what’s a basal test? I take 50 units of lantus.
Google “basal testing”…You should be able to go all day without a meal and not drop more then 40 pts. or go up 40 pts. You have to test first thing in the morning…say your bloodsugar is 130, no food,no fast-acting insulin…go from morning to lunchtime, if you stay about the same bs, then eat luch,take fastacting(cover carbs and bs) then wait 5 hrs., test and if you are not high or low, do the same from then on to bed (no food) same thru night. My Endo told me that you should be able to go all day without food on just Lantus dose,if not it is too high and decrease by 2 units (i unit lantus = 40pts.) Your fast-acting is what brings your bs down and cover carbs…Lantus is just a basal to keep you level thru the day and night. I am not doing a very great job in explaining this, I just know how to do it…I just got mine right after 3 months. I had to split my lantus dose…20 units lantus am and 10 lantus pm. If you google it, there is ALOT of good info…Hope this helps, can you ask a doctor, maybe they can help you? Good luck
Just to clarify, it’s not recommended to skip food all day to do basal testing. Instead you should spread it out over several days and test in 4-6 hour increments.
For example, to test basal rate for morning, do a fasting blood sugar test, take typical insulin/meds dose, skip breakfast, and test every 1-2 hours until lunch. Then eat lunch. Repeat the morning testing period for at least two other days before making medication changes. Then move on to other periods of the day.
I know, this is a long, drawn-out process. But it will be more accurate than trying to fast all day.
Also, the number my endo recommends is not more than + or - 30 mg/dl swing in blood sugar during one 4-6 hour period.
You explain it better then I did. You are correct. I have FINALLY got my basal pretty right-on (for now!) Good luck Domo. People here are the ones to help you!
And just when I think I have basal rates nailed, my body or life changes and I gotta start that testing all over again! Urgh. But, the effort usually pays off in better control.
True…testing never ends! My poor fingers. But, I feel better when things are kinda stable. Something always happens to keep ya on your toes!
i find lantus to be kinda crazy for me…i take 34 units in the morning. if i take anymore than that my bs’s are through the roof…it’s weird. if i take less obviously the same happens but i just have to eat less and they level out. i tend not to mess with my basal…bad things happen!!
The TDD of 1.2 per kg of body weight per day seems way high for most diabetics on this web site of which many need about 0.5 unit per kg per day. It is even high for me and I am very insulin resistant. Could be that it is reasonable if you eat the ADA super high carb diet. You wonder if using so much insulin will lead to massive weight gain.
The above guidelines are just rules of thumb and are not based on any chemical ratio. If I was starting on insulin I would definetely not start at 1.2 units per kg per day as most would go low.
Good for you the less insulin you use the better as long as your BG is in the normal range for most of the time.
Even 1 seems crazy high for me personally. That would have me at twice the amount of insulin I take now. I’ve ready elsewhere that it’s 0.55 units per kg of body weight, which matches much closer for me anyway. But then, I’m closer to 500 rule for carb ratio and 1800 rule for correction.
That’s interesting to me that young kids would need that much more insulin! I didn’t get diagnosed with type 1 until I was 18, so I don’t have any experience to compare. 