Are all 'high's explainable?

Unexplainable highs happen. But for me, they happened less and less often the more that I lived with diabetes. But they still happen.

My first endo always looked at my BG log and asked me, “are there any highs that you can’t explain?” I liked that because those were the opportunities to learn.

Ahhh yes as a mother of a 2 year old diabetic, I understand your frustration.

I like the comment about the diabetes Gods. So true. You are doing a good job. YOU CARE. It will be frustrating, trust me, but enjoy the victories in life. If you stress, V may stress and then there goes the sugars again… It is hard to remain cool, but it will help.

I’m sitting up right now at 5am wondering if I should test her.

ha ha ha ha ha

I often got “unexplainable” morning highs when, upon multiple-reflections; I had
1: eaten too much carb mixed with too much fat at a late dinner meal ( Solutions: could have set a longer, more accurate square wave bolus; should not have eaten "heavy"late at night)
2. Had my overnight basals set too high and I was suffering many lows beween 2;00 and 4:00 that I did not know about(, resulting in a rebound effect (Solutions: TEST, TEST, TEST every hour on the hour between 1:00 a.m. and 6:00a.m,. which isn’t really acurate, as I could not get any sleep, not a natural occurence, that is one reason why I am getting a CGMS, so I can review the trends immediately, or choose to look at them the next day)
3;Had experienced a stressful day and have higher blood sugars as a result
4.Did not bolus for what I thought to be a low carb not needing bolus snack ( Like maybe 4 blackberries), and I should have bollussed
5. I am at the end of my infusion set time( say late 3rd day) and insulin absorption is compromised
I find that most of the time, I can explain the highs.

There are the 10 -15% of them that have NO EXPLANATION WHATSOEVER. I just treat and keep going: Unpredictable glucose levels are sometimes just part of the nature of the disease .

God Bless,
Brunetta

all great replies. I would have to add one more: after you’ve had it for so many years, you can get areas of scar tissue, where the absorption is not so good. I have this, and it’s not something you can see or feel. So for the past couple of years, I change my infusion set every other day, keep diligent records of where I put the dang thing, and rotate to the most out of the way sites I can think of. TuD has helped me adjust to this “new normal” (I used to go 3 - 4 or even 5 days between changes).

Katie, don’t ever apologize for complaining. Diabetes can be overwhelming. You sound fairly new at this…it does get better. It becomes a new normal. Did you know there is a special place in heaven for moms of T1s? I tell my mom this all the time! She loves it. (I just turned 50 and was dx in '74.)

My bad!!! I didn’t realize V was a spouse. Oh, well…I’m sure heaven has a spot for the spouses of T1s as well!!

Spouse…Mom… Can be hard to tell the difference sometimes. Especially when I tell, er, suggest that he test and he says ‘But I just did an hour ago…’

Yesterday morning 243.
This morning 81.
I think that rules out DP. It’s not intermittent, is it? If you experience DP, isn’t it every morning? Please don’t tell me that it can be one day and not the next. Please…
Anyway, I’m leaning now toward the nighttime low - rebound high explanation. And maybe a bit too high on the nighttime Lantus. We switched the nighttime test time from 2am to 3:30am to see if we can catch the little bugger going low.
We’ll figure this out, yet…
Then we can move on to the next mystery.
Thanks for all the ideas / help…

I’ve never heard that explaination before, my doctors when I was a child always told me everyone was just more resistant to insulin in the morning, in my case, it means upping the background on my pump every hour from around 3am, I obviously just never understood what was causing the resisitance.

Happy to hear this morning’s reading was perfect!

DP, from my experience, is pretty consistent. Some normal readings, but mostly fasting highs. Could be rebound highs.

Were the dinners before the morning 81 & 243 very different?

I get whole days that are higher than normal, and all I can do is correct and up my basal for a few hours (on a pump) until the high-time ends. Drives me crazy. Can’t always figure out why, and for me it’s not pump site changes or anything like that. Also can’t figure out when it’ll stop so I have to test lots and lots.

Whoever said, "planets not aligned’, is about the conclusion I came to.

For me, just the tiniest bit of stress (and I’ll swear I’m perfectly relaxed at the time) sends me up. The difference between a stay-at-home morning and one where I have to get myself together to be someplace. I can almost guarantee I’ll go high when I have to go out.

