A bit a advice pls!

[MommyStress]

Hiyas ,

I'm new here *obviously* :)

I am a mom of a child with type 1 diabetes . Recently he started using the Pump and well, im sooooooooo confused!

while he was on injections i felt i had lots of control with his Diabetes

now i feel that the pump is doing the work and im kinda lost.

im not quite into adjusting the basal rate as of yet cause i didnt log all his numbers correctly last week but this week I did!

Does anyone know where I can print out a good list of carb foods ?

im using the minimed pump and his basal rate is 0.4 he eats about 45 to 50 carbs per meal and in school sometimes his sugar drops to a low of 50's and at night his sugar is rising into the 200's

I recently read an article about diet coke making sugars go outof whack , well i was amazed to readthis because I was complaining that he was playing a video game and drinking diet coke *alot of it* :< i giht add and i seen his sugars go into the high 300's

its frustrating me that he wasnt eating yet his numbers were reaching 300 plus even with corrections it wasnt going down...

ok well I'm babaling on cause im so confused and yes i have a diabetic educator which i am working with but sometimes its easier talking to people that are actually going through the same thing.

again, new to the pump, Jimmy has been diabetic for about 8 months now his recent ac1 was 6.0

I really need a list of carb food example, we had pizza the other night.. it kills me to think i told him the wrong carbs for the slice of pizza ..

I know they hand out lists of carb foods etc but there just might be something new and approved out there for me to download ...

Thanks!

[Sari]

Hi, welcome to the forum.

You have a lot going on....

First off, his basal being .4, I know in my sons pump (also a Minimed) we have at least 8 basal rates set up. He needs a lot more in the morning and less thru out the rest of the day. So look into adding different basals either higher or lower than the .4 you have set up now.

As for a list of carbs, The Calorie King book and website are the best - basically our bible if there is no nutrional label. You could also buy a Salter scale that has carb info preprogrammed, so you could weigh the food and then type in what food it is and it will tell you the carb count. It's pretty cool.

Good luck. You will feel comfortable with the pump soon.

[frizzyrazzy]

Hi and welcome - there are some good carb resources like the calorie king book (online or in book form) or the USDA's website. both places have lots of common foods plus you can weigh your food and get a more exact carb figure - I highly recommend this. It doesn't sound like you're doing an insulin to carb ratio and this might be part of the trouble. YOu can ask your endo's for a better way to calculate insulin so that you're not trying to fit into a pigeonholed carb amount at each meal. This is what the pump is designed to do.

That all said, his a1c is good - how old is he? It's actually on the lower side. :)

[MommyStress]

thank you soo much!
Im going to look into that site now
as far as the different basal rates, I Guess we didn't get that far yet

I feel right now how I felt the first time trying to FILL The first insulin needle!!!
*lost* but im hoping it gets better!

[MommyStress]

hes 10 yrs old

yes I do a ratio of 15-1
his sensitivity to insulin is 60
target at 130 as of now .

the diabetic educator said we will be adjusting the basal rates for sure but when i told her i didnt log *everything* I Felt before i went back to adjust i needed a concrete list of logging before we change everything..

still confused as to having more than 1 basal rate but im sure that comes with time i guess..

feels good to be here and talk!
thanks :)

[Lee]

I gets better - I promise! We are on the minimed also - for about 10 months now - and we have different basal rates. It sounds like he needs a different I:C ratio for the am to prevent the after lunch lows and then a different night time basal to prevent the highs!

Are you in constant touch with the endo? We talked to ours every night for the first few weeks after pump start and she would help us change ratios and stuff. Now it is so much easier! Also - Diet Coke doesn't affect BS here - however, DC with Splenda does awful things to her!

And Calorie king - all the way! Oh, and welcome to the forum!

Had to add - you can download the meter that came with the pump and it will send all the pump info also! So - send that to the endo - it makes a great log with everything but food!

[lotsoftots]

thank you soo much!
Im going to look into that site now
as far as the different basal rates, I Guess we didn't get that far yet

I feel right now how I felt the first time trying to FILL The first insulin needle!!!
*lost* but im hoping it gets better!Dont feel bad I havent learned to do different basal rates yet either right now we have two set one from 12am to 8am and of course 8 to midnight...this is only our second week pumping so I am sure we will be pros soon:D

[Mrs. Russman]

wow I feel the same way. This is so frustrating...
I feel like we had better control on mdi, and less lows.
As soon as I adjust basal or ratios his blood sugars seem to go crazy. increase a basal and lows one night, next night 300s.

Our endo started us out on different basals for different times of day.

