So I have had really great control these past few months. Rarely having readings above 200. Following low carb and feeling really positive about things. My morning readings were pretty close to perfect! I have been taking 500mg metformin 2X daily. It has really helped me bring my a1c down, and deal with post meal readings.
However...this weekend really took my by surprise. Despite my discipline (walking 3 miles, eating very low carb, and correcting as needed) i had a very crappy day. My numbers had been running high all evening (150-180) and barely budging from corrections and over corrections...so I took an extra unit before bed, as I was 199 and felt like I was rising. I woke up at 4:00 AM with a reading of 31. I sliced an apple and ate it with 1 scoop of peanut butter (this is my favorite way to treat a low because it usually does not give me a rebound high). I then waited until I was 122 to fall back to sleep, only to wake up at 8am with a reading of 389.
31 to 389 in 4 hours? With just an apple and peanut butter in between? This did not seem normal at all!
My numbers have been high ever since (150-250) for the past 2 days. I changed my pump twice. And finally this morning opened a new vial of insulin (the other was not due to expire until 9/19) but i decided to start fresh. Finally down to 130 right now....but feel as if the problem in not really solved..as it took a ton of insulin to get me down to this okayish number.
Sorry, Andrea, doesn't sound like fun! Could there be something going on like an incubating illness? Big change in the weather? If not, Sounds like you may need to reevaluate your basal rates. Also your ISF. Unfortunately, things change, sometimes for no discernible reason. All you can do is change things to manage the "new normal" (and sometimes change them back down the road!)
hello andrea it can happen sometimes, that for any reason you are high. there are so many factors that influence your bg, that you sometimes just cant keep up with all the stuff that is going on. you seem pretty disciplined, so i understand that it is difficult to see something go out of control, but best thing is to ride it out calmly, because if you get annoyed your adrenalin will rise and so will your bg.
i was in my 200s as well all weekend long, and i just made the best out of it and told myself that sooner or later ill come down somehow. and here we go, my bgs are close to good again.
you know, sometimes i just say, dont forget living your life besides Diabetesmanagement, that can help a lot too!!
;)
love swisschocolate
I have been between 150 and 250 all morning for no discernible reason . Check out the link. It is of my favorites, a tad PG 13, but it helps me realize that I can correct, drink my water and keep on going, as my basal was fine just yesterday. Just part of type 1 one insulin sometimes unknown control factors.
Still having problems today!! Finally got down to 111..all I hate was a nice bowl of mixed greens with olive oil and red wine vinegar, and a tiny piece of broiled salmon...and shot up to 199. from 111 to 199 in 2 hours from a very low carb lunch.
as i said, just ride it out. find out the problem but dont get too anxious. it wont help anyway :) good luck, at least you know that your insulin is working in some ways!!!
love, swisschocolate
If your not getting sick then you may just be having a couple of bad infusion sites. You will find that pumping insulin can be a little sluggish compared to injections If your first correction does not work then you may need to consider correcting with a syringe. I find that some infusion sites just have better absorption than others and I suffer from set fade one day 3. When I first started pumping I would have a bad day and panic...but over the years I have found that my good days overshadow the couple of bad days I have every mounth...it's all good...
That sounds to me like a classic case of an infusion site gone bad. Sometimes I'll have infusion sites that start to clot over the cannula, so then my basal insulin will be pretty much non-effective resulting in highs. Then, I'll push a bunch of insulin through for a correction bolus, and that will sort of "open up" the clot, and my sugar will come down, but then the highs will come back when my body starts to clot over the cannula again. Clot might be the wrong word here, but basically, I think my body is "healing" over the cannula, and clogging it up. Does that make sense? Sometimes it will happen if I get my infusion set to close to a blood vessel. So, try switching out your set and placing it in a new place, maybe? Good luck! Sometimes no matter what you do, diabetes is just fickle, too.
Erin,That has happened, the bad infusion site, to me too, but not this morning. I had changed the site once and still got the highs which would not budge. After two corrections and a tad bit of a 1.5 extra unit overbolus, I went down to 67; finally feeling well enough and stable enough to eat a late lunch, which I bolussed for after I had consumed it. Just kept on rolling and had a good afternoon with no spikes and no lows.
Hi, thank you for the feedback. Unfortunately I did change my infusion set right away, so I couldnt not blame it on that. I'm still pretty confused. I woke up this morning with another low...38! I was careful to not over treat it...having only a small apple and a slice of cheese. I woke up 145 (3 hours later) i corrected that at 6am...it is now 8:45 and i am 160 (no food in between). So now I just pumped another 1 unit, and will sit patiently and see if it budges.
Another worry of mine, secondary of course, is that I may gain wait from all of this extra insulin. I have recently lost about 10 pounds due to great control and less insulin...will be sad if that creeps back on again.
Watch careful that you dont over-correct highs as well! This higher bg might still be a result of the hypo treatment, as cheese slows down the stuff quite a bit. If you correct that much you could get into a low easily again and off goes the roller coaster. Try out if you just come down on your own. If you have this ups and downs for a long time i advice basal testing so you find out where the problems might be
Love, swisschocolate
To treat 31 mg/dl with an apple is quite optimistic (I better not write careless). I would always treat it aggressively with glucose tabs. With that number 20g of glucose based carbs at least. The apple could also leave traces on your hand that might give you false readings for the following test. Let us assume the 122 mg/dl might have not been correct and your basal profile is not very high in the morning. A following low in combination with very little insulin on board plus dawn phenomenon could trigger a rebound to 389 mg/dl. This is actually the only combination I could think of where the liver might overcome the moderation by the Metformin. If the pump set was the culprit your numbers will look better today - at least I hope so.
If you're not eating more calories than you need each day, I wouldn't worry too much about the weight gain. With low-carb, modest calorie diet, you're mostly just cycling glucose back and forth into and out of your liver.
Curious as to why you think an apple with peanut butter is a careless way to treat a low? It has always worked for me in the sense that I never spike afterwards...except for this one time, which is why I was very concerned.
