So far I am loving my switch from Tandem back to Medtronic 670G. Now that I am running in Automode, I noticed it never Suspends on Low, and I also know that this feature turns off when you switch to AutoMode. I don’t understand how Automode handles Lows. Yesterday, was my first day on Automode (and my overnight was awesome btw!) and during the day I went in the 40s but it appeared that the pump was still supplying basal. I was surprised it didn’t Suspend. When the White Shield Safe Mode appeared, is that an indication that the pump may have suspended behind the scenes? If so, it’s confusing because the White Shield has multiple meanings and without the pump stating it’s suspended, then I just don’t feel confident when I’m low. Maybe it does suspend and I just don’t know where to look to see that. Or do I manually suspend myself if I’m going low in automode? Keep in mind I am only on day 2 and still learning so please have patience.
The second question is that I have read and some places mention that if you Active Insulin Time was 4 hours, you may need to lower to 3.5 or 3 while on AutoMode. Does this sound accurate?
Thanks everyone!
Automode suspends before or at low. When it sees your blood sugar dropping below 120 mg/dL, which is its target, it stats cutting insulin. You can see where it is dosing and how much by looking for the pink dot on the top of your SG graph on screen. If you click the graph button and scroll over the pink dot, it will tell you the amount.
The white shield means that automode is in safe basal mode. Usually it is caused by some kind of discrepancy between the amount of insulin it has given and your current SG. If your SG is off by more than 35% from where the pump thinks it should be based on the active insulin in you, it will exit to safe basal mode. If you are at minimum or maximum basal rate for a few hours it will also go into safe mode.
I currently have my active insulin time at 2:45 with Fiasp, I was at 3:00 with Novolog and 3:15 Humalog, IIRC. 4 hours is a safe number. The doctor starts you off with a long active insulin time, usually 4 hours, so that the bolus wizard doesnt stack correction boluses. You could try lowering it to 3:30 and see how it works. Its easier to determine in manual mode once you have a closely dialed in basal rate, you can watch the graph with a correction bolus minus food to see where it stopped lowering your blood glucose.
If you had everything else perfectly set though, active insulin time would be irrelevant. Its only useful for calculating insulin on board for correction boluses.
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