Super bolus on an Animas 2020 insulin pump

How to deliver a super bolus on the Animas 2020 pump. More about the super bolus at http://tinyurl.com/3nq4p.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• diabetes
• insulinpump
• animas
• superbolus

[BloodMoney0614]

@bernfarr with the animus 2020 do you select say what you are eating for a meal and it injects you with insulin or do you still need a doctors dosage?

[bernfarr]

@BloodMoney0614 I try to estimate the amount of carbohydrates in the meal that I'm about to eat and then bolus (inject) insulin to cover the meal. I've worked with my doctor to develop a sliding scale that determines how much insulin to take for a certain amount of carbs. I think all of my friends with diabetes use sliding scales, it's fairly standard practice.

[TenorPlayer1800]

As to that comment to use it when your blood sugar is HIGH. WRONG!!!!

you use this when your blood sugar is high and you'll just become higher and higher 'till your sick. PLEASE DON'T DO THIS,

the only reason you would need to do this is if you disconnect for an hour n half. then you could BOLUS some insulin to cover for that time.

[bernfarr]

TenorPlayer1800, this is a technique that works well for some people. You definitely need to read up about it and check before using it.

If you disconnect and then use a bolus to cover the disconnect it will alter your insulin on board reading. Disconnecting means you miss some basal insulin, replacing this with bolus insulin means later boluses will likely be inaccurate.

[HaligonianType1]

I don't wear a pump. I would love to be able to afford one, because making precise BG corrections would be awesome.

[philobishay]

After some searching I now see the benefit of super-bolusing. You still should change the method by which you super-bolus. I find combo bolus very useful for large meals. Your method is fine, but please replace fill cannula with a simple bolus. This would solve two problems: 1)record-keeping 2)occlusions

A (rare) problem with "filling cannula" is that it does not stop or alarm if an occlusion is detected, which, In my five years of owning an Animas pump, occurred maybe 3 times~Thanks Again :)

[bernfarr]

It's definitely not a perfect approach, but it works in many useful situations. What you're doing is moving your basal insulin forward in time, so over time it will balance out.

But in this situation it might not work well. I've used it to correct BIG highs, or sometimes to deal with high carbs meals.

Definitely not for everyone. Google [john walsh "super bolus"] for a detailed description of the approach.

[philobishay]

...insulin youd taken, because this reports only a daily total amount.

2nd, it would take at most 20 seconds longer to simply bolus or ezBG. In this case, the pump releases one unit blasts (for comfort) rather than the entire dosage at once.

The correct way is to bolus and temp-off the basal (in any order). It delivers the same insulin in about the same time, while actually tracking it.

Regarding the insulin on board, ezBG reports total units w/ and w/out IOB, so just look at the figure w/out!

[philobishay]

Thx for taking the time to post and reply to comments.

Your last Bolus and Total Daily Dose will both report incorrectly if using this technique.

IE, If you fill cannula, disconnect, then 30 minutes later (sooner than expected) someone hands you a snack. How much insulin do you take? If you had bolused you could check your history, but in this case youd have to go into the prime history and check the total primed amt. God forbid you changed your pump that morning, youd have no idea how much

[bernfarr]

I'm curious, why do you say this?