SMART METER (INSULIN BOLUS ADVISOR) OR APP

[mum2westiesGill]

Does anyone use a meter with an insulin bolus advisor and if so which one?

 

[mikeyB]

No, I just do the maths in my head, I find it works better for me. That’s just me, though - and we are all different.

 

[Bruce Stephens]

Does anyone use a meter with an insulin bolus advisor

I do, I guess (the Freestyle Libre one) but I never use the bolus calculator. Like @mikeyB I'm fine with doing the arithmetic in my head (and I'm fine with using a calculator if it ever seems useful).

 

[Kaylz]

Did for 2 months when I was diagnosed then stopped using the bolus calculator function lol xx

 

[helli]

When injecting, I would do the calculations in my head. I had one of those meters that did the calculations if you entered the carbs but that took longer to do than the arithmetic.
With my pump, the calculations are a tad more complex because most of my blouses are spread over a few hours so i enter the carbs.

I would never use an app which required me to take values from one system and then enter it into another. I am too lazy.

 

[mum2westiesGill]

I was first introduced to the accu-chek insulin bolus advisor meter in 1992 then recently changed to the accu-chek mobile meter where you use the mysugr app for the insulin bolus advice - I would now be at an absolute loss to go back to basics - I'm hopless at maths

 

[Inka]

No, I just use my brain. No app or meter knows exactly what I’m doing, how I react to foods, what time of the month it is, how I’m feeling, or what I’ve got planned for the next few hours, etc etc. I don’t use any wizard thing on my pump either and never have. I’d go insane faffing about entering carbs. My pump allows me to just bolus without doing that.

Personally I think all those calculators are misleading and give a false sense of security by promoting the idea that all you need to do is do the Maths and everything is fine, like we’re all robot clones.

That just my opinion. We’re all different 🙂

 

[Sally71]

When my daughter was first diagnosed she was given an Accu-Chek Expert meter (which we still have for back up) but then 8 days later she went onto her first pump and has been pumping ever since so we always use the bolus wizards on those now. For 8 years she had Accu-Chek Combo pumps and the handset for those is basically the same as the Expert with a bit of extra programming to allow it to communicate with the pump.

 

[Lucyr]

I use the accu chek expert meter though they’ve now replaced this with the my sugr app, my meter still works so I stick to that. If I’m not testing bg though I just calculate in my head.

 

[Ljc]

I do sometimes ie, if I am ill or say if I am eating (usually something naughty lol) within four hours of my last jab . I use the Libre.

 

[rebrascora]

Never have and can't see the point for me.
I eat low carb and stick with a 1:10 ratio and therefore the maths is easier than inputting it into a machine but even if it was 1:8 I usually only use 2 or 3 units so it is not exactly taxing and doesn't make a significant difference anyway. The hard part is figuring out how many carbs or protein equivalent carbs there will be. I do that more by looks and experience than an actual calculation, so a 2 egg omelette or a large quarter pounder or steak will be 1.5-2 extra units 2 hours after eating or thereabouts. As others say, you then have to factor in subtractions for previous exercise etc which the meter has no knowledge of or a new tendency to drop low in the evening and need less carbs or an addition of 1.5 or 2 units for Foot on the Floor. It is just easier to store that info in my head and then tick a few mental boxes as I do the sums.

 

[Lucyr]

Never have and can't see the point for me.
I eat low carb and stick with a 1:10 ratio and therefore the maths is easier than inputting it into a machine but even if it was 1:8 I usually only use 2 or 3 units so it is not exactly taxing and doesn't make a significant difference anyway. The hard part is figuring out how many carbs or protein equivalent carbs there will be. I do that more by looks and experience than an actual calculation, so a 2 egg omelette or a large quarter pounder or steak will be 1.5-2 extra units 2 hours after eating or thereabouts. As others say, you then have to factor in subtractions for previous exercise etc which the meter has no knowledge of or a new tendency to drop low in the evening and need less carbs or an addition of 1.5 or 2 units for Foot on the Floor. It is just easier to store that info in my head and then tick a few mental boxes as I do the sums.

