I have been struggling with high blood sugars resulting from eating carb AND protein-filled foods, such as pizza, cheese and chicken quesadillas, pasta with cheese, etc. My highs are typically around 300. As an example, if I eat a small quesadilla with chicken and cheese inside, I bolus for 30 grams of carbohydrate. An hour later, I still experience a high and it's become really frustrating lately, as I'm a college student and foods like these are kind of hard to avoid, although I try to avoid them most of the time and try to eat simpler carb choices and smaller amounts of protein, as to avoid going high later.
I have a calorie-king carb counting book, but I think I may need to try dual-wave or square-wave boluses for these meals.
Has anyone had any success with these methods of pumping?..especially for foods like these?
yes! i've started experimenting with combo boluses (the animas name for dual/square wave). i use it especially with pizza and pasta because and then i'll play around with it for other foods. i've noticed foods that are higher in protein and fat + carbs just do whacky things with my BGs, but i've done much better at controlling the extreme highs once i started using combo bolus.
yes! i've started experimenting with combo boluses (the animas name for dual/square wave). i use it especially with pizza and pasta because and then i'll play around with it for other foods. i've noticed foods that are higher in protein and fat + carbs just do whacky things with my BGs, but i've done much better at controlling the extreme highs once i started using combo bolus.
good luck!
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How do you know which food to use the combo bolus on and how to set it? We've been experimenting as well. Last night we had mexican food, and I did 50% immediately and the other 50% over two hours - but it feels like I'm totally guessing. Is there a guide somewhere that you've seen that might provide some good information on when to combo bolus and in what degrees? Is there a difference between doing it with cake vs pizza?
Actually, if you can just give me that formula where I can get Sarah's blood sugar to stay in the happy range, that would be great! :-)
heh, for me it was total guess and check. i know my BGs tend to spike fairly quickly and then stay that way, so i usually take 70-75% up front and then stretch the last bit out for 1.5-3 hours depending on how fatty the food is (fat slows down the digestion, making the highs hang on a little more). i just keep playing around with it and check my BGs often until i find numbers i'm satisfied with. i've got pizza worked out fairly well. pasta seems to be a little harder for me determine, but i'm sure after a couple more tries, i'll figure it out.
My son uses both the dual and square wave bolus for fatty foods. You will need to experiment with the percentage you use up front by testing at 2 hours and seeing where you are at to know if you need more or less of a percentage up front. My son usually extends his bolus out two hours but you may require more than two or even less. Checking often for these foods to start with should help you figure out how to bolus for pizza, pasta, etc.
Hayley, this happens to me as well. I find that this happens more with the addition of fat to carbs, not protein, but you may react differently than I do.
The extended bolus will be your best friend, once you can figure out how it works for you. As C said, it's a lot of trial and error. The composition of my meal and how quickly/slowly I'm eating it help determine what ratio and timeframe I pick. Typically if I'm eating some pizza, I'll do about 80% up front, and set the remaining 20% over 3 hours. For pasta, I usually do less up front - 70 - 75%. If I'm drinking wine with my pasta, I don't do much up front (maybe 25%) and spread the rest out over 4 hours. (Alcohol can have a bloodsugar-lowering effect for some - me included). Like I said, the composition of the meal makes a big difference in how I set it. Play around with it, write everything down when you use do the combo bolus, and test often (1 hour after eating, 2 hours, 3 hours) so you can track what your BG is doing.
I've also mastered pizza... 60% immediately, and 40% stretched out over an hour. Now my secret is that I increase the total bolus 3-5 units otherwise the extended bolus just doesn't amount to much at all. Trial and error with this definately. I've also read to do the same w/ mexican food and the legume family of foods.
I would also double check the carb counts on the tortillas for your quesadillas, tortillas always surprise me with how "carby" they can be. Good Luck!
I have an Animas Ping and what helps me are the numbers that are laid out on the screen... For example, using the ez carb bolus I plug in 45 carbs. My bg is 207. The next screen after you press Show Result, is the Bolus Total Screen. It lists, carbs, bg, iob, and total. For example Carb=3.00, BG = +2.67, iob =0.8, total =4.85... Then I change to combo bolus... I usually put whatever result my BG is over in this example it is: 2.67(I will change the percentage until it is close to that number as possible). so in this example the combo bolus will be: 55%(2.66) : 45% (2.19). The first percentage in the ratio is a normal and the second is a square wave... This works for me... I usually set my combo bolus durations for 4 hours sometimes longer if I'm eating pizza or something fatty... If a food reads more than 30% fat content, I give myself a combo bolus and set it between 4 - 8 hours.
I change my I:C ratio from 1:18 to 1:16 and set a combo bolus for 70:30 (or 75:25, if i'm also correcting a high) over 2.5 hours for both pizza and pasta. For ice cream, I do 1:16, 60:40, and 6.5 hours.
I live and die by the Dual wave bolus when I'm eating that type of food. I usually bolus about 70% right then then take the rest over the next 2-4 hours.
Pizza and pasta are classic hours-from-now high foods so don't think you're alone.