I'm a little new here. I've been Type 1 for going on 12 years and I wear an Animas Ping.
For about 2 weeks now my BGs have been creeping up between 1 and 6 am, and now in the last 5 or 6 days its spiking after 9 pm. I have been gradually increasing my basal rates and adjusting my carb ratio to accommodate. I don't think its food related since the spikes happen 4 or 5 hours after a meal. I try to eat healthy and limit carb intake to 30 G per meal, I'm usually in pretty good range 2-3 hours after eating and I'm fine the rest of the day.
My BG pattern does and has always changed frequently, every couple of weeks. What works this week- ISF, Carb Ratio, Basal Rates, will not necessarily work next week. CGM is not an option for me, so I test a lot and try to recognize the patterns, but I am not getting the results for the amount of work being put in. In short, it sucks.
Tonight I went up to 18.8mmol/338 mg/l. I got a little frustrated and purposely over corrected. I've been sitting here treating with orange juice for the last hour to stabilize. Its my own fault I know; but I'd rather deal with the low than hang out in the 300's and feel like crap for the rest of the night. Sweaty and Shaky wins.
I've had a similar situation going on since October. I had some wierd jitters Aug-Oct (race 100712) and got rid of them by cranking up my basal, particularly my pre-dawn basal boost, higher than I ever had. Once the jitters were gone, my BG went down and/ or I noticed I was boosting a lot of food w/ extra carbs here and there. I've been cutting back ever since then but, the last couple of weeks, seem to be running high on a nightly basis, waking up at 3 or 4:00 AM, correcting and waking up still a bit high. The second correction then seems to cause it to plummet. I agree I'd rather be sweaty and shaky than elevated. I have a lot of trouble waiting for insulin to work too and maybe fiddle around with it more than I ought to but I hate the wait.
This is too weird. I have been having a similar situation this week. Had a lovely, very light 4 pm dinner on Wednesday. By 6:30, I was 180, but had BOB, so waited. By 8:00, still ip near 200. Corrected at that point. I wear a CGM and overnight I was pretty steady at about 180.
Since insulin was not budging the numbers, I inserted new insulin and set. Did well until 2:00 (ate two very small buns with egg on them--14 carbs for 2) and my blood glucose began to rage. I corrected 7 times in the last 24 hours, switched my insulin twice, going to a new bottle and delivery kit right before the final correction at bedtime and still woke up at 162. Corrected again to that reading.
Oh, and even though I am careful with corrections, calculating with BOB, I usually crash, as you did, at some point. It is almost like my body is laughing at me: "he, he. We put her through the high struggle all day yesterday, so now let's crash her glucose readings. he, he."
I am still going to eat the 35 carb almond croissant I set out to rise last night.... I am sure I will pay again, but at least I will know why!
I find that during the holidays as I tried to stay somewhat low carb, that I ate a lot of holiday treats like mixed nuts. Mixed nuts in large quantities can definitely affect you 4-5 hours out. So can cheese and other high fat foods. Some of these highs are harder to deal with than high spikes from cookies and candy. Also I find that when I get out of whack, it may take a few days to get completely back to normal.
It's always hard to deal with these middle-of-the-night highs, because you don't want to over basal or bolus and end up low.
No one ever said Type 1 was easy. Good luck as you figure things out (again).
Acid Rock, Thanks. The belt was a journey I started prior to diagnosis. The training had to change a lot after D but glad that it did not stop me.
My BGs started going a little wonky in October too, mostly all overnight. BGS were fluctuating a bit and my needs would rise fall by about 10%. At that point the highs were not too serious but prior to that I had been at a steady overnight rate for months. It actually almost coincided with the time change for Daylight Savings Time. Now in these last few weeks I've had to adjust the overnight rate up by about 60%.
So True Spock, this morning I have been low twice. Maybe the holidays and vacation time have something to do with it...different sleep schedules and such, less stress, different meal schedules. Adding a long nap here and there messes me up too.
Any changes in lifestyle--sleep patterns, eating patterns, vacation, travel, even weather can wreak havoc on my blood glucose levels. Daylight Savings Time changes are bad, but I can weirdly adjust to time zone changes (even major ones, like 24 hours or more) withought a lot of problems.
It is going to snow here tomorrow, so lets see what the weather brings. All things have leveled out today after much work. Better. Woke up at 62, however, but did fine.
Best New Year wishes, snapdragon. Hope we all have a great and healthy one.
I'd definitely vote for sweaty and shaky over tired and thirsty any day of the week. I'm sorry you're going through a tough time but as much as we're different we are all really the same, what works one week doesn't the next, the patterns that you rely on inexplicably change, it's the nature of the beast. But if I "overcorrect" I always go for Reese's peanut butter cups and skip the OJ. Good luck getting on track again.
Have you ever tried to explain your pattern with the menstrual cycle of 28 days? The hormonal changes can induce insulin resistance. Some women will increase their basal quite aggressively to overcome this resistance. By keeping track of their cycle they have learned to increase from day x to y. In general the week before the cycle restarts with menstrual bleedings is harder to control. I have learned this in my Glucosurfer project. The feature to keep track of the cycle was very high on the wishlist of our female users.
