Back to Basics

First off, an update on my last post...I had my appointment with the neurosurgeon last Friday, and it went fine. He said that all of my symptoms were, in fact, due to my Chiari Malformation and that we had two options in regards to treatment. First, we could consider surgery (an option I wasn't a huge fan of due to the extensive recovery required), or we could simply wait and see if my symptoms got better. He was thinking that the vascular changes during the pregnancy and postpartum period may be causing more congestion in the craniocervical area and further compressing my cerebellum and spinal cord. In theory, then, once my body returns to "normal" at the end of the postpartum period (around a year after birth), my symptoms might be alleviated...fingers crossed!

Oh, and the T2 hyperintensity mentioned on my MRI report? He called it a UBO--Unidentified Bright Object! Thankfully, he said that I didn't have any symptoms of MS or any other neurological disorder, so he said for all intents and purposes we could consider it a fluke. He'll probably order another MRI in January to make sure that's the case, but I was satisfied with his explanation.

My next appointment with the NS to re-evaluate the situation is at the end of November. It seems like I've felt slightly better since the weather has cooled down a bit, but some days are still very difficult. Since I'm still breastfeeding, he couldn't give me anything for my dizziness or neck weakness, but he did say that massage might help. I haven't had a chance to call the one we have in town, but it's on my (never-ending) to-do list. He also said it was fine for me to start running again--I had stopped when all of this started because I was afraid of passing out. As long as I start slow and wait until it's a little cooler, the NS thought I would be fine.

Now that we've established that my symptoms are due to Chiari, maybe I can get a better handle on my blood sugar numbers again. I've been running higher than normal in order to (almost) eliminate the possibility of a low causing my sudden dizzy spells. Of course, with the way I've been feeling it's still hard to tell, so I've been testing A LOT more often...as in around 20 times/day instead of 10 or less. Not so budget-friendly, by the way--I've had to order a couple hundred extra test strips out of pocket in the past two months just to have a big enough supply. Thank goodness for Amazon!

My last official A1c was 5.5%, but I'm betting that my next one will be quite a bit higher. I'm hoping, though, that I can get things back on track and get my numbers back into the normal range where I like them.

To that effect, I decided to re-configure my basal/bolus rates for my pump. Of course, there are various methods and opinions on how to go about this, but I decided that it couldn't hurt to start back at the basics and work from there. It goes without saying (at least I think) that I'm not here to provide medical advice. As always, YMMV...what works for me may not work for you, and vice versa.

For the past week, I've used an average of 26 units/day, with 59% going to basal. It seems like it's best for me to have around 60% of my TDD as basal and the other 40% as bolus, but anywhere between the 50/50 and 60/40 range works fine. Given that my numbers are at least 20% higher than I'd like, I decided to increase my TDD to 31u/day (19% above what I'd been using). So:

31*0.60=18.6u total basal
18.6/24hrs=0.775u/hr basal rate

Since I'm still in the experimental mode for the time being, I decided to make that 0.75u/hr for simplicity's sake--which would mean 0.75u/hr*24hrs=18u total basal (58% of TDD)

I haven't had only one basal rate since I started using my pump, but I figure that you have to start somewhere! With the new rate, I can watch for patterns in my numbers and then adjust my rate accordingly.

Currently, I've been having a lot of correction boluses for highs...entirely too many for my liking. Since I've established that, I decided it wouldn't hurt to tweak my carb ratio too. Going on the 450/TDD=carbohydrate-to-insulin ratio (CIR) formula, that means my calculated ratio is 14.5grams/unit, rounded to 14. My pump was already set to a carb ratio of 15:1, but I've been dialing down the estimates a lot due to my recent fear of lows. Note to self: Stop. Trust the Bolus Wizard.

My nifty cartoon of how I envision the Bolus Wizard on the Medtronic Pump...

Next, Insulin Sensitivity Factor (or Correction Factor) is calculated by dividing anywhere from 1500 to 1800 by the TDD. The higher the top number, the more conservative the correction factor:

1800/31=58
1500/31=48

Since my previous ISF was set at 57, I decided to pick a number halfway between (53) until I know how it's all going to work. Hopefully I won't have to use it as often with my new settings!

Now I guess it's just a matter of testing, reviewing patterns, and adjusting everything accordingly. If everything goes well, I'm hoping that I can be back in the normal (or at least closer to normal) range before long!