About 3 or 4 weeks ago I had 4 straight days of highs. We were all expecting me to come down with flu or something similar. Day 5, perfectly back to normal, and no illness of any kind.

That list a few posts back, sums it up. If you’re female, add a whole bunch of hormones into the mix, and if menopausal, add fluctuating hormones.

I’d love to know the why about my high days and half days and one-time unexplained highs too, but I’m slowly learning just to accept them and treat appropriately. It’s not the answer I wanted, but I’ve been through all the possibilities with my DE and my Endo, and I could take my pick.

Oh and the question you asked… does it happen often?.. minimum one time a week for me. Yet I had a ‘normal’ A1c for my first 2 months on a pump, so I’m not too concerned.

The really important thing here is to treat the high. If you can find the reason, then you can learn from it.

It makes both of our heads hurt! LOL

I'm the same as you Abby - Gerri's explanation is so in a nut shell so to speak - I actually didn't have to read her explanation over and over again in order to understand what DP is all about!!! I just learned something new today after dealing with D 43 years!!! And Katie - in answer to your question - most times highs are explainable - and then other times - it's not - I try not to let it get to me - as like Gerri points out earlier in the thread (page 1) - there are alot of things that can factor into making our BG's go uppity up. I have a feeling tho' in V's case - he might need more basal insulin - but best to check with his medical team first. Sometimes I think I'd rather be a little bit high - then going low - am sure V will agree with me on that (and you too).

Our meals are pretty consistant - meat or fish of some sort, lots of veg and 30 grams of either pasta, potatos rice or grain (barley, quinoa). And V has a yogurt for dessert. So the answer is no, not very different, one night was rice the other potatoes. I’ve looked back (I record all the meals) and I can’t find a pattern…
Oh yeah, and 2 glasses of wine… We DO live in France, after all…

And after that perfect 81? He was low (66) an hour later, after breakfast. Can someone please explain that one?

hmmmm, I WISH all highs were explainable. Then they’d also be avoidable :wink:

I think they are all “explainable” but, we may not know or acknowledge the reasons. I say this because hormones, mechanical malfunctions, less than perfect insulins, etc. all play into what happens on a day to day basis. I suspect information (CHO counts/labels, etc.), insulins and durables we count on are less than “perfect”…remember our discussions about error rates on meters? There are times I know I had the CHO counts right and dosed the appropriate amount of insulin…and numbers came back crazy. Add to this that we are humans…our needs change and our blood sugars reflect changes. The best we can do is use the available information and be willing to doggedly follow the trends and change as needed. The effort never is reduced…one just has to keep testing and adjusting. So…I think there is “logic” to why blood sugars are unpredictable at times…but, that does not make it any easier to deal w/ the numbers that stare up at us! Take care and hope your husband is doing much better.

Was hoping there was a variation between the meals that might account for the difference. Sorry.

One must drink wine, especially French wine. Please send me several cases!

Low one hour after breakfast may be due to the fact the food didn’t hit his bloodstream yet. Insulin was working a bit ahead of the meal (or he would have been very low), even with taking his injection after breakfast. Rapid works fast.

Figuring out doses is a pain. Getting the timing right is a royal pain.

HI Ms. Katie I hope V is doing well and yourself… …In my Diabetic world all my highs are explainable ( to me lol) The dogs needed to go out sooner than usual… The Endo clinic called to change an appt. The Endo clinic called to send me to the hospital asap. The mail is running late… I shouldda got the pink pump instead of the purple aarrrggghh. Sometimes unfortunately they just happen, but stress is a biggie for me if i am stressing about something my bg will be high. And according to my sisters, brothers, daughter I am a major drama queen so stress is hard to avoid…lol And most often than not ( and this is very important) it is Never my fault. I’m sorry if i have made light of the situation because its very obvious that V is so loved, but highs or lows for that matter are sometimes just unexplained, at least for me. My Endo, his PA, my educator, my pump specialist have not prooven to me that my numbers always have a rhyme or reason…but please always post your concerns there are alot of very educated people here and some long timers to this disease. I have learned so much here. God Bless

i checked at 7 a. m it was 97 , i felt happy , usually it is always 150 to 200 ,and i take 3 units regular insulin then take bed tea and do morning task like preparing kids to school , dropping them to their schools

today , i skipped those 5 units and after 2 hours it was 290

it may be due to lack of all the insulin in body

Oh dear. Did you forget to take your insulin? I’ve done that.