I had an appointment with my endo yesterday and while there, he suggested I try using the square bolus feature for insulin delivery for certain foods. Well, today, while at the mall, I split a large slice of pizza with a friend and used the square bolus when having the insulin delivered (i entered it as about 30 grams). About an hour later, I had a small chocolate frappachino at starbucks, but forgot to bolus for it. Around an hour after that, I was getting in my car to drive home and checked my bloodsugar, but I was at 99 and feeling low, even after not covering the frappachino. How did I get low after not covering such a sugary drink? Could it have had anything to do with the square bolus? Any thoughts?
Yes, it sounds from your description that this was the result of your square bolus. The fat from the pizza may have delayed the carbs from the frappachino. What was your BG reading in the third and fourth hours? For me, I find I have to make that square wave bolus run 3 - 4 hours for pizza.
Fair Winds,
Mike
To clarify though— I would not say that the square bolus per se caused your problem. It was the length of time you entered. You do not say how long it was. I use 30 minutes for a regular meal and 2.5 to 4 hours for pizza.
I used the square since day one on the pump. During the past year, I began to use the dual wave bolus for regular meals. It seems to work better for me to give about 3 to 4 units “now” and the rest over 30 minutes.
Since this was the first time you tried the square wave, I hope you won’t give up on it. Just ck your BG until you are sure of the correct dosage and time for various food types. I use the normal bolus only for snacks or corrections.
I find for Pizza I have to use the dual wave bolus. I usually give 60-70% of the bolus up front with the rest coming over a 2.5 to 3 hour period. Obviously everyone is going to be different. I suggest eating pizza at home and checking your sugars every half hour to an hour for about 5 hours to see what will work best for you. With square and dual wave boluses the time you extend the bolus for is very important.
A few hours after, I was around 200. I was using the 30 minute… I only used it because I wanted to be able to have the option of bolusing again incase I bought any more food… I have tried it a few more times since, but I’ve just been running high (200-600). I’ve changed my sets, used different bottles of insulin, and have been especially diligent about testing and bolusing, but no matter how much I do, my number wont seem to go down. oh well… more set changes and more insulin seem to be in order.
i understand the theory of the square/ dual wave boluses but have never had a lot of luck with them, either for pizza or pasta. These days, for pizza we usually stick w/ the ultra thin crust frozen pizza (Home Run Inn…) that are around 30G of carbs/ 1/4 'za. I have better luck just bolusing for that. It might work to stretch the pizza out to where the pizza started to hit at a few hours but I always use the 30 min too, because sort of like an addict, I want the insulin working, even if I run low afterwards, before the pizza hits? Probably a longer square would work better.