Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jigga on November 28, 2012 at 7:03pm

Hello friend,

I'm no doctor or educator or nutritional or anything important, but being the problem you have, could you try cutting one or the other out? For example day one have a bagel and milk, Day two have apple and and milk? Again, I'm no doctor but I personally am afraid of blousing that much insulin. As it sits now I take about 160-180 carbs per day and I'm at a 1:4.

Just suggestions?

Permalink Reply by Janice L Cotton on November 28, 2012 at 9:49pm

Hi...wow! Lots of insulin for sure. Have you seen a nutritionist? How about substituting whole wheat toast for that bagel? Or multi-grain (the kind where you can actually see the stuff in it). You could almost have two slices for that one bagel! How about having eggs occasionally instead of one of those other carbs? Have the milk or....I sometimes mix water half and half with juice. Not bad really. Eat the apple a couple hours later as a snack. I' m not a nutritionist either. That's just a lot lot of carbs at one time!

Permalink Reply by gbbassethound on November 29, 2012 at 6:47am

Thanks for all your suggestions on this. Spreading out the carbs and making better chooses is the way I'm handling it. I'll get by :-)

The 25 unit limit is not easy to get around so I have to bolus twice any time I eat 38 carbs or more. This makes it easy to forget if I don't hear the reminder. A 25 unit bolus at 1 unit per 20 seconds will take 8 minutes to deliver, that's enough time for me to forget when I don't hear the warning (I have a hard time hearing my pumps in my pocket sometimes).

I will get used to it and be just fine, but it was just something I wasn't aware of and would have liked to know it ahead of time while making my decision on what pump I wanted to go with.

I do love the pump!!!

Thanks again!

Permalink Reply by Janice L Cotton on November 29, 2012 at 8:09am

My insulin to carb ratio is 1:7. I've only had 3 or 4 times when I exceeded the "governor" set by my Endo. I believe that all pumps have a FDA mandated maximum bonus limit. You ARE constrained by that I/C of 1:1.5. Yikes!

My educational classes helped tremendously. It taught me how to read labels--I don't do very many prepared foods except cereals. Some foods "sound" healthy, but aren't...bagels for example.

You'll get there. I recalled being seriously pi$$ed once I realized that I had to account for every single little teeny tiny itty bitty thing that I ate!

Permalink Reply by Janice L Cotton on November 29, 2012 at 8:12am

I love my pump! Oh yes, the blouse max WAS set at 10 when I was on the OmniPod. I did have the option to override though.

Permalink Reply by gbbassethound on November 29, 2012 at 8:33am

I would love to have a ratio of 1:7, it would make things a little nicer!!! All those type 1's that have a 1:25 ratio or better, I can't image :-)

This is my 5th pump and have been counting carbs for a long time. Some periods of time over the years I'm very good at it and my A1Cs are around 5.8 and other period of times I have A1Cs in the 9 range. I am currently and have been in the past being treated for an eating disorder, when the disorder really kicks in I stop counting carbs and ignoring my diabetes, but it is killing me (literally). I've had dozens of hours in dietary training but knowing and doing are 2 totally different things.

Thanks for the support and I do love my pump too :-)

Permalink Reply by Janice L Cotton on November 29, 2012 at 9:45am

That eating disorder thing is very very difficult to deal with. Unlike many others, you HAVE to eat to live! My granddaughter has an I:C ration of 1:20. I have a family history of diabetes. I never met my grandfather because insulin came into use the year after his death at the age of 28. My first experience with seeing someone living with diabetes was when a man who was renting an apartment from my parents came over to boil his needles! He hadn't had his utilities turned on yet! Can you imagine?! I think of him when I find my self frustrated with the whole issue of coping.

Permalink Reply by Mikey on January 3, 2013 at 1:04pm

I sometimes forget too. I use vibrate instead of audible alarm, which I always feel in my pocket when it confirms delivery is completed

Permalink Reply by Suz on February 23, 2013 at 8:12am

I did not know this either. My bolus using MDI is 1:1. I try to keep my carb intake very low because I've found that the insulin just doesn't work as well if I eat a lot of carbs, but even so, that's frustrating. I would never eat the breakfast you eat, though. Your breakfast would be a full syringe of insulin for me.

I did not know of this limitation. Since I tend to eat very low carb anyway (I try to stay below 30 carbs a day) then it shouldn't effect me often, but occasionally it will.

Good grief.

Permalink Reply by Janice L Cotton on February 23, 2013 at 11:38am

You won't have a problem with 30 carbs/day. You would have to bolus twice to eat a meal with more than 25 carbs....limit of 50 carbs/meal for you.

Permalink Reply by Suz on February 23, 2013 at 12:13pm

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I usually eat less than 10 carbs a meal and since I graze more than I eat meals I expect managing stacking will be a bigger issue for me. Occasionally, though, I want some fries! :D