So, we’ve been TTC for about 6 months and I think we have finally been successful. For the past five days I have had totally unexplained highs (140-180) and that is with a 30% increase in my basal. I am still 4 days from missing my period but I took a test yesterday and there was a faint line. My question is how long do these highs last before it plummets? I’m getting worried about any damage. Thanks for the advice!!
Exciting!!
Keep upping your basals gradually to avoid highs. I had much higher numbers before I found out that I was pregnant (and all turned out fine). For many of us, these highs were the first sign that we were pregnant. For me, I had to increase my basals until week 9, then I started lowering them. We are all a bit different, but these highs are pretty normal. We just have to act as soon as we can to correct and adjust basals to avoid them.
Wow! 9 weeks? I was thinking a few days. Thanks for the info. I said something to my endo on Thursday and she said that is not the common reaction to pregnancy. She told me to check my sight and maybe change my cartridge. Frustrating!!! Fortunately the diabetes nurse already told me that this would be the first sign.
Any other tips would be greatly appreciated. I’m glad we have access to such a good community!
Yes, I remember thinking the same. I thought that lows would start right away. Most of us do experience insulin sensitivity in the first trimester, but I know some women who never experienced those lows.
For me the rough experience was:
Weeks 4-8: Slightly increased basals
Weeks 9-18: Lowering the basals almost every week
Week 19-22: Gradually increasing basals
Weeks 23-25: EXTREME basal increase (meaning drastically and at least twice a week)
Weeks 26-32: Gradually increasing basals
Weeks 33-39: DECREASING insulin needs (at which point all the doctors freaked out about placenta deterioration, which was not the case in the end -- as it turned out most of us start having decreasing insulin needs before week 36 when the endos expect it).
My boluses changed about the same rates as my basals.
Again, your experience may vary, we are all a bit different.
For me the most helpful thing in pregnancy was eating on a schedule and eating the same amount of carbs at each time of the day. This took some of the guess work out of explaining highs. It's good to know if a high means that you need to change your basals or just that you miscalculated the carb count. I weighed almost everything that I ate during pregnancy. Many others don't follow this and do just fine, but I think that it helped me!
For many of us, carbs for breakfast just become impossible to handle. I eat two eggs and one slice of whole grain toast (15-20g) for breakfast everyday, but never ate fruit or dairy products for breakfast. I could eat those without highs later in the day.
My endo was confused by the highs as well, but my CDE wasn't worried about them and expected them. It was definitely what tipped me off to being pregnant (I usually run a little high in the days leading up to my period, but I was spiking up to 300 for no reason, and that is NOT normal for me).
I never experienced the lows that most woman do. I only had to increase my basals a little bit in the first trimester, but never had to lower them. And I was well into my second trimester (22 weeks) before I had to start raising them again. I'm at 25 weeks now and I'm having to slowly increase basals every couple of days or so (mainly in the evening and overnight hours. Daytime, when I'm more active, hasn't had to increase quite so much).
Even with those highs in the very beginning, my little girl is growing perfectly and at my 20 week anatomy sonogram the MFM specialist was over the moon at how perfect she was. They said she looked just like a non-diabetic baby. So even though it's scary to have those highs in the beginning, as long as you're aware they're happening and they're coming down with corrections, and your a1c is good, there's very little to worry about. Good luck!