Needing less and less insulin?

Type 1 and LADA
1

Hey all:

Going through some very weird changes here. I have been LADA for almost 5 years, and have always maintained AIC’s < 6.3, most recently 5.4.

I am a pumper and use Dexcom CGM. Here is my dilmea, as of late my blood sugars keep dropping and dropping even after eating small meals or drinkiing juice to correct.

I’m only on .7 units of basal insulin throughout the day and a 1:15 carb ratio which has been fantatic and worked perfect up to this last few weeks.

To give an example:

I usually eat the same things during the week for breakfeast and lunch and usually am in the 80-120 range, but lately I have been dropping really low. Now the weird part, after 2.5 hours I check my CGM says im in the 50’s, ok fine, I drank 15 carbs of OJ, it went up to 70 then came back down to 50…Ok again I said drank 20 carbs of gatorade, it went up t 90 then came back down to 60-70 over about a 30-60 min period of time.

Even last night (during sleep) I was in the 50’s drank 40 carbs of sugar, went up to 120 then back down to 70’s within the hour.

Why is this happening? I am not taking extra insulin my basal is pretty low, I am not working out during this time or 'active" (sitting behind a desk at work). I actually just got over a bought of the flu (which my blood sugars were perfect) and now have a slight infection in my wisdom teeth since I just got those out and now on antibotics.

Has anyone seen this before? Some people state I might just be honeymooning still but my last c-pep test 3 years ago showed I was not producing anything. I am just getting really sick of this and wondering what the answer could be.

Thanks in advance

Ross

2

I should also add if related, my blood plessure has been somehwat high, I have a home kit and its been in the 140/80 range this last couple weeks as well.

3

The same thing happened to me in Sept 2009. my basal dropped from 19 units/day to 9 units/ day. It was very frightening to adjust, as I had no CGMS at the time. My rates have stayed stable, until January of this year, when my needs have “unexplicably” jumped up. I am currently adjusting my basals upward, as I now have a new CGMS, to help keep me from night lows, and to wake me for the highs. I did not get any c-peptide readings during these changes. Not that Joslin found that many 50 yr diabetics (type 1) still produce some insulin. perhaps we are just producing more insulin at the times are needs go down, or we are better metabolizing the insulin we do inject??

4

Sounds like you need to dial back your basal rates. I have to do this several times a year (both up and down) based on change in seasons or mild flus etc. I don’t this is unusual and if I were you I’d conduct some basal testing to confirm the changes. Good luck in getting this smoothed out. Mike.

5

After a stomach flu your body may have a hard time absorbing carbs, and this could explain your lower insulin needs. Usually things go back to normal after a week or so. It is a strange phenomena isn’t it?