For Intensive Regimens:

1. A basal or background insulin dose This will be prescribed as one or two injections of long acting insulin, or, if you are using an insulin pump, a daily infusion rate of continuous, small amounts of rapid acting insulin. The background/basal insulin dose is usually the same day to day. With an insulin pump you do have the option of temporarily changing the background rate for a few hours – up or down as needed!
2. A bolus insulin dose to cover the sugar or carbohydrate in your food This will be presented as an insulin to carbohydrate ratio (I:C). The I:C ratio tells you how many grams of carbohydrate can be covered by one unit of rapid acting insulin. You will need to calculate how much carbohydrate you will eat, and take a dose of insulin that matches the food.
3. A bolus insulin dose to bring your blood glucose back to the normal range A high blood glucose correction insulin dose (bolus) to bring your blood glucose back into the target range. This will be presented as a correction factor. This correction factor refers to how much your blood glucose will drop after 1 unit of insulin rapid acting insulin. When your blood glucose is too high, you will need to calculate how much your blood glucose is over the target, and, based on the correction factor, take the dose of insulin that will bring you down into the desired range.

• Long-acting insulin (glargine/detemir/degludec/NPH) once or twice a day with rapid acting insulin (aspart, glulisine, lispro) before meals and as need to correct high blood glucose .
• Rapid acting insulin (aspart, glulisine, lispro) delivered via an insulin pump.

For more information, please refer to the following sections:

• Calculating your insulin dose
• Intensive insulin therapy
• Insulin pump therapy