my pumps basal rates have been ideal for the past month. then, out of nowhere, my BGs went high. then higher. then higher. i wasn’t responding well to correction boluses either. so, i started by disassembling my pump, changing sites, changing infusions, then, finally, changing my insulin. nada. still high BGs. so, i set a temp basal rate for 24 hours at 110%. i didn’t see much of a change at all in my BGs. so i modestly raised it to 115%. still, relatively no change. now i have it set at 125% and my BG is at 209, 3 hours after my last bolus/meal. i have not snacked or ingested anything in the past hours. i am waiting for 4 hours to be up before i finger stick again, and try and make some sense of what i need to do. i have spoken w/ my endo, and he says that this is just the nature of the disease. up, down, up, down, etc. but this is the highest i have ever upped my temp %. i am not sick, i am not doing anything out of the ordinary. i am eating my regular diet, etc etc…
has anyone experienced this situation before, and what have you done to correct it? also, when raising a temp bolus, how do you determine how much of a % you need to go? i am fortunate to have my dex cgm, so i am carefully watching for any trends, but i am still not seeing any improvement.
What you’re describing reminds me so much of what I went through after getting a cortisone shot that I feel compelled to ask whether that–or some other non-D medication change–might be in the picture? Just a thought. For me that was when I really learned the lesson that you can not rely on non-specialists to know and warn you about those effects.
i just got off the phone w/ my endo. i have been carefully monitoring my BGs on my cgm for the past hours w/out eating or drinking anything but a C of chamomile tea… my BGs have remained high (200) for the past 3 1/2 hours (they have not come down since lunch) i wondered if the stability, despite it being high, was a sign that i had indeed found a temp basal rate that was effective, and to just do a correction bolus to bring myself down to a healthy target range. he suggested that my theory was correct.
why isn’t there one simple formula? it seems i spend so much of my life experimenting.
OK, i am just in that self-pity mode today, after 2 dud sensors from yesterday and the day before. it can be exhausting. and i feel that i am forever filled w/ questions.
and to answer your question: i have not had any medication changes at all. everything is status quo except my BGs and my need for more insulin.
Try working through an online course in human physiology. Once you start to get a taste for how many things are going on simultaneously inside your body … and often pulling in opposite directions … I expect you’ll be amazed that it can be simplified at all.
Keep in mind that our innards were not designed to work together. It evolved over time and so it is as much “luck” as anything else that determines how things “work”.
Every day is a new day, in every sense of the word. Your body won’t react exactly the same to a dose of insulin every single time you take it, because there are too many factors that affect your bg’s. Just do your best. Keep a record of all the variables and you will soon discover that there are so many variables it’s fruitless to try to figure out why one day a unit will drop you X and another day you will go UP after taking X or 3X or even more…
oh heck, I just realized you probably wrote that, rhetorically! And I fell for it!
And I fell for it!