D-Math Muddle

There should be a warning in life to prepare you, some sort of course you could take, or as my son would suggest--an app that would do all of your diabetes related math. I can handle adding up carbs in a meal. I can subtract fiber.  I can even follow the formula for an extended bolus.  I can establish the carb factor for many homemade meals.  Figuring out how much basal my son needs at certain times can however be a nightmare!

Last night he had the brilliant idea of taking off his pump before a workout.  He planned to use the "disconnect" feature which gives him part of his missing basal upfront and then the rest at a specific time so that there is no basal missed when the pump is off. Smart kid! The only problem was he was high before disconnecting.  Do we correct the high? Probably not because he is exercising.  He has a cold.  His body is fighting germs.  Exercise may not be enough to cut it.  The pump of course gave a suggestion for the correction but it hadn't factored in those two key details.  Mom had no mathematical formula to do this with so my solution? Wing it! Take a smaller correction and hope for the best!

The next question came in the form of how much basal to you deliver before exercising? He figured he would be untether for about 45 minutes but the pump would only allow 50% of the basal rate.  Was he going to need all of his basal rate when he was going to be exercising anyway? Probably not. Where is that calculator that will tell me how much he will burn while exercising to the Body Beast as well as completing his own routine? Oh yeah, its more of the "Mom Guess" formula. Joy!

I assume my guesses did okay.  He was 7 (136) at 3am and woke up at 4(72).  My pancreatic skills sufficed for that round of exercise.  Let's hope I am as brilliant for today's battle.