Pumps and sickness

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Catey

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Hi! I wondered what experience any other pumpers have had with their pump and sickness? I'm just back from holiday and of course I now have a sore throat and feel a bit rotten so bs have went a bit off as you would expect. The problem I'm having is that I had a TBR set and managed to keep it in range but then out of nowhere it shot above target on me twice today so I'm really not sure if it could be the cannula (but I had changed that before dinner and all was working well!) or whether it's just the way things are when taking sick even on the pump and TBR set. I upped my TBR anyway to see if that helps overnight and corrected but it's the one thing that really has me confused as I can't keep changing cannulas if that isn't what's going on! So frustrating! :confused:
 
Hia Catey - one of the real nuisances of being a t1 and on a pump. My blood sugars really rocket when I'm ill and I've been know to run on a TBR of 200% for parts of the day. As you quite rightly point out though, you can't just leave the TBR on all the time as blood sugars are all over the place. So it's a lot of testing and just sticking in there until the worst is over. If you find that your blood sugars come down and then later shoot up and then come back down it is likely to be the illness and not the set. I would only consider changing set again if there was no sign of sugars coming down after TBR/corrections. Remember if you continue to run high it's always safer to use a pen to correct if, after a couple of pump corrections, it's not having much impact. Hope you feel better soon.
 
Hi RiRi - thanks for your reply 🙂 good to know it's not just me doing something wrong!! I love my pump, but this is so frustrating because I start to panic that it is cannula esp as the corrections are a lot slower to work! I never thought of setting a TBR that is higher at different parts of the day, it seems to be late evening when they start to rise over last 2 nights so thanks for the tip, I might try setting a higher TBR tomorrow night than the TBR I use during day! Hopefully be back to normal soon! Thanks again 🙂
 
We just keep increasing TBR and correcting until we get sensible levels! Often are on 200% when ill. Test BG every 2 hours. Hope you are feeling better soon 🙂
 
Thanks Sally! Sounds stupid but I hadn't really thought of setting different TBRs during day, I had just kept it constant yesterday then wondered why bs shot up from 5 to 12!! (I've been on the pump for 3months now so I'll try to blame me still getting used to the functions on it!) I've worked out that I definitely need a big increase from about 9pm on which I guess makes sense as I feel worse overnight with coughing etc so as you say I'll keep tweaking the TBR and correcting! Thanks again ladies!
 
I've got more time now so will try to write a slightly more coherent answer!

It's all a bit of guesswork really, we don't particularly set out to have different TBRs at different times during the day. We just set one up for the day at whatever level seems sensible, but if we find it isn't working well enough then just keep bumping it up until we find the level that works. Then start the next day at the same level we ended the previous day at. (Daughter needs massive increases in basal overnight to prevent BGs going through the roof, so we can't possibly keep a 200% basal increase running overnight - that would be way too much - have to stop it at bedtime and restart the next morning.)

We also have 2 permanent basal rates set up, no. 1 for school and no. 2 for holidays, as daughter is generally much more active at school and therefore needs less insulin. If she's off sick on a school day we usually leave it on basal 1 with 200% increase, but it can happen that we need to bump it up so far that we max it out (Combo will only allow max 250% TBR) so then have to switch to basal 2 and go from there (basal 2 is more than double basal 1 in the daytime). I think basically what I'm trying to say is that it's just a case of trial and error until you find what works, and you might well have got better by the time you do 😱 :D

Good luck 🙂
 
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Hi Sally, think you're right! Def trial and error and by time I get set on a rate that seems right, I'll start feeling better and have to drop it again!! It's a bit unpredictable! Bad timing too as I have my review appt at hospital on Thursday so all this will have knock on effect to my a1c :( thanks for your help!
 
Catey said:
Hi Sally, think you're right! Def trial and error and by time I get set on a rate that seems right, I'll start feeling better and have to drop it again!! It's a bit unpredictable! Bad timing too as I have my review appt at hospital on Thursday so all this will have knock on effect to my a1c :( thanks for your help!
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No it's not bad timing, it just shows you are using your brains to sort things out, hence you are safe to be let loose with a pump :D
Hope you feel better soon.
 
Sue - I like your thinking 🙂

Thanks so much for link to pump sick day rules - really helpful 🙂
 
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