I have quite a bit of anxiety around basal rate testing. Am I the only one? Or is this just a Gráinne-ism-quirk (another one).
Basal insulin refers to our background insulin; the insulin our body needs when we are not eating. People who are on multiple daily injections (MDI) would have their basal insulin in the form of Lantus, Levemir or Tresiba. People on insulin pumps divide their day into sections and would programme their pump to deliver their basal insulin at different rates during the day. I wrote about doing a nighttime basal rate testing here and here is some more information on the why basal rate testing is important here.
Nighttime basal rate testing is the only testing I’ve ever “gotten around to” because it’s easy: I have been relieved of all my other “life” duties, so it’s easy to go to bed and set an alarm every two hours.
However, as soon as I contemplate doing basal rate testing during the day, I start to feel the stress build up about what might happen as I go through my day: working, doing housework, picking up and dropping off children. A lot of times something unexpected happens that increases my stress levels and thus my glucose. I just do not feel comfortable doing a basal rate testing when I frequently get behind the wheel of a car or taking care of other humans. It’s also another pain in the backside that diabetes brings into my life.
It has been suggested to me that maybe my husband could help out with the driving and at the time this was a viable option for me as he works from home. However, our situation has changed and he’s self employed with effectively two jobs.
I loved when I got my CGM because I could just tweak things and mostly it doesn’t matter if my basal insulin is compensating for some bolus insulin or vice versa. However, on the days that are not routine my glucose levels would be way out of whack.
So here I sit in the limbo of “this is something I know I should do” to “I’m going to keep trying to get by without it”. And, wondering if it’s just me?