I am having a heck of a time with my blood glucose recently. I started the MM pump back in June and had GREAT success for several months. But recently everything has been going crazy. Basically everything is the same now as it was back then (stress levels, drugs, diet), so there is no real explanation of the recent high fasting levels and the more dramatic roller coasters around meals.
Just wondering if anyone else had something similar to a honeymoon period when they switched from taking shots then moving to the pump. Maybe my second honeymoon period is over?
I have had no trainning on the pump at all i was just handed it and said here ya go good luck so i have done everything myself and i am not having much luck with it at all. how do you do the basal rate thing
Rachel-- I highly recommend the book Pumping Insulin by John Walsh. I taught myself to pump from that book. It explains everything step by step.
In order to test your basal rates, you need to have no bolus insulin in your system (so it needs to be about 4 hours after your last bolus), then you fast and test your blood sugar. Your basal rates should be set so that your blood sugar is stable when you don’t eat and bolus.
Here is another discussion
in this community when people explained how to do basal testing.
When you get these set right, the pump is AMAZING!! When they are not set right, your blood sugars can be even crazier than with injections.
Hmmm… maybe I didn’t phrase my question right. My body was acting fairly predictable for quite a while, now it is not. It wasn’t really a pump settings question I guess. I am not sure how to ask my question. I’ll have to think how to rephrase.
Thanks though.
I think your saying that what seemed to work for a long time all of a sudden does not. yes?
If so since we both have CF you can get an increase of mucus in the digestive track.
That can do some things to really jack your fasting up and BG in general.
First it can contain some icky bacteria as you know but just not enough to cause a full blown sickness but enough to cause some insulin resistance we don’t normally have.
If it’s only fasting I suspect it is not that. It can act as sludge so everything spends a longer time within the digestive tract similar to a slowing. Combine that with the sleeping (lack of movement) and as the food sits and moves a bit here and there a constant feed of nutrients is hitting you blood and that can push you up.
The other thing that can happen is the mucus keeps you from digesting and then your dropping your liver is kicking in and your getting the high.
I can solve almost all my outside the box BG issues with my tummy and how it is working or not working. How congested I am and things like that. If your pretty congested right now in your sinuses (or lack of them ) and lungs assume your digestive track is also. This is why I call cereal my friend
I think you hit it right on the head! I have been really really dehydrated for the past month and a half or so. My mucus is thicker than the usual thick. I bet that has everything to do with it. I know my pancreas is making some insulin still, but I bet it is taking longer than its usual pleasureful ol’ time getting into my system since the dehydration. Which explains the higher highs and the bigger crashes around meals, as well as my increased levels at fasting. I have upped my basal doses, so hopefully that will help a bit, then I can re-evaluate if I need to change my meal doses. I have no idea why I can’t rehydrate, it is really frustrating.
Now it all makes sense! Thank you!!
((hugs!))
~salty.
Hon don’t worry relax and lets find a solution to the hydration maybe
CF with Diabetes makes it really really hard to stay hydrated. Even if your BG was normal all the time because you lose more salt you don’t have a good water balance like normal because of the CF.
If you have High Blood Pressure ignore what I am going to say but I doubt you do in fact my guess is you run low sometimes with a bit higher pulse.
I put propell dry mix into water but it is diluted. 3 packets to about 21/2 liters. I drink that all day. Eat salt if you can not stand to put some on your hand and in your mouth 3 times a day then use something like green beans or something you can put alot of salt on in small amounts. I don’t mean a big pile of salt I mean some on your hand and lick it. Salt is the counter to sugar. H BG means more sugar molecules that pull water and salt from your body. Increasing your salt helps to counter the water loss.
I have salt pills I could take in massive amounts but the tummy problems they cause are not worth it. The thing you have to watch for is to much salt causing bloating cause that slows your digestion but if you drink something like I do it will help prevent that. Plain water may not be good for you like it is for normal people since you probably tend to have low salt levels as well as chloride. You want to find a good balance with the salt just enough to help you keep fluid in your body but not enough to bloat you. Once your better hydrated you should start to see you BG level out.
You may have to for a bit do the worst things for diabetics and eat easy to digest carbs. You want to in a natural way get your intestines moving to mucus is expelled. But be careful some could dehydrate you. Coffee is a good simulate for your intestines it also can dehydrate so a cup of half caffeinated and half de caffeinated made in a french press like fashion will help without pulling to much hydration. Dried prunes, fresh pears with skin and apples are good cause they bind in the intestines pulling mucus with them. Stay away from any rice for a bit since that is often used to slow and stop over active tummies. Egg is a simple protein. Fresh spinach, green beans, pinto beans or black beans along with an orange (the orange is to help absorb iron which you may or may not need) are good as they help the intestines and have Vitamin K! Which you are probably on the low end of just do not ever take it as a pill unless a doc says D,E,A and K are not water soluble and can build in the body. Take a B complex if you are allowed it help the tummy and is water soluble. Cereal like grape nuts, Wheat chex and believe it or not frosted mini wheat’s are really good for CFers not so much diabetics though but they have phosphorus which you may be on the low end and a whole bunch of vitamins and minerals.
Salty, I am blessed I don’t have the massive lung involvement most CFers do but I have much more digestive involvement then most CFers this is how I survive. For the first 3 years of diabetes I spent mostly dying over and over with hydration and electrolyte issue’s. It did not matter what my BG was it is the monster between the two diseases. If you have to eat in a non friendly diabetic way to stay hydrated and keep your tummy working then do it and learn to cover with insulin. We have to stay ahead of the CF when we can.
Ok end of novel
Be loved
and how it is working or not working. How congested I am and things like that. If your pretty congested right now in your sinuses (or lack of them ) and lungs assume your digestive track is also. This is why I call cereal my friend 