@joakim, i have epilepsy and I couldn’t believe it when i heard her speak because it was the first time I heard someone talk about what it feels like to have a broken brain.
I know what the Mayo clinic is.
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hehehe, I’m looking for the new documentary if anyone has found it free on the interweb, let me know.
First of all, suspending is never a good solution. If you are low, or if you feel you are quickly dropping, treat it, but suspending the pump will not bring it back up. If you are frequently low, then you should work on tweaking your basal rates. Also, make sure your lows really are lows. One thing that I have noticed with CGM is that the CGM numbers are usually lower (only by a little bit) than the actual Meter BGs. Something else that I have learned through experience is that depending on your sleeping position, if you lay in a position that “smothers” the CGM transmitter or your pump the numbers will temporarily appear smaller than during the day when you are moving around. Another thing to keep in mind (and you will need to see how applicable this is for you) is that if you do a meal bolus, your CGM may show a slightly low number because the insulin worked before the food, but if you notice that the insulin consistently works before the food but that the food always brings it up, then don’t worry about. Even though we obviously want perfect numbers 24/7, we all know that around mealtime we will have short periods where our numbers may be a little above or below what we want, but as long as it consistently comes back, you can claim to be doing a good job. But based on what you have said, don’t try to suspend the pump, just work on finding the right basal rates.
The problem with adjusting the basal rates is that theres no clear pattern for me. Mostly, I’m not getting lows at night, but at various times of the day. Sometimes right when I wake up (my basal is higher for that time, but I’m only low when there is no dawn phenomenon, which is rare), sometimes after breakfast, but other times it soars after breakfast, and my biggest problem seems to be after lunch until after dinner. I keep thinking it’s a bolus problem, and like I said, I think maybe the insulin is absorbing VERY slowly, so maybe the end of the breakfast bolus is meeting the beginning of the lunch bolus. I think this is true because when I soar at breakfast, I’m more likely to be low 8 hours later, even though the correction takes 1 1/2 hours to start coming down. Maybe I should ask my endocrinologist about the new, even faster insulins.
When I fast, my blood sugar is not low, and does get higher after a certain time period of fasting. I’m not sure if that means my basal rates are artificially low because the bolus insulin is hanging around to long, or if the basal rates are correct, but after 16 hours of fasting, my body decides it is stressed and starts raising blood sugars because of that. I’m trying to figure out what is going on, but every time I experiment, I just get more confused.
I think if I just relaxed, I could live at a 7 hba1c with no lows at all (or only the emergency, surprise lows), but when I got to a 6.7 hba1c, the high risk obstetrician was not impressed, and told me she would not approve me for pregnancy because I would put any child in danger. I didn’t want to deal with all that judgement every month, at what’s already an emotional time. She still manages to judge me for my weight, but that doesn’t bother me as much. When I get pregnant, I will have to deal with even worse variability and fluctuations in timing which is why I’m trying to figure out what is going on now.
Have your thyroid functions been tested. It seems to be a ocondition the accompanies Diabetes for lots of us. Even if it turns up “normal range” in the T1 and T2 sometimes it’s the T3 causing the problem and they don’t always check it. My diabetes educator helped me to lose weight by strictly figuring out my dosages for carbs and to cut back on the basal insulin using it for overnight control. I lost10kg in just over three months, a decent rate and had good control throughout. Also, are you exercising To any great extent or have increased what you do, that might also affect your sugars. Good luck, it’s hard but it can be done.
I used to get high after breakfast too (300-350), and what I had to do was adjust my carb ratios.
Try to work on and focus on only one thing at a time. Because the day does not get reset after each meal or bolus, look at the result of and focus on one thing at a time, otherwise you will screw up everything. I finished tweaking my morning spikes before working on the rest of my day, and now (about 9 months later) I have finished tweaking all my day. It sounds like a long time, but 9 months is nothing compared to the rest of your life, it will be worth it. One thing that could also be useful is spending a couple weeks trying to eat as similar foods as possible to make it easier to recognize the patterns (once you figure out a little more you can be a little more flexible again).
If I eat the same meal for breakfast, sometimes I go low, a lot of the time it’s just right, and sometimes it soars. If it soars, I’m more likely to have lows 8 hours later. It’s the same exact situation, and over 8 hours after I took any insulin or ate anything.
I’m starting to suspect that everything is taking way longer than normal. I know I had an endoscopy when I was 17, didn’t eat for 14 or 15 hours, and they found food still in my stomach. That was 15 years ago, but I cant imagine my digestion has sped up. If everything is just slowed down, it makes all the calculations harder, but it would explain why theres seemingly no relation between separate occurrences of the same phenomenon because I’m looking at the previous 6 hours to tell me what happened when I need to be looking at the last 24.
Gastroparesis could be a possibility here. Do your BG’s go up immediately after eating and how long do you think it’s taking you to digest food. Any nausea after eating?
I was told I probably had gastroparesis after they did the endoscopy. They didn’t tell me anything about it at the time. I don’t think its diabetes related because my brother has thrown up almost every morning since he was 16 or 17, and my other brother and dad also have funny tummies. I don’t feel nauseous after meals, but I throw up a lot in the morning, especially after large meals, even if I eat a long time before bed. Yesterday, we ate Christmas dinner at 3 PM and i was throwing up at 5 am this morning.
I’m not sure if this always happens though because sometimes there is a spike after eating, sometimes it just rises slowly for hours, and sometimes theres a massive dip before it starts rising. But even without any food, I woke up this morning, took insulin, and waited for the dip to eat. My blood sugar stayed the same for almost an hour and a half before starting to go down. I read somewhere that people with gastroparesis should bolus at the same time, or after the meal, and sometimes that’s the best way, especially at dinner time, but most of the time the insulin is just too slow. I just cant figure this timing thing out.
I already take levothyroxine, and I started that when I was 15, but the dosage keeps increasing, but I’m starting to suspect there is something more complicated going on because my temperature is always low, and a few times it has been under 95 degrees farenheit, which is low enough to count as hypothermia, but I felt fine; it was a normal morning. My endocrinologist doesn’t seem to think it’s a problem though, so I sort of forgot about it.