Yesterday morning I was switching basal patterns from Pattern A (school days) to Standard (weekends) and somehow managed to switch myself onto Pattern B (which shouldn’t really exist - 0.00u/h for the whole day! but I have no idea how to remove a pattern if you’re using the feature).
Last night, not realising that I had switched to pattern B, I decided to run a basal test, and these are the results I got:
midnight: 131
2AM: 134
5AM: 135
7AM: 135
10AM: 137
Looks like my basals were correct, yes? I was going to write them down in my logbook, but when I went into basal review I had the horrible realisation that I’d been getting 0.00u/h since 11AM the previous morning. =/
I turned my basal back on as soon as I realised what happened, and ketones read 0.3 on the blood ketone meter and small on the urine ketostix. What the heck is going on? I’ve had T1D for almost 2 years, and my doses never pointed to a honeymoon, but I have no idea how I got through almost 24 hours with NO basal! Is there a type of diabetes out there which presents like type 1 (antibodies and all!) but has no basal needs? Is that even possible? Could I just be having a bizzare honeymoon? I’m on a 1:12 and 1:13 ratio for meals, and usually I take about 7 units of basal a day. =S
Since you had ketones, it tells us that you did not have sufficient insulin in your body.
It is strange that your blood sugar didn’t rise drastically, but perhaps it’s because you were fasting.
Many people with type 1 still produce some insulin, just a very small amount… even long after the honeymoon is over. Researchers discovered that every after 50 years with type 1, some people still produced a small amount of insulin…
I agree that this is surprising! I hope that others will have more insight to offer.
every meal bolus will cover you for 4 hours, in some people 6 hours. if you ate anything at all that day you were covered by bolus. I will also guess you make some insulin. if you really must know the answer your endo could do a c-peptide test. …and the amount of insulin you make can vary from time to time. the only thing constant with diabetes is that sometimes everything changes anyway the small keytones are no big issue esp with reasonable blood sugars. cheers!
Wow, talk about stable numbers all night too. From my understanding .3 is within the acceptable ‘normal’ amount on the ketone meter.
Hmm. That is odd. But weren’t your basals low at night to begin with? 7 units of basal is very little as well. I think that diabetes still has very little understanding, anything is possible. I would be pretty happy your insulin needs are still so small after two years!
Do you think you could get your Endo to run a C-petpide test? Might be interesting to see what the results say!
I would agree, that perhaps you are still producing some insulin. The ketones could be from the fasting during the basal testing, not from an insulin deficit
Unless you’re only three feet tall, the 7.0 units of basal is very, very, VERY low- impossibly low, almost- if you weren’t making any insulin. I’d guess you’re making some insulin. Whether that continues and whether that makes you a Type 1, 1½, or 2, I have no idea.
I’m curious- how does your school day basal differ from your weekend basal?
When I’m at school I need a lot more basal in the morning (helps to cover my ridiculous breakfast spike / dawn phenom.) and I have a period of 2 hours in the afternoon on 0.00u/h for walking a couple miles into town to catch my bus home.
Maybe Denise Faustman is correct and Type 1s still produce insulin but the T cells kill it off immediately. I hope this is the case. I do know my niece has had unexplained spurts of needing far, far less insulin than she had needed, i.e., .55 units an hour as opposed to .85 units per hour, but it did not last. As far as no basal needs, since you only take 7 units a day, you must still have quite a few beta cells left, I would assume are still in your honeymoon. I am guessing your pancreas perked up a little.
I don’t know how much insulin you had previously, but something similar happened to me once. I was in the hospital for something or rather and they took me off my insulin pump and put me on Lantus, but by the time I got out of the hospital, it was too late for the pharmacy to fill the Lantus, so I didn’t have any long acting that night. I was sure, when I woke up, that I would be really high, but I was actually about 110 or so (don’t remember exact number). When I was o nthe pump, I also once went a day without basal for some reason and my sugars were pretty good, and I’ve been diabetic for over 15 years, so I don’t think I’m producing anything anymore. Anyway, I think that if you went for more than a day without basal, you would probably become really high, but there was probably enough insulin still in your system to keep you going, especially if you didn’t eat or if you gave yourself insulin for your food. Even though they say that short acting only lasts 4 hours or so (don’t know exact number), it still stays in your system for a bit, I’ve found.
yes… sounds like you are still producing some there…
Something like this happened to me a few years ago… When I had bells Palsy my humalog r/l fell through the floor to a couple of units in the am and a couple in the evening and getting lows got way too easy. One morning I was so busy answering emergency pages at work I flaked on doing the shot. Nothing till after lunch, when my blood sugar was up to 110…
anyway the small keytones are no big issue esp with reasonable blood sugars. cheers!