I probably write about Control IQ more often than I should. Some people with Tandem pumps love it and others hate it. I never love it but I often appreciate the benefits of a computer algorithm helping me out with my diabetes. Unfortunately I sometimes think that Control IQ  sabotages my D-efforts more than it helps me. In general I am frustrated with the Tandem algorithm because I want different ranges and averages than the software targets. Instead of making my diabetes easier, Control IQ often just gives me another indecipherable variable in figuring out the beast that is my diabetes.

After many marathon negotiations with the Control IQ gods, I have reached a compromise where I turn Control IQ off during the day and rely on it overnight. Fortunately Tandem makes it easy to turn Control IQ on and off. The only glitch is that if you use Sleep Mode, you have to turn it back on when you resume Control IQ. Sleep will not restart automatically even if you have a schedule. 

I use Control IQ during the night because it is extremely effective in preventing lows. I am willing to be responsible for monitoring lows in the daytime but have accepted that somewhat higher numbers during the night keep me safer although I chafe at some of those numbers. Remember that my endo says I am old enough that I don’t need to worry about complications 20 years from now….

I have used Control IQ for over a year and a half. I have accepted an average BG between 112 and 120. What I can’t deal with is Control IQ suspending my insulin when my BG is flatlined at 100. I am amazed watching my BG tracings throughout the day without Control IQ. I can flatline for hours at a time with minor up-and-down waves. But add Control IQ to the mix and I have insulin suspensions as my BG drops below 110. The pump screams that I will drop below 70 but without Control IQ it usually stabilizes in the 80’s or 90’s. Then future highs from those suspensions are another unknown as I navigate my next meal or my next couple hours of D-existence. Ups and downs and more ups and downs. 

Many Control IQ gurus would claim that I just have bad pump settings.

Maybe. Probably. But maybe not.

I have tried. I have tried and tried. And tried….to get agile and effective settings that worked yesterday, will work today, and will be great tomorrow. I have not succeeded. 

I have fiddled with my settings more times than I can count. I always come back to the idea that my diabetes philosophy is just at odds with an algorithm that is good at improving the numbers of the “average” population of people with Type 1 but not able to keep up with all of the variables of my diabetes. As a senior my skin and tissue are not as durable as they were in my younger days. Although I change my infusion sets every two days, I can still have a big difference in day-to-day absorption of insulin. I dutifully take the daily aspirin mandated by my internist and sometimes get bruising and bleeding that interfere with insulin. I am better at changing my pump cartridges more often than I used to but still have discernible (but not predictable) differences in insulin action from Day 1 to 4. Heaven only knows how to quantify the variance in what I eat and drink from day to day and how my body reacts.

This stuff is complicated.

I am lucky to have 7 (!) grandchildren and some of my favorite books are the Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems. Gerald’s frustration (“Elephants Cannot Dance!“) at not being able to dance is a good reflection of my journey with Control IQ. He is an elephant and elephants just cannot dance. I have type 1 diabetes and I just cannot be as perfect as I would like with Control IQ. 

Although Gerald thinks that he has failed when it comes to dancing, the squirrels and Piggie end up begging him to teach them “The Elephant.” Maybe my journey doesn’t have a bad ending as Gerald ends his dancing book exclaiming “Keep trying! You are getting it!”

Some days I am grumpy about my diabetes software and hardware. But I really have no choice except to….

Keep trying!

And that is what I do.