Finding the chase and cutting to it

No, I am not writing a thriller here, but more chat about basals, like the last post.

My pump allows me to programme five different basals.  In practice, I only use four and then use a temporary adjustment if something completely unplanned is happening.

Four?

I use the same ones working day or weekend as I keep to fairly regular patterns.  As a girl, I have different rates for which stage of my menstrual cycle I’m in.

Basal Rate 2 is used the week before my period is due (especially if I am exercising a great deal).

Basal Rate 3 is used when my period starts – for a couple of days only.

Basal Rate 4 is used for the two days before my period is due and I am not exercising a great deal.

Basal Rate 1 is used the rest of the time.

That doesn’t seem to be a very logical order?

Thank you for your observation, but when a rate is working really well, I moved on to the next available slot.  As it happened, 1 was the first I programmed.

I said I only used four but five is an emergency one.  If I wanted a small break and used a long acting basal, a temporary rate of zero or a little higher might seem like a good idea.

Long actings are not that predictable with me and having to constantly adjust a temporary in those cases is really annoying. Five is kept as this spare for that reason.  I also use it if I need something a bit special.

Once the situation is back to normal (whatever normal is anyway), I switch my basal rate to the most applicable one.

Wouldn’t it be easier to have a closed loop system?

I do think about it, honestly.  I do quite like being the wet-ware in control (human brain control cybernetics).

My neural net is able to think of things in a way a machine has difficultly doing as I am aware of the whole picture not just my institial results.

For example, if I took an antihestimine tablet, I am aware of how that works in me.  Because I know that I have taken it, I am not reacting to the results I am getting, I am already implementing a plan.  Actually, I might wait a couple of hours before taking the tablet because I know that I need to knock off two tenths of a iu before the allergy treatment starts to work and I need to do that for 18 hours.  Because of my insulin’s kinetics,

A closed loop would just be reacting which is not quite the same thing.

If you say so, just think it would be easier for you…

I know these facts because of my FreeStyle Libre has allowed me to see what does what.  That single tool has allowed me to see so much more of what is happening when.

I know when my blood sugar gets above 8 two hours after eating, I am going to get hungry now.

(I’m guessing that’s middle age, but you can see how type 2 diabetes impacts the middle aged more than youngsters.  If I didn’t know better, I would snack instead of bolusing.

I’ve spent my life taking hunger to be a sign of low blood sugar but actually, that doesn’t happen that way at all.  Low’s it tends to be concentration that goes first then I feel a bit nauseous).

Anyway, the best curves I get are from Coke, normally leaded Coke.  150ml is 16g of CHO and if I bolus 1.6iu I don’t go above 9mmol/l an hour after food.  The curve is beautiful and absorption is guaranteed.

More complex food is always hard as absorption makes the bigest difference.

But now we’re talking about bolusing, not basal rates, so I will end it here.