drop down to 100 which is borderline silly. I always thought it would be more useful for highs than lows though, so it should be interesting.
I have also been waiting for this for a long time. I love how easy my IQ has made my life and now to not have alarms going off when I start creeping up, Wonderful!!!
Everyone has different goals and targets and I would hope as this technology advances, people would have the option to change their targets. But the concern is always safety whenever dealing with the FDA. Which is why the first of this type Medtronic 670 was set much higher than most people would like.
I will say my pump does a super job of predicting. It turns off at around 83 and kicks back on around 90. There are times, it’s on and off for awhile but I don’t know about it. No alarms because I have turned those off. It just does it’s thing and I review once a week to see if it is turning off a lot during a certain timeframe, I might need some basal adjustments. Maybe with this new system, I won’t have to do that anymore!
I usually wait to see what happens but I must say, I think I am willing to jump in. I don’t test anymore and just let the system do it’s thing. Hoping I can do the same with the upgrade!
Technology can be our friend!
Basal-IQ uses a linear progression estimate on where your BG will be in 30min based on BG values in earlier readings (I forget how many). If that estimate drops below 80, Basal-IQ will activate. Because it engages based on a projection, it doesn’t matter what your BG value is when it kicks in. I like this because I tend to be aggressive with my meal boluses, corrections and basal profile preferring to err on the low side and avoid highs. It really helps, although all it can do is stop basal so if you have so much IOB that this isn’t enough, you still have to do manual intervention. It doesn’t do anything on the high side, but Control-IQ will…
I really wish both options were available in the upgrade. I don’t believe that will be the case. Maybe in a future release if they hear enough requests.
I’m with you @Paytone, I dread erring on the high side. The longer I live with T1D, the more I see the toll high side BG’s take on the body.
With a CGM, double checking with finger pokes on arrow down trends, and careful bolusing, sub-optimal BGs can be easily remedied with the timely ingestion of appropriate sugars.
They should have a Basal-IQ mode for Control IQ, that turns off the control for high bGs and allows temp basal. I like that they added a basal reduction stage to the low end control.
The Basal IQ has an ON/OFF setting on my pump, so I expect that the Control IQ will have a similar ON/OFF switch. If the Control IQ has a negative impact on my control, I would turn it off while leaving Basal IQ on. Assuming, of course that they have separate switches. I will watch the training videos, and if that is not possible I would probably delay the upgrade.
David Stillman - I would love to know if they have separate controls!
No there are not separate switches. Your pump either has Basil IQ or it has Control IQ. It will not have both.