Last night after supper, bolusing with novorapid, as always, I suddenly felt funny -- my BG was 34! I had no explanation for this. The only thing I could imagine is that maybe I took my bolus insulin twice by accident... (I'm not THAT old and forgetful YET, but who knows...)
So this morning I decided to do my usual and hope for the best... PS - AGAIN - after breakfast 42!! I'm literally shaking. I don't know why this is happening. Also, I'm not using a new insulin pen - I'm been using this one for a week or so.
Question, yesterday I took a day off from work, walked around a lot (as opposed to sitting at my desk all day), in the sun (which I read somewhere also may help to lower BG). Would this be enough to explain why I would be more insulin-sensitive at this time? Or is it just random? \
BTW this never happened to me before. (If I ever went low, I realized afterwards that I miscalculated my insulin, forgot to take into account IOB or something. Here there was nothing like that).
For me a huge factor in insulin sensitivity the next day, is the amount of extended low-level exercise I did the day before.
e.g. things like gardening, painting the house... things that would never get my heart beating fast or me breathing heavy... if I do them for several hours, there's a very noticeable decrease in insulin I need the next day.
A slightly different thing, is that sometimes boluses do kick in surprisingly fast. Back in the days of Regular I called this "hitting a vein" but not sure that was ever actually the reason. In any event with modern analog fast-acting insulins, there are many situations for low-carb meals where the insulin kicks in faster than the carbs do.
I agree with your thesis that a more active day can push your BG down. Another thing to consider might be that having fun is less stressful than work so perhaps you're "rigged" to "cover" a BG bump from stress at work, which, when removed, pushes your BG down.
Another thing to consider is that sometimes shots (or infusion sets) are just amazingly fast sometimes. Maybe you hit a blood vessle with your last 2 injections and this led to the insulin becoming active much sooner and acting much stronger? Activity is also very likely to be a factor here. Also, sometimes your carb ratios just change with the tides?
There are many factors that might be at play here and you may not be able to get to the bottom of this mystery and figure it out. I would suggest that you don't beat yourself up about it but you certainly remember it. You may want to try bolusing during or after your meal and/or reducing your bolus amount? Try to stay ontop of it and realize you may have to make some adjustments to your insulin doses.
I hear you, although there isn't a WHOLE LOT of adjustment I could do with my bolus. I take a maximum of 3 units Novorapid with a meal (I eat very low carb)...
As for exercise, I work out 3x week pretty intensively, so just walking around a little one day doesn't really explain it for me.. That's why I think maybe its the sunlight! And/or -- as acid said -- a non-stressful day.
Maybe you should do a fingerstick BG before you bolus. It's probably a good practice anyway since you could adjust your meal dose if you're running high or low. Sometimes lows or highs come out of nowhere but if you take some time and write some stuff down you have a better chance of learning what's going on. Good luck!
of course I do! I always bolus based on my BG - to correct highs and on what I'll eat (etc). I write everything down. I'm really pretty compulsive about all this. That's why I was so surprised...
Sometimes things are just random, or maybe there's an explanation but we don't know what it is. As your time with diabetes goes on you may find you're less stable. But if you have had this happen a couple times after meals you might try lowering your I:C ratio a point or two for those meals and see how that works. With time things do change.
If anything, diabetes is surprising. Just when you think you've got it all dialed-in, things go haywire! With your careful logging you may be able to figure something out. Congrats on catching the lows so quickly.
Sometimes you just need to accept reality and move on. Perhaps your walking yesterday is the reason for the lows. I've underestimated "light exercise" more than once.
Since you mention weightlifting, when I lift, I get a short-term spike as and after I'm doing it but, when it goes away, my BG is sort of "zippier" so I sometimes eat more? I try to "feed" the muscle with carbs afterwards but still see what I consider decent results after I lift or do pushups or other anaerobic activities. It might be contributing to your scenario?
My BG measure about 30 points higher after a workout. I have found this to be consistently happening ever since I started measuring my BG (over 1/2 year). It doesn't seem to quickly go back down. Usually after that I go home and eat supper - I bolus for the food and correction for this high, and I don't go low. I wouldn't feel comfortable eating more carbs at that point (building up my muscles isnt a goal for a me.. Should it be? I'm satisfied with whatever muscles naturally get stronger from my exercise.)
LOL, I am trying to build up my muscles, aping my P90X friend, although I don't do those particular workouts. I figure every little bit helps! My other thought would that if you've had similar results that are as low as you reported 2x days in a row, maybe you need to adjust your carb/ insulin ratio a smidgen, like 10 to 10.5 and see if that might help things?
I have suffered from what is called Post Exercise Late-Onset Hypoglycemia (PEL). After exercise (weight lifting), I would have a harsh hypo about two hours after exercise. Once, it required 90g of carbs to bring me back up to "normal." After reading more, I found this is common with kids and can occur in us "adults." PEL can occur up to 48 hours after exercise and seems to be a cascade that suddenly tries to reload your depleted glycogen. I found that eating and bolusing right after exercise really helped, I eat 30g or so of carbs and bolus for half the carbs. And yes, you can be markedly more insulin sensitive after exercise (by as much as 50%).
I am a lot like you. I cook and prepare my meals prior to bolusing. I am extremely sensitive to insulin and my BG will go into the toilet if I don't eat, literally, immediately after.
