How-To Guide

Example 2: Max basal
Rusty needs large amounts of insulin to control his BG levels. His new pump was
delivered from the factory with a max basal rate of 2.00 units per hour, but he
needs 2.80 units per hour in the early morning. Rusty plans to consult his
healthcare professional about increasing his max basal rate to 3.00 units per hour
to accommodate his needs.
Basal patterns
Your basal pattern determines the amount of basal insulin you receive throughout
the day and night. Because your basal insulin needs can vary, you can set up to
eight basal patterns. For example, you might use one basal pattern during the
week and a different basal pattern during the weekend.
A basal pattern is made up of one to 48 basal rates that you set up to cover a full
24-hour period. If you only need one basal rate throughout the day, you set only
one rate for the 24-hour period. If you need the basal rates to change during the
day or night to better match your insulin needs, you can set more than one rate,
each with a separate start and end time.
The following example represents one basal pattern with three basal rates set for
three different time periods.
12:00 P
12:00 A 6:00 A 6:00 P 12:00 A
12:00 A – 8:00 A
8:00 A – 6:00 P
6:00 P – 12:00 A
24 Hours
1.000
0.500
U/hr
0.650 U/hr
0.900 U/hr 0.900 U/hr
Your healthcare professional will determine what rates are right for you.
Note: If you have already set up basal patterns and want to switch from
using one basal pattern to another, see Changing from one basal pattern
to another, on page 70.
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Chapter 3