What exactly does it do? And what do you have yours set at? I just looked at mine and was surprised to see that I've had it set at 6 hours. That seems like a lot, right? I just changed it to 3. I know the feature's supposed to prevent stacking, so does that mean it won't let me correct for a high if I've bolused recently? Right now I'm 200, but that's because I made a mistake counting carbs. Then when I turn to the Bolus Wizard, he doesn't give me any insulin. Then I have to put it in manually. Am I wrong? Or is this wizard just a cheap magician?
The active insulin feature is to let you know the amount of bolus currently infused, the setting for reminding us for when we should be checking bg's, it's a beep every (how often you have it set) so many hours between finger sticks. The bolus wizard will ask your bg reading (you can use the ACT key to skip) and then enter the carbs if you choose. Sometimes if I think my bg's are starting to go up, I will use the bolus wizard, enter the bg reading and leave the food entry at zero. Also, the square wave for delivery is useful because you can tell the pump how long you want it to take to deliver the bolus, I find 30 minutes too short of time and I extend it to at least an hour, more comfortable to not have the insulin burning feeling. Jeff
If you have bolused, and have enough insulin left active to cover your blood sugar it will tell you to not take insulin to correct the high. Mine is set at 2 hours. Unless I know that I need the insulin to correct a high because I gave a food bolus and then checked my blood sugar before I eat, I just follow what it says, and then check later.
My hubby's pump trainer set up his settings. I believe the active insulin is set according to the type of insulin being used. For example, he uses Novolog fast acting so his insulin on board is set at 4 hours, meaning by four hours, all of the bolus should be out of his system. So if he is still high, he will know he has "x" amount of insulin still active so wphe can judge how much he needs to bring him lower. Hope that helps!
its how long the bolus is injected into the body for. mine is currently set to 4 hours, so in 4 hours all of my last bolus will be delivered.
it also prevents extra insulin from being injected if there is still a lot of active insulin.
Yes, this is how I understand it too. I think my default was 6 hours and I changed it to 4 hours - I use novorapid, and I think this is the time for which it is 'active' i.e. available to the body to lower blood glucose. The bolus wizard will consider not only your current blood glucose (which may be higher, for example if you have just eaten) but also the amount of insulin you have on board which is working to lower the blood glucose - if it calculates that the active insulin will lower the blood glucose enough to cover the high, it will not give you any more insulin, however if the active insulin will partially cover it, you will get a partial dose. For example, if you need 3 units of insulin to lower BG to your target level and you have 3.5 units active insulin, the bolus wizard will not advise any more insulin, however if you have 2.5 units active insulin it will advise that you take another 0.5 units to correct your BG to your target.
One thing I am confused about is this: if the amount of active insulin would take you to (significantly) lower than your target BG, should you then correct it by eating carbs up to that value?