In a recent blogpost I wrote about my plans to experiment with using Lantus along with my pump. Although unusual, this is not a novel idea and is described by Dr. Steve Edelman in a 2004 article as the untethered regimen.

Starting in late November I used Lantus in tandem with my pump for two weeks. Although there were measurable benefits to injecting part of my basal, there were some definite negatives that were specific to my insulin requirements and the type of pump that I use. There were also a few things such as ease of use and expense that demanded consideration.

I started the trial by giving about 75% of my total basal split between two injections of Lantus: one at 7:00AM and the other at 8:30PM. There was nothing scientific about that except those were convenient times and I wanted any Lantus overlap to be first thing in the morning which is a problematic time for me. The balance of my basal was programmed into my pump with a little less through the night and a little more in the morning and evenings.

Let’s start with the positives. For the first couple of days I felt that my blood sugar between meals and overnight was more stable than it had been in ages. The most noticeable effect was in the mornings before breakfast. I often struggle with my BG starting to rise the second I get out of bed. It is not an easy basal fix because I tend to go low in the dawn hours before getting up. Sometimes I take a bolus right after getting up and that helps. But sometimes that bolus makes me go low. And other times I have already started to go high and struggle to get back on track even with boatloads of insulin. With the slight overlap of Lantus at this time, my BG remained stable almost every day until I chose to eat. It was a wonderful result.

The addition of Lantus also minimized BG rises after changing infusion sets. Set changes tend to be a problem for me even though I’ve tried lots of the tricks of the trade to avoid that: extra prime, never change sets in the morning, leave old site in, put new site in a few hours before using, and increase basal rates for several hours. I have never found anything that works every time. Of course nothing works every time with diabetes….

Now for some negatives.

At this stage in my life my basal rates are extremely low. After taking 75% of my basal by injection, I was left with only an average of 0.1 units per hour to be delivered by pump. The total of Lantus and Novolog ended up being a slight basal increase for me and maybe that is the reason I felt as though my BG levels were more stable.

The first problem I had with the untethered regimen was with temporary basal rates which I use on a regular basis. Unlike my previous Medtronic pumps where you can set temp basals either to a specific amount or by a percentage change, the Animas Ping only allows percentage adjustments. With a 0.1 hourly rate, it was difficult to make meaningful changes to my total basal. As I thought of insulin adjustments for my winter hiking excursions, even if I set my pump basal to Off, a reduction of 0.1 per hour might not be sufficient.

Another result of the extremely low basal rates on the pump was that it lost prime three times during the two week period. (Losing prime is an extremely annoying problem with Animas pumps and results in no insulin delivery until you correct the problem.)  If you are in the middle of Target, you don’t really want to reach down your pants to unhook your tubing to re-prime the pump. And that is if you’re lucky enough to hear the musical chime that the pump is no longer delivering insulin. Technically some children use basal rates as low as 0.1/hour and the pump shouldn’t have lost its prime. But it did with both of the reservoirs that I used.

After a few days I began to have daytime lows probably because of the increased basals. So I reduced the Lantus by one unit. Then a few days later I tried another reduction and decided to take it all at night and none in the morning. I increased my pump rates to compensate for the reduction in Lantus. Very quickly I lost the benefits that had been provided by two injections of Lantus. Frankly that means that I didn’t have a clue what was going on anymore.

Although I do not have insurance problems buying both Lantus and pump supplies, it is certainly a more expensive regimen and could be considered to be “double dipping.” Many people justify a pump purchase by indicating that long-acting insulin can’t be customized to fit their basal needs. So here I am saying that the pump by itself isn’t doing the job and I need to add Lantus to the mix….

I also got to the point that the addition of two Lantus injections and the corresponding cell phone alarms added too much complexity and regimentation to my life. Diabetes takes up a huge chunk of my brain power already and I don’t need more nagging demands from it.

So I decided to go back on the pump full-time after the 2-week experiment. I was back to where I was before the experiment. But not exactly. I suspect that increased basal rates were part of the reason I benefited early on and my basal rates are set slightly higher than before. But not a lot because I am trying to avoid lows.

Try not to go too high. Try not to go too low. That’s Type 1 diabetes in a nutshell. Not much has changed, I guess….

This should be the end of the story, but it is not. Please stay tuned for the next installment of the Lantus experiment.

*****

Disclaimer: Nothing I say here should be construed as medical advice and please do not change your insulin regimen without consulting your medical team. At the same time remember that diabetes is a life-long science experiment (Thank-you Ginger Viera!). When things aren’t going well, take some time to investigate different diet plans and alternative ways of dosing your insulin. And no matter what, test your blood sugar often and always carry glucose tabs:-)