The real benefit is that smart meters keep track of insulin on board which is harder to keep track of in your head.

 

[Kaylz]

As others say, you then have to factor in subtractions for previous exercise etc which the meter has no knowledge of

The Aviva Expert does have an exercise function that you set up with a % of insulin you need to increase or decrease by, also one for stress, illness and maybe others but I can't remember as only used the bolus calculator for the first 2 months after getting it xx

 

[rebrascora]

The real benefit is that smart meters keep track of insulin on board which is harder to keep track of in your head.

Because I use small amounts of insulin and rarely stack it doesn't matter to me how much insulin is still on board and I can check to see when I last injected if I can't remember. I just can't understand the benefit and I would struggle to use it because I would have to actually quantify my protein intake, whereas I tend to just look at it and see 1 unit or 2 units for the protein or more often than not, I see my libre rising and think "that's the protein kicking in, I better inject for it now. I would have to weight the meat, find the protein content, work out 40% of that protein to convert it to carb equivalents to input for the meter to then give me the insulin units that I just converted carbs from and then inject it 2 hours later. I just can't see it working for me.

I struggle to remember to set my sports tracker away when I go for exercise or input when I eat my meals into my Libre (except when I'm hypo). Just can't see me feeding more information into a machine when I already have the information in my head. I also don't get test strips for these fancy meters anyway so the point is moot.

 

[Inka]

I only really think about insulin stacking when I do corrections, as I said before, and as confirmed by my DSN. Most of it is common sense and I think you do get a feel for it after a while. Obviously no-one should take risks or guess if they’re not sure what they’re doing, but most times it’s not complex.

 

[Lucyr]

Because I use small amounts of insulin and rarely stack it doesn't matter to me how much insulin is still on board and I can check to see when I last injected if I can't remember. I just can't understand the benefit and I would struggle to use it because I would have to actually quantify my protein intake, whereas I tend to just look at it and see 1 unit or 2 units for the protein or more often than not, I see my libre rising and think "that's the protein kicking in, I better inject for it now. I would have to weight the meat, find the protein content, work out 40% of that protein to convert it to carb equivalents to input for the meter to then give me the insulin units that I just converted carbs from and then inject it 2 hours later. I just can't see it working for me.

I struggle to remember to set my sports tracker away when I go for exercise or input when I eat my meals into my Libre (except when I'm hypo). Just can't see me feeding more information into a machine when I already have the information in my head. I also don't get test strips for these fancy meters anyway so the point is moot.

Yes I agree the benefit isn’t really in calculating the bolus dose for food. For the parts where I take insulin for protein or adjust based on feels I don’t go to all that hassle you described I just adjust the suggested dose up or down as I feel is necessary. Later on if I’m higher than expected I can see how much insulin I took and have still acting (you can’t get that memory feature for apidra half unit pens that I know of) and adjust the correction accordingly to avoid lows later on.

 

[rebrascora]

I guess if you don't have Libre then I can perhaps understand what you are saying, but with Libre, if I can see my BG is 7-9 and slowly drifting upwards a couple of hours after bolusing then whatever insulin is left is not enough to deal with the glucose entering my blood stream, usually from protein being broken down, and I need a couple more units. If it is drifting downwards there is enough insulin on board to deal with it at least for the time being and I will check again later.

 

[trophywench]

Gill - if it helps you - use it.

If it doesn't and confuses you more - don't - but tell your diabetes clinic that you've had to stop using it and why you've stopped.

 

[mum2westiesGill]

Gill - if it helps you - use it.

If it doesn't and confuses you more - don't - but tell your diabetes clinic that you've had to stop using it and why you've stopped.

Hi @trophywench I've been using a bolus advisor since 2015 when I was introduced to the Accu-chek aviva expert so the problem is that sadly I now rely on a bolus advisor

 

[trophywench]

So just carry on using it Gill.