Tuesday 9 February 2016

Basal Testing.......

I'm going to say this upfront, basal testing is exhausting!!

In the three years that Samuel has been pumping we have never attempted the basal testing.  The reason we decided to do it was the results from the last clinic appointment. The boy had grown 4cm! 4cm!! He really needs to slow down. His  HbA1c  had also gone up. What this meant was that he insulin requirements had changed, his ratios were no longer meeting his needs.

I decided, and I realise that not everyone does it the same way, that we would go carb free for 24 hours. Others split it into meals and basal test over a few days but I had decided I wanted to get it over with in the shortest time possible. The whole procedure was exhausting both physically and mentally. Physically because I had to test Samuels blood every 2hrs, and yes that was throughout the night as well. It wasn't exhausting for Samuel though as he slept through every test, didn't even stir! Honestly I was tempted to poke him in the eye, if I was up then he should have been as well! Mentally it was exhausting as we didn't know what to feed him. He was happy with breakfast as it was scrambled eggs, he wasn't so happy with his lunch at school as there was no sandwich, no crisps, he was stuck with chicken, cheese and cucumber, and don't even mention dinner, he was not impressed at all with the fish!

However, it did have some interesting results.
When Samuel first went onto the pump we found that he would consistently hypo before lunch at school. The would happen almost every day. So, the Prof set the pump to deliver zero insulin, yes you read that correctly zero insulin between the hours of 9 and 12. What the basal testing showed was that actually he really needs some now, his glucose levels shot up during this time. We also had to make some adjustments to his overnight levels. So, what then followed was another 24hrs of carb free breakfast and lunch. Obviously this didn't go down very well, but he was a trouper and agreed, the promise of pizza for the next dinner really sold it.

The final results were that the adjustments really helped! Hopefully we will see a better result at the next clinic appointment.
Oh, did I mention that we will have to do this all over again at a weekend to test his other pattern!

2 comments:

  1. Emma:

    I found your blog very informative. I have been on a pump for about 15 years and have never done basal testing. After reading your informative blog, I may not want to do basal testing. :)

    I also want you to know i referred your blog to TUDiabetes for inclusion on our blog web site. I hope it will drive some additional traffic to your site.

    best

    rick

    ReplyDelete