I’ve never experienced the seasonal change in basal needs before, but know others have.
I used to be in the 70s when asleep, 80-110 when awake (except pp). The last 3 weeks I can’t seem to keep myself down to my target (90-110). I’m in the 90s during the night, and fighting to stay down during the day. I upped my late night/early morning basal by a tad (.1) and it doesn’t seem to have done a thing.
Nothing has changed - activity, food, stress, etc. - except that it’s fall. I’d really appreciate it if you’d share your experiences with this. Any advice welcomed!
Maybe try upping the morning and rest of the day up a notch until you find what works. I usually have to change mine when the seasons change and it really is a matter of just playing till you get the one that works. I thought that this year I wouldn’t have to do that because just as it started getting colder, I started using my treadmill more and lost 5 pounds. I still had to bump my basal up a notch. Then about 2 weeks later, I started having lows so had to bring it down again. I can’t win!
You know, sometimes I think D is actually something with it’s own little mean gremlin-like pea brain. It seems to know just when you think you have things under control, then WHAM!!
Kelly, congratulations on losing 5 pounds. My doctor wants me to lose 5 pounds before my next visit, and he also wants me to use the treadmill every day. Guess I better get busy.
I’ve been adjusting my basals using the DexCom reports and it seems to be working. Beats fasting and checking the blood sugar every 2 hours.
Thanks Sue. My treadmill use has been really hit & miss this last year because of energy problems. I decided that even if I only do 5 or 10 minutes, I am going to get on and just go a little. Even that 10 minutes does seem to help. On good days, I go further. I was tired yesterday and just did 15. I used to do that when I was able to run. I had a spot that I would go to and if I was really tired, I would turn around. I figure that can work with the treadmill too!
I had the same deal and ended up cranking up my basal bump in the middle of the night, to beat up DP, like 25%! I tried smaller increments and they didn’t work. I was a bit freaked as this was before the marathon, even as we did our last training runs, I’d run my biggest mileage week, like 47 miles and my BG was running high. I finally got it like 3 days before that race and, amazingly, didn’t have any BG problems during the race. I’d turned the other rates up like .1 and have cut those back a bit now and it seems as if I’m running low so maybe it was stress or maybe I’m used to the cold? I felt like it was wierd this year as I’d never run into that before. All this going on at the same time as wierd sensor problems, 4-5 days instead of 6, wierd insulin problems (one bottle instead of two but they refill it after 3 weeks? Maybe I need to bug them for reimbursement for mileage going to the drugstore?)
I have some allergies and in the fall, the combination of leaf mold and changing weather affects my sinuses. Any inflammation in your body can affect your insulin needs.
That’s a good point. Another intriguing theory my old boss floated was that harvest season kicks a lot of dust full of bizarro agricultural chemicals into the air. Maybe some of it is “carb dust”?
The dex is really a blessing. Love the modal day report, I can really see trends over a week.
I’ll look at my data again and bump up more. I wonder what will happen when I go on my cruise in Dec. to warmer climes? Really don’t want to spend my vacation tweaking basals, especially as I won’t be able to d/l my data (taking ipad2). Sigh
Oooo good point bsc. I don’t feel the sinus crap yet but it is that time of year. My SD is 19 over the last couple of weeks but my mean is 106, too high for me. Just made a couple of tweaks and added a late night basal, so hopefully that’ll work… for now anyway LOL
I find that as the weather cools, my insulin needs go up by about as much as 5-10 units per day, which for me is huge. During summer months, I can get away with as little as 20 units per day if I’m eating low carb. The heat has a dramatic lowering effect on my BGs, and my insulin sensitivity increases during the summer months as well. During winter, I tend to be a bit more insulin resistant and need more insulin to keep things stable. What I usually do as the weather cools is watch my BGs and increase all my basal rates in very small increments over the span of a week. I should do some formal basal testing, but for me, this incremental increase works better as the weather gets progressively colder.
Where are you going, and how long will the cruise be? If you have to tweak the basal you may be able to get away with a temp basal or a second basal (if you use a pump). I went on a cruise to NE/Canada in August, got back to NYC on the 27th and hurricane Irene hit the 28th and was stuck there without an extra pod. Make sure you take more D supplies than you think you will need, you never know what will happen.
I was going to ask if it could be the start of a cold - the same idea. It’s a left field idea, but do you think a neti pot (nasal irrigation) might help? (All this from a girl who can’t take cold medication and had to fight off a cold 2 weeks ago!)
Since the weather has been cooler, I’ve been running at 125-150% basal over my summer basals. I’m not ready to make a permanent change since we are expecting highs in the 80s tomorrow.
