Sometimes ya gotta give it a *shove*

Observation of the day/week/month:

When my basal rate fails overnight (as it's been doing every three days or so, despite the fact that I've been changing my pump every TWO days) and my BG spikes up in the morning, the first bolus NEVER takes care of the high.

Case in point: last night after our lovely anniversary dinner, I had my BG down to 200 even after restaurant flat bread and vanilla rice pudding (and a few bites of sublimely delicious chocolate cake) thanks to about 4 units of insulin (my insulin:carb ratio in the evening is 1:15).

By the evening -- 280. Fully corrected.

In the morning -- 260. Changed pump.

After that correction -- 270! With a new pump! So I corrected again and got it down to about 200 before I had lunch I could cover (with full coverage plus a little extra).

Now it's about 4:00 and my BG is about 190 (an hour and a half after eating), which seems about right. My on board insulin should cover the rest in another hour or two, which means there's no pump problem (yet). EDIT: 5:30 BG is 98! How am I always so right??

So here's what I think happens: When my basal rate fails for an extended period of time (usually over night), something about the prolonged lack of insulin (and it was lack of insulin -- when I changed my pump there was a "hard bump" and the telltale smell of blood 'n' hospital = TIME FOR A CHANGE) creates a kind of resistance to the new insulin. Even though my BG doesn't correlate with how much insulin I (presumably) missed, I still need as much insulin as a BG level that would indicate the extra shove in the downward direction (by my estimation, I'd need nearly a 400 BG to correct with that much insulin).

I can rule out meter error, despite my many other conflicts with my One Touch Ultra II -- but the OTU2 usually reads too high, almost never too low (unless I'm having an anxiety spell in the middle of the winter and check my BG outside; then it tells me exactly what I'm most dreading to hear -- YOU'RE ABOUT TO PASS OUT IN THE STREET! HAHAHAHA! Malicious lying little bastard!).

So my conclusion from experience: like me, my pseudo-pancreas needs a swift kick in the ass in the morning when it's feeling particularly groggy. I guess we have something in common after all, aside from the sleek design and glow-in-the-dark face (note: mine is only effective when I smile under a black light).