Insulin Pump Holidays – Diabetes

Ever feel the strange and sudden desire to be “free” of your pump? Never imagined yourself wanting to take a break? Some people take a temporary ‘pump holiday’ because they become tired of the extra attention needed to manage the pump and/or they are concerned about the physical sight of the pump.

Live without temporary rates, extended boluses and constant beeps. Wear whatever you want now – strapless dresses, high-waisted skirts, sweats without pockets. And with Lantus or Levemir serving as a basal rate, blood sugars stay rock steady.

Switching from Insulin Pump to Pens

When you shift from the pump, you just need to copy your pump settings to Jade:

No point using Tujeo as you’re on such a small dose that using it will be less accurate a dose than Lantus.

Night is best for once daily Lantus as it can run out mid-afternoon to early evening, so dinner dose will pick up the difference.

5 units at night instead of 11 on a pump seems ultra-conservative. You will be high the first few mornings and will likely need MORE than 11 units.

But increase Lantus by 1 unit per day until you get decent morning BGLS, then let it stabilize for 2 days before adjusting further.

Use Jade’s morning prediction to see what it thinks is decent.

You should be able to transfer all your pump settings unchanged. If you IOB setting is set very long (e.g 5 hours) then it is likely you will need to reduce this to 4 hours because Jade calculated IOB more accurately than a pump.

For a starting basal dose, add up your total basal dose from the pump’s basal rate. I can help you with this if you give me the time ranges. Then either take Lantus once a day or twice a day with a 60/40 split (morning dose/evening dose).

When to make the switch from Pump to Pens

On Friday or Saturday night, give your first dose of Lantus at 10pm, and take off the pump.

Switch to using Jade from then on.

The first morning you will likely be high because the starting Lantus dose is low/conservative.

Increase Lantus one unit per day until BGLs stabilize from overnight to morning.

Use Jade to make correction doses and carb doses for those first few days – don’t adjust your ratios until the Lantus is correct.