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Permalink Reply by sugarrbabie on March 2, 2009 at 6:06am

I am also on the Omnipod! Welcome to the podding world! I just used the extended bolus for lunch yesterday. When I got to the option, I did 55% insulin upfront and extended the rest over one hour. It worked for me. Sometimes I don't do enough insulin, and of course I will end up high. If it was your first try, don't give up =) Practice makes perfect! Best of luck!

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Permalink Reply by elaine peterson on March 2, 2009 at 6:38am

Thanks sugarbabie....most likely I just didn't give myself enough insulin. That's what I get for eating trash! I guess not all high fat foods are slower to effect your #'s.

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan on March 2, 2009 at 7:10am

I have the minimed, and it has the dual square wave feature. Virtually all of my food boluses are extended -- 70% upfront, 30% over the next two hours. For certain high fat foods, I will do it 50% upfront, 50% over 4 hours. It is trial and error for me on figuring out what works for what foods, but the 70/30 seems to work as a general rule.

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Permalink Reply by elaine peterson on March 2, 2009 at 7:17am

Jonathan....which foods require a longer extension for you?

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan on March 2, 2009 at 7:22am

Pizza, chicken parmigiana, grilled cheese sandwich, tuna melt (all things I probably should not be eating anyway, but like too much to give up). Pretty much anything that has a lot of fat in it.

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Permalink Reply by Mick on March 2, 2009 at 7:30am

I find that sometimes I have to up the suggested insulin bolus for the given amount of CHO by about 20%. For instance, if the bolus calculator suggests a total of 7 units, I might give 5 as an immediate bolus and 3 extended over 3 hours. The meals that I find work really well for this are Chinese food, pizza, fatty pasta dishes, or "meat and potatoes" type meals. It's different for each person. You just use trial and error and find your best settings for each type of food!

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Permalink Reply by Lorraine on March 2, 2009 at 7:38am

Caleb has been using the OmniPod for about 2 years. Foods we use an extended bolus for include: pizza, chinese and pasta. For pizza and chinese, we have to bolus 100%+ of all the carbs he eats when he eats it and then add another 80% (which is .80 units for Caleb) over the next 8 hours to keep his BGs in range. For pasta, we need to reduce the initial bolus by about 25% with the same extended bolus as pizza and chinese. For any fried foods, ice cream and bagels, it's a similar scenario, but not quite so much insulin in the extension. It's all something I've figured out through trial and error and frankly, I'm still trying to figure them out - it's always changing for us. :) -Lo

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Permalink Reply by elaine peterson on March 2, 2009 at 6:31pm

Thanks everyone.....I wish there was a formula that works for us all to plug into our PDM. Of course, we try not to eat this stuff, but have to once in a while. My problem last night was caused by a burger and fries.

Lorraine, I assume Caleb is a child. I know kids blood sugars can be extra hard to regulate......good luck to you....he's lucky to have you looking out for him.

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Permalink Reply by Lorraine on March 2, 2009 at 6:33pm

Yes - woops. He's 6. Tons of fun :).

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