Range of Basal Rates

[Stephen]

Oh pump gurus, I throw myself once again on your mercy

I was wondering what your widest range of basal rates was? All the information I have gathered from the web seem to show basal rates changing by maybe 0.5 maximum. (So lowest at any point in the day is 0.4, highest is 0.9)

The reason I ask is I’ve done my first lot of overnight basal rate testing, and I “think” in order to correct my dawn phenom I’m going to have to almost treble my basal rates in the wee small hours (1u/h is baseline, but looks like I need closer to 3u/h when DP kicks in.)

I’ve increased to 1.5u/h to little or no effect so far – the only way is up (so they say!) from here

Thoughts appreciated as always

[Tim]

As always, everyone’s diabetes ;

[Anonymous]

I have a tendency to go low around 4pm (that’s the whole reason I went on the pump in the first place) so my basal rate for a few hours around there is a tiny 0.2 u/h.
My highest is 0.9 u/h, so a 0.7 unit range. I’m surprised by how high your ranges are – I thought my requirements were pretty large, though, proportionally, my highest IS more than 4 times my lowest, quite a difference. Perhaps that’s a more accurate way of determining how ;

[Angie]

My basal rates at the moment:

0000 1.500
0400 2.050
0800 1.650
1000 2.925
1100 4.700
1200 9.275
1400 10.825
1500 10.000
1600 6.525
1700 1.475
1900 1.650
2100 1.975

*waits for the gasp of shock*

I feel I should point out the caveat that I’m on steroids on the moment, and most of the swing I have is to deal with the massive peak of insulin resistance I get in the afternoon when they kick in. Before I started on the steroids my basals ranged from about 1.1 U/hr to 1.9 U/hr. I know other people who have a massive rise in the morning to cope with dawn phenomenon. My diabetes clinic are very much of the opinion that whatever level of insulin you need to keep your BG in range is what’s right for you, and everyone is different.

[Annette A]

My god, @angie, that’s getting close to @teloz territory with that much insulin
I range (on my lowest basal setup – it changes with hormones by up to 50%) from 0.66 to 0.72 But I am quite sensitive to insulin. And my dawn phenomenon disappeared when I went on the pump (so was obviously caused by the Lantus effect).

[Alison]

My normal (no hormones, no travel, no stress, no huge amount of exercise etc) basal set up is:

00.00 – 1.30 u/h
02.30 – 1.00
05.30 – 1.20
11.30 – 1.15
18.00 – 1.35

So that’s a range of 0.35 over the day. It’s incredible the tiny amounts that make such a difference. And such a shame there isn’t a standard basal rate pattern that would suit us all, it’d save so much work!

[Tim]

@alison – ah, if there was just some handbook that said “here are your optimum pump settings for you” life would be wonderful!

[Stephen]

@tim I’d settle for a truly closed loop, let the gadgets worry about it all

Ah well, give it another 10 years and we might get there …..

[Hairy Gnome]

Awww… thanks @annette, at last I’m famous!

[lizz]

I change from 0.05 to 2 at the highest at 7.30 am. The rest of the time it’s:

Midnight 0.05
4.30 0.3
6.00 1.5
7.00 2.0
9.00 1.25
10.00 0.8
11.00 0.5
12pm 0.25
5.30 0.3
6.00 0.6

[Anonymous]

Just looking at mine for comparison…

00:00 1.3
06.00 1.2
10.00 1.3
12.30 1.1
16.00 1.2
20.00 1.3

so not much ;

[lizz]

I freak out about not eating, having never missed a meal for 40 years. I’ve tried, but I always break sometime round about 5 minutes after the start of my breakfast. I just can’t do without tea in the morning. Or grapefruit. It’s an addiction.

[Stephen]

I’m calibrating mine based on fasting, though I’m struggling to get round to doing the morning ones. Always wake up starving!

[Annette A]

I have no problems with overnights or mornings – its the afternoon/evening basal tests that get me – my hunger receptors obviously dont wake up until lunchtime

[Tim]

I just did basal testing one section of day at a time – nights first (to get them out the way ASAP), then mornings, then evenings. I took the view that I could probably live off my hump and safely not eat for twelve hours without dying, so it wasn’t much of a problem.

[Author]

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