Anyway, this evening I came home and I thought "Why don't I try it out. Sort of like, a trial run with using the insulin pen?" So I got out a brand new cartridge of Novorapid, got my insulin pen out and set it up- next I worked out the correction dose and actually remembered how to calculate carbohydrate coverage and do the corrections. I even double checked them on my pump and they worked out the same. I made my target BG with the insulin pen 6.5 mmols just to trial it and things actually worked out! I used the pen to give insulin at dinner, do a couple of corrections and cover a biscuit, and came out with an 11 right after dinner, then a 9.2 so did some correcting and it came down to 7.8, I had a biscuit so I covered that using the pen, then 7.4, 6.8 then 6.4! You have no idea how proud I was of myself! I did all the calculations, all the blood sugar testing and insulin dosages and my BG was fab. My blood sugar has been the best tonight than it has been for a long time.
Obviously, I didn't come off the pump completely because I was just testing things out tonight plus I don't have any levemir so my pump had to be my background insulin for this evening. I don't know I just feel so much more in control with injections too...like, I'm more aware of what I'm doing and actually having to do the calculations sort of motivates me more, if that makes any sense. You can see in the photo how many calculations I did. I even looked at what the Total Daily Insulin for the basal was on my pump and wanted to see if I could work it out the same with the pen- so I searched up how to do it and multiplied 0.55 by 68kg which is about my weight- and it came to 37, which is the same as my insulin pump. Also, I know that the background insulin dosage is about 50% of the TDI so I divided 37 by 2 and it came to 18...which is roughly what I used to do for my levemir, give or take a few units. But I'm not certain about that.
Anyway, I won't mess around with all of that because it's not certain and I don't want to muck things up. But, so far so good...the pen seems to be doing it's job just fine and I actually quite liked being back on the injections, even if it was just for a few hours. I feel like going back to injections would be as though I'm 'going back to basics' - just cutting it all down to the fine tuning of my blood sugar control and really working to do things right.
I was 5.9 before bed tonight and then it dropped to 5.0 so I just had a slice of bread and it got them up to a fabulous 6.5 as the bedtime test- which was the BG target that I set for myself earlier this evening!
But do you all see what I mean when I say that I get these bursts of motivation- but I'm really hoping that this isn't a short-term "burst" I'm really going to try to keep at it and hope it lasts. But now I just want to use my pen to do insulin and don't want to correct using the pump...hahah- but then I know my basal/bolus would be really atrocious because I wouldn't be using the pump to bolus- it would only be there as background insulin and for me to double-check the doses. Ugh, dilemma...!
I really really need to try my absolute hardest to do this right, for myself, my amazing parents, my family and for my diabetes team.
-Ellie
[Peace&Insulin]
I am so impressed with all those calculations - keep up the good work. You can do this!
ReplyDeleteBest wishes Amanda