Changes

So, the day before yesterday I moved my infusion set from my stomach to my arm. After changing it I was stuck in the 200s for pretty much the rest of the day.

Then (no change in anything), overnight I dropped into the 50s ... twice. I treated and woke up still in the 70s. Had breakfast and went a bit high (180s), corrected and by lunch I was low again, and after lunch I was low so ate without bolusing, and before dinner I was low, and after dinner I was low and had to eat without bolusing, and before bed I was STILL low (considering I'd eaten without bolusing!), so I bumped all my pump setting down by the minimum amount possible.

Then a few hours later I had gone above 200. So I corrected.

Then this morning I woke up at over 300! So I corrected and went back to sleep. Three hours later woke up and was still in the 160s, so I corrected and had breakfast. And then two hours after breakfast I was heading low so ate without bolusing, and now before lunch I am low ...

Note that yesterday I went LOW overnight and HIGH after breakfast. Maybe today is like opposite day or something ...

I really wish I had a CGM at times like this. For all I know maybe I went low overnight and rebounded, but that doesn't explain the other weirdness. I wish I could just find a way to stay between 70-200 most of the time ... I am trying hard not to stack insulin (to wait 2-3 hours to give an additional correction if I'm high, for example) and to not over-treat lows (limit it to 10-12g or less if I'm about to eat), and still fewer than half of my readings ever fall between the dotted lines (which I have set to 70-150).

Also, and this is really awesome: I got a new job. VERY EXCITED! However, it means that ALL the consistency in schedule I have managed to achieve (not that it's helped much ...) is about to be completely overhauled. And this new job will also require some business travel which I have never done before. I've only done vacation travel, and my blood sugars are ALWAYS horrible and ping-pong between 40 and 400 almost daily, even with the pump and even though I don't go crazy eating crap or anything. I think it's mostly from unfamiliar food and rather unpredictable schedules.

Also, I was looking at an old logbook from 2006 or so and was like, WOW I have made some great changes! Not only is my schedule as consistent as I can get it (compared to back then when I just did whatever), but in those days I was eating a LOT of carbs ... 60-80g for most meals and even snacks! These days I keep most meals at 15-25g and try to weigh or measure almost all my food. I also exercise every day now while in 2006 I was doing nothing because I was in teacher training and crazy busy all the time.

So all those are great! It just drives me a bit crazy that my blood sugars are still so all over the place even with all those changes. I am looking really forward to my new job but not looking forward to what effect the changes might have on my diabetes control ...

I usually try to stick with changes for a couple of days. I usually see my BG being ok after site changes (although I have done almost 100% abdomen, with only a couple of "excursions" to my "love handles", in the back, on top of my hipbones...) but if it runs up, I'll do a temp basal of 200% normal until I see it start to drop. This is, of course, easier to babysit with a CGM but it seems as if that cleans out "rusty pipes" and gets it going? I dunno if that would work for you but I'd keep at the new site before I'd totally write it off?

I'm glad that you have the old logs and are seeing improvement. Sticking with it is hard sometimes, when there are still numbers that appear to be all over the place?

I actually tried the temp basal the other day when I was running high and it worked, then I had the day of running low. Now I am back to running high (or at least I was 232 before bed and corrected and woke up still at 214). If I'm still high later today I will try another temp basal, as I've started using your idea for a temp basal to cover eating out and it works really well! Just wish I could figure out why I am either high or low lately without much in between.