I’m curious how often those of you on pumps particularly, but also on shots, change things like basal rates (background insulin) and carb ratios. I end up making small adjustments every few days, sometimes every day! Sometimes I’ll go a week or maybe even two with the same settings working, but more often than not I am always making small adjustments. Just curious if this is the norm or not for most people, my endo doesn’t seem to think it’s unusual that I always have different settings whenever I see him. I know it has a lot to do with me having an extremely variable schedule.
I think it’s normal. The nurse-practioner at my endo’s office is a sweetheart. She has me fax in my log every week and adjusts it from there (I’m on shots, by the way). Sometimes there’s a change every week but at a different time, sometimes things stay stable for a while. I’ve gone about 2 or 3 weeks without changing anything. I wouldn’t be surprised if I have to change something after next week, when I start classes again.
Hi Jenifer, I’m on shots too, I change my meal shots nad rates everyday, the only shot that does not change or seem to need changing is the overnight Levemir. Like Kridofer my diabetic specailist says that its normal and I should adjust if my carbs and bg are different for the meal I’m having.
In 4 months of being on the pump I have changed my basal 3 times. I have not changed it in the last 2 months. I have it set dead on. If you are testing your basal you should not need to change it hardly at all. Same goes for the carb ratio unless your in the honeymoon phase still. I would recommend using patterns if you use a Minimed. That way you can change without changing your basal and carb ratio all the time.
I’ve had type 1 for 16 years so I’m definitely not in the honeymoon phase. 
I use a Cozmo and it does have the ability to have different basal rates/patterns for different types of days (weekday, weekend, exercise day, etc.). I have yet to explore this feature but I think if I could figure out how to set everything up for each type of day, this would be really useful for me.
I also wonder how much hormones might figure into all this changing! LOL.
With my basal rates the overall pattern stays the same, when I change it I change everything up or down by 0.05 or 0.1 units an hour, but the pattern always stays the same. I’ve tested it and it’s pretty much dead-on.
sometimes it’s the same (my son is on shots) for two weeks, then other times it will change every 3 days. My sons endo team waits 3 days to change the long lasting insulin since they say it sometimes takes awhile to work at the different dosage.
I’m a pump user and I change my settings very infrequently. I have 3 basal - morning/evening, mid day, and overnight - and 3 carb ratios. Once I nailed the correct basals and ratios there was no need to adjust. Occasionally, with weight gain or other changes I find it necessary to make very small changes (like you mentioned you do) but other than that I keep it pretty consistent.