How much insulin do you use a day as a T2 on the pump?

I am very insulin resistant and currenly use about 145u Levemir/day and total of 70u humolog/day before meals

I am currently getting worked up for a pump and have been told that my insulin use will decrease once I get stable on the pump...

Just curious how much do you go through a day?

Christina

Hi Christina, It is true that most people use less insulin on a pump. My own needs dropped by 30% maybe more when I started pumping. It is hard for me to say exactly how much because I was also near to reaching my weight loss goal at the same time so I not sure how much of the insulin reduction was due to the weight loss. Some people report as much as a 50% reduction and some folks see no reduction at all. YDMY(your diabetes may vary) certainly applies here.

I use at least 135-150 units per day, basal and bolus. I was using over 200u on MDI 4 years ago.

Going on a pump cut my insulin requirements by about 45%
-Lloyd

I've been on a pump for about 3 1/2 years and I saw a significant drop in my daily insulin use as well. My total daily insulin, both basal and bolus, is between 30-35 units.

I have been pumping for 15 years. Remember, the amount of insulin you use now, will be much different. Your pump is now based on only 1 insulin. I have found that how much you use is mainly set by the bolus. The basal is the same daily. I have learned that with novolog you use about 5% less than humalog. Now the bolus is the tricky part. The amount you eat, is the basis of that. So if you have the default 15 to 1, and you eat 90 carbs, that is 6 units. But if your metabolism is different, you could use 5 to 1 you use 18 units for the same thing. Every “body” is different. So the bolus part fluctuates daily. So you need to know both. I am usually at 40 units a day. They will help set you up. That is fun. Enjoy it, the pump is the only way to go.

60-100U, depending on many things.If I have a good low-carb day (<100g), I’m usually in the 60-80 range.

Indulging in a gourmet burger and fries can burn through a scary amount of insulin though. I don’t do it very often, but I did go to Betty’s Burger in Santa Cruz, CA, on mother’s day with my family (my wife loves Betty’s). Keep in mind these are not your average burger.

Anyway, almost stayed in range – drifted over 140 to 146 for a half hour or so – post-gastromomigasm, but the amount of insulin I have to use for adventures like this would kill a (sensitive) T1: 30U administered 35 minutes before starting to eat, then another 20U administered in a square-wave bolus over 4 hours when I take the first bite.

That’s a total of 50U. My I:C is 1:5. Yet, the meal did not include 250g of carb, not by a long shot. Between the bun, cheese, condiments, and fries, probably more like 120-150g.

And yet, no hypo. This is a phenomena I’ve learned well, and I believe is a T2 IR problem. My IR seems to have carb load as a variable in insulin response, even when my BG stays controlled, seems to “peter out” with big big carb loads.

Last time I indulged like that was over the holidays. I refill my insulin prescription on a 25-day rotation (generally you can refill prescriptions up to 5 days early on a monthly cycle) so I can build up a bit of reserve for Zombie Apocalypse, and for indulgent events through the year like this.

One thing a pump allows you to easily do is determine how much pancreatic function you still have to cover some or all of your basal needs. This is very difficult (I’d say impossible) to do when taking long-acting analogs.

On a pump, you can dynamically adjust your basal and see effects within 2-3 hours. Over time under all sorts of varying circumstances of eating/fasting, you’ll be able to determine what your “true” exogenous insulin basal needs are. This very well may cut down on your TDD a lot.

For me, on MDI, I was doing 50U of Lantus, and bolusing a 1:5 IC with humalog for meals and corrections. When I started pumping, I determined that my pancreas could handle my basal just fine most of the day, with just dawn and evening being two times I needed an elevated basal from the pump to keep me controlled.

In the end, this cut down my exogenous TDD quite a bit. In a T2, with some beta cell function remaining, exogenous insulin is a bit more complicated to do accounting for, because there’s a certain degree of insulin “substitution” that takes place – i.e. you take it externally, and it just replaces insulin the pancreas would have produced otherwise.

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