Saturday, December 04, 2010
Hello,
My name is Donna & I recently received an insulin pump. I am looking for others who also use a pump. I still have lots of questions and want to better understand how you can stop the highs and lows. Sometimes I feel really lost in understanding the readings of the pump. Also one of my biggest challenges is guessing how many carbs is in something that someone else made. I am always guessing the carbs and have no clue if I'm right or wrong until I check my sugar the next time.
Any advise and sharing would be helpful.
Thank you,
Donna
I've had a pump for 12 years, and love it.
Tonight we had a cookie exchange at the folk dance club I belong to. I brought a box of tomatoes and some nuts!
What I do is take a Scientific Wild Ass Guess (SWAG) on insulin, and take what I think the food will need. I generally go lower rather than higher, because I can correct later. I have a CGM and it tells me if I'm going high or low -- you're not supposed to use it for corrections, but at least it tells you that you need to get your meter out.
I have a MiniMed pump, and when you correct, it tells you how much insulin you have still active, and subtracts it from the total correction. So I'm having FAR fewer lows than I did on shots.
There is a steep learning curve when starting the pump, but after you learn the ins and outs, it's SO much easier than shots! I'll never go back!
Hi Natalie,
Thank you for your post. I LOVE having the insulin pump as well. I hated the daily injections! I love your acronym-SAWG! And it's a good one. I thought I was doing something wrong by guessing lol. My endocronoligist wants me to eat 45 carbs for the 3 big meals and 15 carbs for the 2 snacks. I am really having a hard time with this. So I feel like I am always guessing. To me it's like shooting in the dark.
You mentioned always going lower than correcting. How is that done and does it work? I too am on a mini med. What type of insulin are you on for your pump?
I use Novolog. I prefer Humalog, but Novolog is what my insurance covers. What I mean about guessing low is that I don't take huge boluses. But I also try to keep my carb count down. So, for Thanksgiving, I had a steak (don't like turkey!), mashed potatoes, green beans, ice tea and cake for dessert. I only ate 2 teaspoons of the mashed potatoes because I knew I was going to eat dessert (I don't normally eat dessert, but allow myself the treat for special occasions). So I figured about 5 grams for the potatoes, and 20 grams for the cake. I'm pretty sure the cake was more than that but I didn't want to go overboard. I did have to correct later, but I never went over 195, which for ordinary meals is more than I want to see, but this was a special occasion. The correction brought me down, and I didn't have a hypo, which is what matters to me. You need to work out your own plan, and it takes practice -- you get used to it.
Smiles,
Natalie ._c-