I am looking for answers for my blood sugar spikes. It seems that over the last few years, I go through periods where for weeks at a time, my insulin needs are much higher than normal. I end up increasing my basal by almost double. I stop using my pump for boluses and start giving myself injections because of the shear amount of insulin I need. Does anyone else go through this and have a reason? I’m not sick (other than being more constipated than normal) My eating habits having haven’t changed. Normally I just ride it out and I eventually get back to normal.
I don’t have help but I can tell you that I have had something similar occur periodically for many years. Whenever I ask a doctor about it they shrug (a common ‘side effect’ of being relatively well controlled. ). But yeah, periodically my blood sugars shoot up and I have to increase my insulin doses dramatically. During that time it seems all I have to do is look at food and up they go. Then after a few days everything returns to normal and I have to spend a day eating lots of carbs to deal with my super high basal dose. Often I can literally feel it come on. I can’t explain the sensation but it’s as if something is tight and ‘not good’ in the gut. It can happen in the space of an hour. Increased exercise doesn’t seem to have any effect. There’s probably an answer out there but I have resigned myself to these very frustrating periods of frequent testing and often high blood sugars.
Well I hope we get answers eventually. I’m glad I’m not the only one
experiencing this. The most frustrating thing about diabetes is its
unpredictability. Thanks for sharing.
I’m fortunate that my BG is pretty predictable most of the time. Only a few times have I eaten the same thing I often do, bolus the exact same amount, and end up with a totally unexpected BG.
Now I wish I could say the same thing about my blood pressure! That goes through unexplained jumps or drops that last one or several months. Then it goes right back again. I’m sure glad I don’t have to deal with the same thing on my BG!
I’m surprised that there are any type 1s out there who haven’t experienced any seasonal variance to their control. The immune system works in cycles, like a sine waves, stronger in winter months (to fight off infections which are more common then…yes, the word “cold” indeed is based on its prevalence in winter – despite old wives tales to the contrary there is a strong seasonal correlation to influenza) and weaker in summer.
As some of you may know, type 1 is often diagnosed in the winter months and is more prevalent in the northern hemisphere which is colder and thus people remain indoors more with less exposure to sunlight which modulates our immune system through vitamin D. Scientists used to refer to the type 1 = winter explanations as solely due to lack of sun exposure and since there is less sun in the winter, but there’s more to the story. Our immune systems work overtime in the winter months which can explain why there is more auto-immunity, and many type 1 diabetics have experienced mini-honeymoon periods even decades into their disease. Plus we know that c-peptides, while potentially very low to the point of near-undetectability (requiring ultra-sensitive c-peptide tests which prove insulin production is still common), do in fact rise and fall throughout your lifetime.
It’s entirely possible you could have type 1.5 or insulin resistance as well as auto-immunity. Lots of research on actual causes for type 1 are trickling out, like a persistent low-grade infection of enterovirus (coxackie B), the generation of “nonsense” proteins by beta cells meaning it’s DNA-based damage and the immune system is actually working as it should. Lots of potential causes, which may actually give clues as to a potential cure.
Put it this way, you know the line in The Predator? “If it bleeds, we can kill it”. Well for type 1s, if you can go into remission (whether randomly or by drugs or diet or starvation diets or whatever) and boost c-peptides temporarily, you can cure it.
So the fact that you have ups and downs in your control is actually cause for hope, not despair.
