We can usually tell when our bodies are good or heading for trouble with shakiness, cold sweats, nausea, thirst, bathroom trips, vision changes, etc… Around what levels do you get signals?
My highs, above 140 and my lows below 72. Everything in between feels good. I have been as high as 520 and low as 45.
My feel good numbers are the normal range. Feel bad numbers are hard to say because the testing devices are not accurate enough. But I feel bad below the normal range although the blood test may read up to 77mg/dl, 4.3mmol/L. The above normal feel bad point depends on if I’m thinking about it and what I’m doing physically. My emotional and spiritual state are also important. The length of time at an above normal BG has a big effect on the symptoms that may draw my attention to the BG abnormality. Thirst is a symptom I look for as well as eye discomfort, indigestion, hunger, and dry mouth. those symptoms will attract my attention at 240 mg/dl, 13 mmol/L.
I like to be around 90. If I’m not, I might be thinking about fiddling with it. If nothing is going on, I don’t mind 75-100 but anything > 100, I will sort of contemplate depending on inputs or outputs. If I’m going to work out, I like to be a bit lower if I’m lifting and maybe c. 120 if I’m doing something for an hour or more.
I think I hit somewhere c. 410-420 on an excursion to LA a couple of years ago, I’m not really sure what happened but correcting it with only a pump (no backup supplies on hand, tsk tsk…) took a long time and blew through most of the insulin in my pump turning a long day into a long, hungry day and I think I had .3U or so left in my pump when we finally got back to San Diego that evening.
The lowest lows I saw were when I was using a One Touch Ultra or Ultra Smart meter a few years ago and saw some very low numbers, like 8.
2 Likes
I feel best - as if I don’t even have T1D - when I’m between 100 - 200. When my BG falls below 100, I know it’s on a downward trek and I have to eat something quick to avoid a crash. But the secret is to eat only enough to raise it above 100, say to no more than 150. Then, when my BG goes above 200, say 205 or so, the Renal Threshold kicks in and I’m off to the potty every half hour or so. My highest high was over 600 when my meter simply said “HIGH”. My lowest low was about 30, at least when I was able to check it. When you get that low, though, it isn’t always possible to check the BG; you just have to go for a sugary drink to get the BG back up to where you can function again.
1 Like
I feel a bit shaky/edgy at 70 or below. When I’ve been above high, say above 200, I do not feel anything unusual.
1 Like
You bring up a good point Aaron about GLucose monitors being accurate.
Ahhh activity does play a part. Before insulin treatment, heavy exercise would cause mine to rise quickly. Low impact like lifting would cause mine to fall. I have much better management now that I have insulin.
It is interesting to hear how we differ in how we feel with different levels.
1 Like
Hey Deborah3,
They say one usually looses their ability to detect highs and lows over time. I’m fairly new so can’t contrubute there. Have you been a diabetic for very long Deborah3?
i am always surprised by all of our differences in experiencing our BG levels. my endo always tells me that he would rather that my A1c is on the high side ( 7 ) rather than what it is currently ( 6.5 ) which works out to be something like an average Bg of about 145. i am most comfortable physically and mentally and emotionally when my sugars stay stable btw 100 and 130. i tend to panic over 200+ as well as panicking below 85. i am very grateful, for this year i went on the Dexcom CGM, and i have found it to be an invaluable tool in seeing trends and being able to make corrections, both in my basal rates, my I:C ratios and my insulin bolusing.
1 Like
Anything above 80 and below 140 is in my feel-good range. Anything below 80 and above 140 is in my feel-bad range–of course, the more extreme the numbers get, the worse I feel.
I can feel below 80 and above 150 enough to get me to stick a finger and adjust. Like Deb I’ve been standing and testing at 45 and seen 400 when when an insert set fails and does not warn.
My target range is 4.0 - 8.0 mmol/L (about 70-145 mg/dl). However, the levels at which I feel symptoms are much more extreme.
I don’t start to feel low at all until I’m around 3.0 mmol/L (about 55 mg/dl), and even then the symptoms are very subtle. No shaking or sweating, just a vague sense of weakness and maybe trouble concentrating or doing fine-motor tasks. If I’m sleeping, I usually won’t wake up until I’m 2.2 mmol/L (40 mg/dl). Since getting my Dexcom I’ve learned that I can sleep through hours and hours of lows even with Dexcom alarming, so I can only imagine what it must have been like before. I also don’t tend to feel high until I hit 14 mmol/L (250 mg/dl) or so for a couple of hours.
In some ways, I wish that I felt high and low at tighter levels. I’m not sure why I don’t feel blood sugar levels much, but I’ve alwyas had hypo unawareness (it was actually significantly worse when I was a kid) and it may also be because I’ve had diabetes so long and since I was a kid, so my body has completely forgotten what normal feels like. What’s surprised me is that even with significantly better control since getting a CGM (A1c of 6.0 instead of 7.0+) my feelings of highs and lows haven’t changed much.
1 Like
I wonder what causes the response to diminish over time? The loss of the signals have to be scary in discovery.
My targets are 70 - 120. I feel low below 70 (shakey), but can be fine with a bit lower in the mornings (rare). I don’t usually feel anything with highs (just a bit hot, maybe). But I like to be in the 80- 90ss. I tend to rise with short exercise, but drop with long exercise - but not a big effect - though time constraints mean most of my exercise is short duration at the moment.
I would do a bolus correction if I am over 100 if I ate/ last injected 2 or more hours ago to get it back close to 80. I do use quite a bit of insulin a day. Currently 45 - 48 units of basal and 5 - 15 units of bolus/day, so I really do have diabetes, and have to work/ monitor for good numbers.
I have big hormonal impact by the time of the month, and it changes significantly on first half vs second half of the month.
My latest hba1c was 5.4 (higher than it’s been for a while) - usually in the 5 - low 5s. Haven’t got below 5 though in quite a few years…
1 Like