Basal vs. Bolus

When you are diagnosed with diabetes you learn lots of new terminology that you had no idea existed. It takes a long time to sort all of the words out and to fully understand what in the world you doctor is saying to you. Bolus and basal are two of those words.

Basal and Bolus refer to the two different types of insulin you body makes. The basal is the constant insulin that is secreted by your pancrease that keeps your BG in check even when you are not eating. Bolus insulin is the extra amount of insulin that your body produces when you eat something. When you are diabetic you have to create the same affect, so you use two different types of insulin, long lasting and rapid acting, to imitate your body.

The long lasting insulin lasts around 24 hours. We were prescribed Lantus. Now that we are using a pump, we use NovoLog in small increments all day long to keep Rose's insulin level constant. Usually every three hours she gets 0.11 units of insulin as her basal.

Okay so the other type of insulin is the rapid acting. The rapid acting insulin we are using right now is NovoLog (we are changing to Humalog as soon as we run out of Novolog). The rapid acting insulin typically stays with you for about four hours. Rapid acting insulin is given 10-15 minutes before meals. It is the insulin you use to help the food being eaten be digested.

Remember that when you are doing injection therapy you use both types of insulin. With a pump you only use the rapid acting insulin. Something we did not know until we switched. I think that is amazing how your body works. Two different types of insulin to keep your BG down is amazing and it just does it. You don't even have to think about it. What an amazing gift our bodies are.

On a side note, we took the kids four wheeling today. They loved it. We are celebrating my husbands birthday today by staying home and playing with the kids. We also got to do a secret Santa door bell ditch. It was so much fun. Last year we were so blessed to be the ones receiving all of the gifts and this year we got to pay it forward.  That is what Christmas is all about.