I have an insulin pump but can't get my sugars under control. How can I establish a basal rate?

Break out your basal checks into four 6-hour periods, beginning with when you normally wake up. (ex. 7am-1pm, 1pm-7pm, 7pm-1am, 1am-7am)





Do this for a different time period each day, because you will need to fast during each one. Do not eat ANYTHING during that 6-hour period and only drink water or diet drinks with 0 carbs. Don't eat anything fatty beforehand to prevent delayed carb absorption that could throw off your numbers (ex. if you're testing noon - 6pm, eat your last food before 10am and make sure it's lean).





Also, it's very important that you don't exercise or do any unusual activity. Try to keep things as ';normal'; as possible.





Check your BG's every hour on the hour and write them down (if you're checking during the night, you'll have to set an alarm to wake you every hour). Show them to your endo or diabetes educator, and they'll help you adjust your patterns. This should have been part of your normal pump set-up.





Once your basals are set up, you can test other things such as your insulin-to-carb ratio for each meal, and how your body handles exercise. But you need to get the basals set first. And in a few months if you start to see weird BG patterns, start from the top and do this process again to see if your basals need tweaking.I have an insulin pump but can't get my sugars under control. How can I establish a basal rate?
This is really somethign you need to discuss with your doctor/diabetes educator/endo. Its not something that can just be told over the internet. They will tell you everything you need to know! Go ask your doctor they'll be more than willing to help I'm sure! :-)I have an insulin pump but can't get my sugars under control. How can I establish a basal rate?
Get the book ';Pumping Insulin'; by John Walsh. It is the pumpers' ';bible'; and goes over everything from setting basals to figuring out how to troubleshoot problems and setting carb ratios properly.
You need to sit down with your CDE and go over your meal log and blood levels to get the settings set up. This can take some time to adjust thing.