[Thoover]

Calorie king is a great site. I also have the carb book at home we call it the Food Bible..lol..

We too had so many different questions with the pump, basal rates and carb amouonts. It will get easier. Its alot to take in.

Welcome to the boards this is I believe everyone's second home..

[Caydens_Mommy]

I wish I could help you but I don't know anything about the pump.. As far the diet coke thing though that's kinda strange because Cayden drinks diet soda's alot and we don't see that problem in his blood sugar!

[Charmed7]

For pump newbies (like I'm a pro at 4 months ha!) here is some insight into what is happening, and why you are going through adjustment periods. (Gee, I hope this helps) :cwds:

(a lot of these statements are assumptions, but instead of writing probably or maybe through out the whole thing, I'm just going to act like I know it all...which I don't, so don't be fooled)

When you were on MDI you were giving two types of insulin. Fast and Slow (as I call it).

The slow stays in your system for hours. It keeps your sugars stable (hopefully) So lets say you give 12 units of Lantus in the AM. Your body is recieving .5 units of insulin every hour.

Now that you're on the pump, you have a BASAL that will drip fast insulin every hour (pretending to be slow insulin). You can set this to .5 units per hour. So now, you just replaced the lantus with your pump (woohoo!)

But as we all know from biology class, your body is not the same all day. The down fall with MDI, is Lantus can only give you .5 per hour. With the pump, you can now change each hour. So during Gym class, your body is exerting itself and you are burning those sugars, so you might decide to decrease the hourly drip to .3. ;) And at night, you aren't as active (unless you toss around like me) so you might want to increase that basal a little bit to .55 per hour.

Now, on MDI, when it was time to eat, you count how many carbs your going to eat. So you have a Ham & Cheese Sandwich in front of you. You look at the bread and it says 13 carbs per slice. So you're about to eat 26 carbs. If you're on a 1:15 carb ratio, you would take about 1 3/4 unit of insulin to cover the sandwich. The pump does the same thing. You plug in 26 carbs, and it will actually calculate 1.73 units. (aha!)

But back to biology class, breakfast could require more insulin then dinner. Or vice-versa. So you might find you will need a 1:17 carb ratio for breakfast, 1:22 carb ratio for lunch and 1:30 carb ratio for dinner. :eek:

The most important thing you can do is test often and log EVERYTHING. And count every single carb. Keep a little notebook for you to add it all up at every meal. And then just analyze the crap out of it. Keep looking at the numbers, times, insulins, carbs. Eventually you'll be understanding why you are seeing the numbers you are seeing.

To give you an example. My son is asleep. ZZZZZZZZ I test at 3:00AM and he's 240. (My instincts say leave it alone.) He then wakes up at 6:30 AM and he's 140. Well, guess what. The basal rate of .45 from 3:00AM to 6:00AM is too high. Because without food, or insulin he dropped 100 points. Even though he woke up with a good number, he shouldn't have dropped that low without correction. A perfect outcome would have been he woke up at 240. But since he did drop 100 points, I'm going to change it to .35 per hour and check again for the next three days.

Ok, class dismissed. I will be available for any questions.

Charmed

[saxmaniac]

Hi MommyStress, welcome. You win the "best new handle" award for 2008!

[MommyStress]

Hi MommyStress, welcome. You win the "best new handle" award for 2008!


hmm, whats that mean ?? lol

[saxmaniac]

It means I really like the name "MommyStress". I feel quite a bit stressed myself, it made me laugh in agreement.

[MommyStress]

It means I really like the name "MommyStress". I feel quite a bit stressed myself, it made me laugh in agreement.

geez, lol Now I get it ! :D

[StillMamamia]

Just wanted to let you know that the pump will only do what you tell it to do....so YOU are in control, not the pump.....maybe that helps a bit in knowing that a machine has not taken over d management, it's a just a tool YOU use and control...but I do know what you mean...never did shots, but had to get used to the pump, and, in the beginning, it was ME vs the pump:rolleyes:...until I figured out, hey, the pump can't do things by itself, I have to tell it what to do....

Basal rates....it's only now that I'm confortable enough to change them myself:o

Have time to read;) : Pumpin Insulin by John Walsh

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress!

[blbrocky]

Love the name MommyStress!

Definitely buy the book Pumping Insulin by John Walsh, it is a must have. It will answer a lot of your questions. I just recently changed my sons basals and carb ratios after reading the book. I was a bit freaked out about making the changes but for now his numbers seem a little better. Also the Calorie King book is great. I have one in the car, one at home, and my son carries one in his back pack.

I also use this site as a resource.... Lots of great information from knowledgeable people.