I’ve been using the X2 now for just under a month.
I’ve seen dramatic improvements in my time in range (before X2 I averaged about 70%, but now over 80%+ (within a 24 hour period) is very normal and I’ve gone as high as 98%. These are remarkable improvements.
That said, Control IQ is not perfect. For example, sometimes prior to a meal, my blood sugar will drop and Control IQ will suspend my insulin to keep me from dropping low. That’s fine-- but then when I eat, sometimes having received no basal for 45 minutes-1 hour in some cases, Control IQ doesn’t know how to deal with that and I often go high surprisingly fast.
How would you handle this case? I probably need to account for the fact that I’ve got no insulin on board, but I can’t prebolus or I’ll go low.
In a perfect world, when I enter my carbs Control IQ would go HOLY CRAP HE’S EATING NOW, and go into overdrive to account for the fact that I’ve got not nearly enough basal insulin working. But as I understand it, Control IQ is not a learning algorithm-- it’s strictly reactive to whatever the numbers or their projections are.
I’d love advice from anyone with more experience on this topic than I have (which would be pretty much anyone on X2 longer than 1 month!)
I’ve been on it for just over a year. It took me a while to get it working correctly.
It seems to me that your basal rate is too high for the times where it is suspending.
When my pump does that, I lower my basal rate by a half a unit.
You are right though going from zero to a big meal is very tough.
If it was me and I see that I am low enough to suspend, I’ll take my bolus and hold off eating for 20 min.
I usually try to prebolus 15 min anyway.
Once you get your basal to be flat while you are not eating, you will see another dramatic shift to time in range.
I’m usually in the mid 90% s
It’s only stupid things that keep me from 100%, like miscalculating carbs or eating more than I meant to.
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There are definitely nuances to ControlIQ - I’ve been using it since it came out, so almost 2 years now? The biggest thing that helped me was switching to Sleep Mode 24/7 - it doesn’t deliver auto-boluses, and instead gradually increases and decreases the basal rate. That helps with everything overall. I hated regular mode. Exercise mode is also annoying because it gives auto boluses over 150, which then are supercharged because of the exercise. So I truly just use Sleep Mode around the clock. Others have noticed this to be beneficial, as well.
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