Hi! I’m Katie and I am 15 and have had diabetes since i was 4. I recently switched to the new omnipod and am having trouble understanding the “IOB” that now appears on my home screen after I bolus. Can anyone tell me what that is/how it works?
Hi Katie,
This is a non-medical answer to your question so check with your endo before relying on this for treatment!
My understanding is that the IOB keeps track of what you’ve already taken both for bolus and correction so that you aren’t stacking too many boluses on top of one another. Say you eat at 12 and take 5 units of insulin. Depending on your IOB settings (mine is set that the insulin is on board for 3 hours - you can change it in settings), if you tested again and either were above target or planned to eat more (or both), it will correct your new bolus to account for what you have on board (especially useful for the corrections). Next time you are blousing and it comes to the screen that tells you the suggested amount, hit the right arrow button with the ? on it – It’ll show you how the omnipod came to that calculation and you’ll see any IOB backed out of the calculation.
Another time I find it helpful is when my dexcom is showing trend downward just after eating (or an hour after). I would test and if I was also on the lowish end, would look at the IOB to see how much insulin is still at work in my body. This has been helpful to me to figure out a basal suspension here and there for 30 mins and treating the low to try to keep things steady (not a rebound high).
Good luck!