Reddit reviews Pumping Insulin: Everything You Need for Success With an Insulin Pump

First step: If at all possible, see your doctor (your endocrinologist, if you have one). One appointment could get you a fresh set of pump settings that could make a huge difference — they can look at your trends and adjust.

You can do it on your own, too, and you'll get even better results, because it'll be based on concrete data rather than guesses based on average trends. Hit your public library and find this book if you can; it has full step-by-step guides on how to determine and tweak your basal rates and ratios.

Short version: Start by doing fasting tests to see if your basal rate is high enough. Don't eat or dose insulin for like a 6-hour chunk of the day, and test your BG every 30 minutes or so. If it rises, your basal isn't high enough at that time; if it falls, vice-versa. Do it again on another day at the same time, see if it's consistent. If it is, increase your basal rate on the pump over that time span. Do the same with the other chunks of the day.

Once you've got that sorted, and are pretty confident that your basal rates are appropriate over a full typical 24 hours, then you can start testing to see if your carb ratios and correction factor are correct. Short version for those: If you dose for food or correction and within 4 hours are back down to your target BG, then the numbers are good; tweak up or down if you don't hit the target.

xDrip+ has CorrF and CarbF settings, but the problem with these are you should set different factors to different times on a day. For example I have CorrF around 1.6 mmol/l in the morning and 2.4 mmol/l in the evening.

Most of the pumps have hourly factors you can set up. My Animas Vibe works pretty well in this regard, but requires some tweaking to get right.

For Android, even though I love, use and develop xDrip+, the best CorrF and CarbF calculator is in Diabetes:M app. You can set different factors throughout the day and giving the target, carbs and current BG it tells you the amount of insulin you need to take.

You just need to do some tests to get the factors right. In John Walsh's book Pumping Insulin I've found the best instructions how to do the tests at home, what are the starting values for your weight and A1c and how to tweak the factors depending on the result. I seriously recommend reading the book, even if you are not using an insulin pump.

>we’re not going to have any more of our Saturday morning donut store trips, we’ll have to carry the blood testing device when we travel and figure out where we can keep his insulin on long trips, he’s going to have to take shots everyday for the rest of his life.

GET A PUMP. Get an insulin pump for your boy as soon a possible. It's so much more convenient than taking shots, and it really does enable better control.

Secondly, hers the links to the best 2 books I've ever read about managing diabetes. John Walsh is a genius, and he has diabetes and wears a pump himself, so all the information is very practical. You should be able to find both the books for less than $5-10 used. The books come with very good "formula" for setting and adjusting your insulin rates. Diabetes management is all about setting these rates and then tracking what you eat.

http://www.amazon.com/Using-Insulin-Everything-Need-Success/dp/1884804853
http://www.amazon.com/Pumping-Insulin-Everything-Need-Success/dp/1884804845

Lastly, he can still have his saturday morning donut. Type 1 diabetes simple means one doesn't make insulin. Therefore, we take the proper amount of insulin for the food we eat. If he doses correctly, there's no reason he can't have a donut with breakfast once a week. Obviously talk to your endo or educator first.. but theres no way occasionals sweet is out of the question for a type 1.

Thanks for being there for her. It is a tough job (SO of a T1/T2). I've had T1 for almost 30 years now, and my SO asks me the same thing ("how can I better support you?"). I find the fact she knows the basics is important - recognizing patterns in terms of how I look and act when low/high, how to administer Glucagon, and how to operate my pump and meter if I can't. At least know those things. Beyond that, I'd suggest you read through these books:

https://www.amazon.com/Pumping-Insulin-Everything-Need-Success/dp/1884804845

https://www.amazon.com/Diabetic-Athletes-Handbook-Sheri-Colberg/dp/0736074937/ref=dp_ob_image_bk

Then take some suggestions from there and pass them on. But leave them at that - suggestions. The pumping insulin one will be helpful because it tells you how to calculate TDD (total daily dose) so perhaps you can take a look at that for her and suggest you go through some basal testing, together.

I also have hypothyroidism, but it doesn't bother me that much any more - primarily under control. Depression / anxiety, got those too. That said, my symptoms of D/A are much more stable when my blood sugar is stable.

Weight loss - probably the toughest to tackle, but I can ensure you once you nail down TDD and I:C ratios, you can start tackling that. Because before that, it's kind of a waste of time. I.e., consider this scenario:

"Today I'm going to eat 1800 calories at a 600calorie deficit!" Then you have a low at lunch and have to correct with 100-200c. Then another low at dinner and before bed. You've just had ~600 extra calories.

Additionally, it has been proven that bad sleep can cause weight gain; low / high blood glucose can cause bad sleep.

So first things first, be there for her, get the glucose under control, get the sleep under control, THEN focus on weight loss.

One more thing - exercise is great for T1s, just check sugar every 20-30 min or so (and carry some glucose gel with you); see the Diabetic Athlete's Handbook above. Good luck!

Grab yourself a copy of Pumping Insulin. You will find it very informative.

http://www.amazon.com/Pumping-Insulin-Everything-Need-Success/dp/1884804845

Seriously the best book ever