Could it be the change of weather? Could it be my “time of the month”? Lately, I’ve been unable to determine my BG levels by feel alone. I used to be spot on- I’d be able to notice that I feel flushed, or “tight”, or unusually tired etc and I’d guess around 250 and I’d be right!
Or, I’d feel “wavy” or weak, and I’d guess around 50 and I’d be right again!
I’ve been able to determine my BG levels pretty accurately for 11 years
BUT
for the past few weeks, I’ve been all over the place in my mind, but in really good control in my meter. For example, last night I forgot to take a shot after eating a soft serve waffle cone- I was feeling “tight” and flushed and cranky, so I was about to just inject 3u to cover the cone… but thought better of it and checked my BG, It was 109! Way off! I skipped the Humalog and went to bed. Woke up at 88!
Great numbers! Weird that I couldn’t tell, as I’ve been able to tell for the past 11 years.
Today, I just tested a 142, but I totally feel like I’m in the upper 200s. My face is flushed, my body is starting to ache and my head is cloudy.
These weird feelings have been going on for a few weeks. I’m grateful for the wonderful BG levels, but find it extremely weird that I’m no longer in tune with my own body’s symptoms.
I’ve never been able to tell what my number is without testing. High numbers might make me a bit anxious, and low numbers give me symptoms but only if they are real low. 50 would not cause any symptom. Since I can’t ‘feel’ my bg’s I test often, so that those highs and lows don’t happen. It’d be awesome if I just could KNOW by feeling what my stupid bg is!!
Having had D since before glucose moniters I have always relied on feel more than meter. And for the most part I have been pretty accurate. But I get these periods where I have no idea where I am. They are scary and explain why those with no sense of feel test so often. I try to think of it as a calibration period, lots of testing and guessing where I am. At the end of them I feel better about my feel method. I also have a harder time with human based insulin than I did with beef/pork based. I have Hypo unawareness with Humalog and never had that problem with the old stuff.
Keep an eye on the sugars and calibrate yourself the feel will probably come back. If anything major has changed in your treatment or personal life it can lead to issues with the feel. i.e. Stress, insulin change, marriage, divorce, end of school term, etc…
Maybe relying on the meter more is a good thing in the end?
I can feel when I am low (below 55 mg/dl) and I start to feel highs after I have been high for a few hours (above 250 mg/dl). Between 50 and 250 mg/dl, I can’t really feel anything. Sometimes I guess correctly, but often it’s a complete surprise.
Sometimes I can, sometimes I can’t. I can always feel above 250 or below 70. I can usually feel by my attitude a rough figure for what I might be in between. I never trust it though, I always test!!
I’m pretty new at this, but I can generally guess the lows within 5-10 points. I haven’t had all that many highs (yet but hopefully never!!) and 165 feels high to me, but the highs frazzle me so much more then the lows that I normally just panic a little and don’t think about guessing!
I usually can. I’m quite good about telling if I’m high or low, but then there are those times when I’m wrong. I remember once, years ago, I was sure my blood sugars were really, so I gave myself 10 units or something. Then I tested a few minutes later, and I was 80some. That’s never happened since – I learned my lesson to not give myself insulin until I test. (Like, duh.)
But I can usually tell when I’m high or low just by how I feel. However, some things mess it up. If I’ve been low or high earlier, than tends to make me less accurate. Or if I’ve had caffeine within the past few days (caffeine always makes me exhausted). Or if I’m sick. I sometimes wish I didn’t notice so much, because, whenever I’m above about 135, I start to feel really, really awful. But I guess it’s good that I feel it, since I get low so much.
I was exactly the same way as you were once. In fact when I was younger I used it to make money by betting my friends or parents that I could tell them exactly (within 5 points) what my BG was. They always lost because I was always within 5 points of the meter.
My biggest source of pride was waking up in the middle of the night with even the slightest hint of a hypo. It had happened very many times and it never failed to wake me up. I’ve posted the story of that one fateful night before so I won’t repeat it, but that’s how I found out that for some reason out of nowhere I could no longer win those bets. Waking up in an ambulance with BG to low for meter to read is what convinced me that come hell or high water I was getting at least a CGM. Thank goodness my unborn daughter felt like kicking her mother in the bladder at that moment otherwise I wouldn’t be here to tell the story.
Like I said, I don’t mean to scare you but please make sure you go to bed knowing your BG and which way it’s trending.
Btw, I’m not too far along yet but I want to jump in and kill “her” dad . . .
i can usually guess “high” (250+), “low” (<70) or “good” (80-200)
but only about 90% of the time… there’s a few times that i’ll feel high but check and be 112 (i’m a lot better at knowing when i’m low)
Thanks for all the input. I def test more often these past weeks because I don’t want to experience those Dka or insulin shock comas again! I guess it’s just a change in my body patterns? That’s possible right?
For example, I grew up on lobster- my family’s from Maine for chrissakes! But, since last September, I am now allergic to it. I’ve tried it three times from different vendors and different states in the past six months, but each time I threw up the lobster (and ONLY the lobster) within a half hour of eating it.
I usually have a good idea of BS levels, but there are exceptions: Too much tea–or other liquids–sometimes fools me into believing that I am higher; an empty stomach may make me feel low when I am not; and the one and only time I passed out in public was when I had the flu. My body believed it was getting carbs and calories when I ate, but because the food was exiting my body so quickly, I had a very bad hypo.
I have spoken to my endo about the masking quality of Lantus (has been mentioned in other threads). She informed me that this is a common complaint. I have noticed on several occasions that when I thought that my BS was between 5.0 and 8.0, it was only 2.8 to 3.7.
