The other day I read a blog post about POLI, an acronym I’d never heard. In fact, it’s a diabetes management practice I had never heard of. It stands for Pumper On Long-acting Insulin. I’d heard of using a pump for the basal (background) dose and then injecting bolus (meal or correction) doses. In fact, I’ve done this in the past because of my experience with atrophy in infusion sites.
In this article, the author, Mindy, explains that POLI alleviates her anxiety about DKA (diabetes-related ketoacidosis). People who use insulin pumps have a higher risk of DKA because they are only receiving short- (or rapid-) acting insulin. If the pump fails for any reason, once that last dose is gone, there’s nothing working. So POLI gives someone peace of mind that they have a background dose working regardless.
Mindy also mentioned that in the summer she often likes to disconnect from her pump for swimming, fashion, or other reasons, and POLI makes this go more smoothly.
What a great reminder that there is always more to learn, and that there is always more than one way to do things – in diabetes management and in life.