Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Temporary Basal....advice?

I've decided one of my projects is to work on temporary basal.  This has to be one of the coolest features of the pump, but I have yet to use it very much. 

Last night, I decided to go for it.  And ummm.....I use some help.

Matthew was 97 at 11pm.  (Yeah, so much for that late-night spike!)

Instead of juice, I did a 50% decrease for 30 minutes.  About an hour later, he was 147 and then went up into the 190s.  Not exactly what I was going for, but you have to start somewhere...right?

Here's my question.  What would you have done?

I know YDMV and will from day-to-day!  I'm just looking for some guidelines.

Three cheers for my blogging friends who are always there for me with help and encouragement!!!

9 comments:

Meri said...

This is not medical advice! :)

Buuuut: You asked. :)

We would have done a temp basal of 0 for 30 minutes. (No insulin for 30 minutes.) Does the trick for our guys.

As you said though....YDMV!

Diane D said...

I was just thinking I am ready to start learning about the temp basal settings :) I will be paying close attention to your discoveries.

Penny said...

I echo what Meri just said, not medical advice, but here's what I do.
For us, 97 is close to target of 120, so I would lower insulin through a temp basal of probably -20% for 1 hour.

Denise aka Mom of Bean said...

I would have gone with no insulin for an hour....Bean seems to take longer to go up or down at night. ;)
I'm getting more comfortable with the temp basal...it's really just trial and error to see how it works for you. Last night, I did an increase basal for three hours instead of a correction and it worked great. I also like to do ours in units instead of percents...just works better for my brain!

Lora said...

I have tried these and sucked at it. I need to do it again and get the hang of it.

If you started out at 50% and he went to high... try 25% and see what happens.

Unknown said...

I would have fed Joe a glucose tab. I only use temp basals when things are really wonky (illnesses) and for hockey tourneys...car rides/plane rides/movies/post high fat meals...not for the instance you are describing. Perhaps I should.

Stephanie said...

Honestly? Gosh, this makes me feel bad. I would have done nothing. Adam doesn't tend to drop at night, so I would have been happy with that 97...but I would have definitely checked him in an hour to see that he was staying steady. :)

Stephanie said...

Oh...and the only time I use temporary basals is when we travel (or sick). I have found (from advice from others in the DOC!) that I need to crank up Adam's basals by AT LEAST 100% when he's sitting in the car or on a plane. The first car trip we took, I was scared to do it and only did 50% but it wasn't nearly enough. :)

Amy said...

I"m not a doctor, this isn't medical advice, etc, etc. :) For my DD I would have tried a 60% for an hour. I haven't had much luck with half-hour changes, so I've been sticking with an hour or more most of the time.

190 would have been fine with us, though. Due to DD's history of late-night crazy-lows, at night her target range is 100-200, and I never let her go to sleep under 125. I know that's higher than some people would be comfortable with, but our endo suggested it and it's working for us.

Honestly, I've never found any specific guidelines, even from my endo. But my endo is really into trying temp basals for both highs and lows, so I keep experimenting.