This week we have switched from controlling lows to sorting out highs. Apparently we want to explore the entire range of problems quickly.
We’ve struggled all week to keep V’s blood sugar down. It starts out high and stays high. We manage to get it down for an hour or 2 than it’s back up - even without eating.
My thoughts are it has to be for one of 2 reasons (the food and bolus bits have been addressed and we are adjusting the basal):
Either an underlying infection somewhere that we don’t know about (doc appointment next week) or the cold weather.
He really, really hates the cold.
It hasn’t been that cold here, not like Minnesota winter cold, but his shop is in the barn and it’s cold enough that he has to warm his hands in hot water before he can get blood from his fingers to test and we’ve been using the stove (wood burner) to keep the house warm.
How does cold weather affect you? Do your insulin needs go up? How much? Do you adjust both the basal and the bolus?
I have never experienced any directly weather related insulin sensitivity effects - but is he moving around less? If he’s hiding inside from the cold and is usually more active, this might explain it…?
I have and continue to experience this problem with the change of season. In the spring and summer months my basal need (not the bolus need) seems to reduce, but with the onset of autumn and then winter I always seem to need more basal. I recently increased by nighttime basal insulin (Insulatard) by a smidgin over 10% in the past couple of weeks. I haven’t needed to alter my morning dose of Insulatard and my QI:CP ratios have remained the same.
For the record, it is medically known that Hba1C readings can worsen slightly during the colder months.
BTW, I live in the UK and although it’s a temperate climate here, our seasonal temperatures do nevertheless vary considerably.
There is more cellular activity keeping warm. See the cells shiver. They need insulin for their work. It’s so cold here in the midwest I’ve already moved up the basal - for me a half unit in the a.m. and if I have to stay here much longer, into 30 degree weather, it’ll go up another half unit. I haven’t touched the bedtime dose. This snowbird raises and lowers her basal like a yoyo depending on where she is. I’m the thin wiry type that heat and cold definitely affect.
And it’s not activity that does this since I put on the same number of miles daily.
Hi -I live in Minneapolis and have experienced all types of cold. Plus, I take the bus to work so have stood on a frozen streetcorner in subzero weather many times.
I find that I need less insulin when it’s really cold. Everyone is different, but, for me, I think I am using my food calories to keep warm and therefore need less insulin to cover.
I change my total basal : summer hot : 10.9 u
presently , not hot , neither cold ( YET) : 11.45 u
cold winter …freezing : 13.10 u . As you can see,the overall numbers not a big difference , but big enough to avoid Lows and Highs .Pumping makes this possible for me .
I do same activity , same carb intake throughout the year .
I do not experience seasonal insulin sensitivity issues, but I do always go low on rainy days, strangely enough. It sounds crazy, but I’ve experienced it my whole life.
In other words - cold is an issue for some people… Unique, much like everything else, we’re learning.
He is as active in the winter, so that isn’t a factor. He just really hates the cold and has a hard time staying warm. He lost 40 lbs when he had his pancreas removed… all that body fat is gone.
And we have to remember it’s not the amount of insulin that’s important, it just has to be the right amount to do the job.
Stephen, we live in France, so we’re not talking about big temperature changes, either. Still, it’s enough to have the wood stove burning and the boiler on…
Melissa, V said to tell you it’s just the awful, depressing rain doing it ;-)) I guess we just discover the mysteries then deal with them…
