I was in to see the nurse today and my Hba1c is still coming down… Its now at 6.8. I’m delighted! As you know, I’m still relatively new to the pump so up until now I have been using the standard user menu. I am now graduating to the advanced menu. I was just wondering how you all use your extended bolus and multiwave bolus functions.
The nurse gave me an example fo how to use them but I’m looking for a bit more. What she said was:
Extended bolus: if you were eating a McDonalds, the higher fat content means that you should extend the amount of time the insulin should last.
Multiwave bolus: If you were at a BBQ, you were eating a bit now but you know that you’ll eat more in a while.
I hope these make sense to you. I know what she meant by these examples but I was wondering what you do if you’re out for a meal. What happens if you know you’re getting dinner but you know you want dessert too? What type of bolus do you give? Or can you give either of these types if you havent seen the dessert to estimate its carbohydrate value?
This is complicated!!! I know it will get easier but I’m impatient. I wish I could just understand it all now. Thanks for your help.
Naomi, I think that examples from your nurse was perfect, and I used this in the same conditions. But about you like the desert and you didn’t know this, I think that the best is a new bolus dose to the “cheese cake” :-D.
It’s easy. I started with a HbAic of 8.8. Now I’m with 7,2 and probably in the next exame above 7. So, the Spirit was very important to my diabetes control.
Thanks for the advice Marcelo. Much appreciated. I’ll keep doing what I’m doing then and give a second bolus for the dessert (which I probably shouldn’t be eating anyway!!)
Hi !
Problem with giving Extended or Multiwave is that if you eat something, before time is up, everything goes bad…
If I can usually give for each part of meal insulin separately… before meal I measure BG and then first dose also contains correction bolus + bolus for first CHs, and for next par of meal just bolus for CH… If I eat something that requires Multiwave (or extended) then after bolus was introduced fully I don-t eat anything…
I mostly use it for Pizza… I use multiwave here 60% now, 40% durring one hour, then after 1.5-2 hours I check BG again, and if sugar is over 6.5, I take 30% of CH used for Pizza again.
At the minute I’m finding that I dont use these properly. I think I was being a bit lazy in the last few weeks about the pump. HbA1c has gone up to 7.2 again so obviously I’m not working hard enough at it. Disappointed but I’ve only got myself to blame…
That was just it… I didn’t know that pump supported giving bolus during extended or multiwave, so I didn’t eat anything at time that multiwave was running (about 2 hours after meal).
If you couldn’t do bolus durring that time and wanted to eat, then all your requirement calculation would be wrong… For example I have pizza set Multiwave to cover 7U now, 3 in next 2 hours, and then I find out I am thirty and that I want Coke, now if I drink it, I need to cover it… If I couldn-t then my requirement of 10 U, would be now after drinking Coke incorrect (meaning everything goes bad)…
This is when the whole concept of IOB comes in… Dont quite get it myself… but thw rough is, you give yourself an immediate bolus but less than if you were on the end of the insulin action curve…
Because the dose will stack on top of ihe current curve… You dont see much of the whole IOB due to the bolus calculator supposedly dealing with it internally but you still have to be aware of it, esp when giving a dose in the middle of an extended/multiwave
