All the time. No predictability for me at all. Right now things have been great for the past few days…a few lows but no highs and I have skipped bolusing a few times b/c I was afraid of getting low and my BS has been perfect. Other times I will get high from smelling a strawberry:). I eat mostly the same stuff daily and my daily units in the past two weeks have varied form 20- 37! This with eating basically the same amount of carbs each day. Sometimes I will be really high for no apparent reason and other times running low for no reason I can find. I wish I could predict better or even understand what is going on, but I usually don’t, so I just check often and correct when I need it. It could really drive a person crazy, so I try to too focus too much on it. Like I said, I check a lot, see how things are, and just do what I need to do to try and get it in range, and then move on with my day.
I don’t know if anyone else has huge drops from one unit…
I find that if there is a high from something like a small piece of candy or cake, and I bolus for it, it goes down very very fast. I can get a 200 point drop in half an hour. If it is a high from definite overdoing it in the carb dept, then it takes a long time to go down.
As I said, the one Animas rep who got me my best A1C ever, told me I would never ever have it easy. And I dont.
If there was an award however, for maintaining a slightly high A1C and never straying from that number, I would have it. I dont go up, I dont go down, it just stays the same.
This is why there is no use putting things on a computer printout for the doctor. I cant explain every decision I make. No rhyme or reason to it for anyone but me.
I’m seeing him tomorrow and glad for this discussion. I guess I am far from alone!
It sure can be a bitter never ending circle, but its nice to know were all dealing with the same kind of stuff. Staying positive and talking about it helps me the most.
Just got back from the Doc and told my A1c is 9.1 - but my CGM said over the last 28 days my avg is 166 (and this is what my finger sticks say as well) whatever …
The A1c is an average of what your blood sugar has been over the last three months. Also, you might be having a low and high BGs throughout the day.
yah my CGM shows me all over the map for the day and night over the last 28days i have had anywhere from 43 low and 403 high - but my CGM checks every 5 mins and the avg it pulled was 166 my A1c 9.1 (214avg) is way higher - I am done fighting m A1c I am going to go by my daily numbers
Maybe your average for the other two months was higher, therefore your A1c is higher than you thought. I am using both my CGM and my daily BG numbers (manual) to check my average. In the other note, I checked my BGs at least 8-10 times a day and sometimes more. Keep fighting…I know how you feel because I experienced that before but I just keep going and make sure I made some changes by checking my sugar often, eating right, and one thing I note everything (daily activities, food logs, stress levels, etc).You can never give up…you can do it.
well thank you for your encouragement- and yes I will continue to try (have for the last 12 yrs)
JUst got home myself with a 9.2,
Tried to explain how nothing makes sense number wise, but they do not have time to discuss it at my doctors.
I tried to mention this discussion too but it didnt work…
Definitely frustrating, Laura! Like they are not taking you seriously. To me that leaves two options: Either find an endo who DOES have time for you, and/or has a good NP or CDE who will work with you and your numbers, or else be your own expert (I apologize if you’ve said you’ve already done this). For various reasons I got used to doing things myself and get my info from a combination of: Pumping Insulin, my Pump manual, my Type 1 Women’s Group and here of course. At this point I can’t imagine having to explain everything to a doctor or rely on them to make changes. I tweak my numbers based on my results, and when I feel stuck I go to one of the resources I mentioned to see if I am missing something. It does sound like your situation is a lot more difficult and more random than mine, but I still believe we get further by being our own treatment providers because we live with it 24/7. I’m not knocking people who have a good provider they rely on but sometimes it seems you learn more when you don’t!
Yeah, my very favorite CDE had to stop seeing most patients, the economy got to her. She thinks I have some gastropathy (not gastroparesis) going on.
And I cannot work with my dr’s CDE at all (we do not get along).
I know how to do everything myself, and like I was telling him it has been awhile since I tweaked the numbers so, I can do that.
I’ve taken the Animas webinars and am going to review the notes, plus I just signed up for advanced carb counting for Thursday.
Those are pretty good courses, and brushing up cannot hurt.
my doc is good - today at my appt. he was very understanding and said nice stuff like “ya if you have a lil stress ur not going to control ur BS like when you just have worked out” and other things that kinda let me know this is the first doc in the last 7yrs that might get whats happening
See, here’s an example of what happens to be My Life…
I checked BG post dinner and post a low.
It said 500. Yes, it said 500.
I bolused two units, and in less than two hours it was headed to a low.
That’s why I am sitting here eating a snack at 1 am.
I dont think it was really 500, that’s why I didnt bolus for the suggested amount. I didnt eat much dinner, and couldnt figure out the high reading except for the low BG before the meal.
But this kind of thing happens all the time. It’s not unusual for me to get a 200 drop out of one unit overnight.
And no doctor or CDE has any idea, or any explanation for me.
Hi Laura. Having a reading of 500, which is not really 500, is a terrible situation. One dumb question: do you have a good, accurate meter? I’ve got a couple of back-up ones, one to carry in my purse, etc., and when I don’t believe a reading, I wash my hands and try all three. Anyway, I hope you can find some explanation/help for these drops soon.
I had the same thought as Trudy about the meter - I probably would not have thought that if you had not said you did not think it really was 500. Have you tested it against a lab when you had a blood draw? I always like to do that.
I am not familiar with the gastropathy (not sure if I spelled that right - and too lazy to go back & find it) that you mentioned but I am very familiar with gastroparesis. I know those kind of drops happen with that - been there, done that way too many times. I am guessing that gastropathy (sp?) has the same impact as gastroparesis then. What helps me with gastroparesis is doing a lot of testing and taking small boluses/corrections so it is not all hitting at once.
The last thought is have you done any basal testing? I know when mine is off even just a little bit, it really screws stuff up.
Thanks Trudy and Kelly. Yeah, I have lots of backups. I keep my Ping upstairs, and have a goodly few downstairs plus a meter in my handbag. I just got some control solution for the one that kept reading high, and it said it was fine but I put the thing away so as to not use it right now. I dont know about the one I used last night.
Usually it matches the Ping meter very close, so I dont know.
And from what my friend said, the gastropathy is just a mild form of gastroparesis. I do think I have problems along those lines. Maybe just playing with extended boluses will help.
Endo does want me to test basals, and I havent for awhile so I am going to try to focus in the next three months.
Too bad I dont have time to just sit and work on this all day long, but that aint gonna happen!
yah i am with you on the drops - last 36 hrs have been high to low then high then low- at 60 by finger poke and CGM showing double down arrows so i have one gulp of OJ and within an hour I am up to 180 with one up arrow- i just had meat and whole grain carbs for dinner less than an hour before- whats going on my basal is 1.25 (6months ago it was 2)
I had something like this happen to me. I had handled a piece of chocolate a little bit before I had done my test. I had been in the low 100s an hour before and was shocked to see that I was now in the 300s! In going over everything in my head I remembered touching the chocolate. So I washed my hands with soap and water and tested again and got a number closer to what I had the hour before. Maybe it could be a situation like that.
never thought of that - i’ll remember that-thankx