In short continuing to live with it! I'm almost as scared to continue to live with it as actually dying. Having diabetes is like trying to survive on a slowly sinking ship.
Hi earthling,
Basal changes are normal for diabetes...we all fight that to some extent.
What happened to me was major drops at night between midnight and 3 a.m. One night I went to bed at 190 with a small correction at bedtime and woke up at 1:30 a.m. at 50. I kept dropping every night for several weeks as I continued to reduce my evening Lantus dose. Finally found the tipping point last night for nightime but now the daytime numbers are high from reduced basal (on MDI). To illustrate how extreme the change was, I went from 29 units of Lantus to 7 units of Lantus in a 2 week period.
My endo said that when your kidneys aren't functioning properly the insulin continues to circulate in your body longer than it should causing major drops at night. I really don't understand why it happens at night and not all the time.
And it was the standard blood panel. He redid my kidney, liver and thyroid function bloodwork. Kidney and liver were fine, still waiting for thyroid result. Endo mentioned thyroid could be a possibility but I've been on thyroid meds for years already.
Me too. on thyroid meds for years. Thanks. I learned something! Glad you are ok. It's got to be changing girl hormones, right? That's what pushed me onto the pump.
"Truly I'm scared of insulin". That's it in a nutshell Cindy.
Getting old and ending up in a nursing home. Or something happening that would disable me and not allow me to take care of myself. If I were incapacitated for any reason, even now, my husband wouldn't have a clue how to manage my diabetes. And the doctors and nurses around here?....oh hell, might as well OD on insulin and get it over with.
Smileandnod,
I too experienced some crazy lows in the nights - whenever that happens, my endo has me wake up at 3 am and test for a week, see if there is a pattern...it usually results in a decrease in Lantus.
It is very scary to have night time lows (they terrify me, but I think they terrify my very deep sleeping husband more)...do you have a bedtime snack??
Bec
Yes those hormones make me crazy, my body is fighting it with everything it has. I'm moving to a pump too but not for a few weeks yet. I'm hoping that helps!
Yes they are scary. My husband had to give me a glucagon shot a couple of months ago and it really shook him up.
Since this started happening I've not been correcting between dinner and bedtime anymore because I've wanted to document the drop with no active Humalog in my system. I've been eating a small amount of protein at bedtime to try to level things out. Hopefully things will settle down soon.
I don't think I know what a good nights sleep really feels like anymore. Every time I wake up for a second, I grab my Dexcom to check it.
Agreed on the good night's sleep - I call it half-sleeping ;)
Are you very active during the day? My docs have told me that "activity" can effect your blood sugar levels up to 10 hours after the physical activity.
Here's hoping things settle down for you soon :)
Good luck with the pump - hopefully it will help (I've heard the first few months can be quite a change - like a second honeymoon period)...all the best!
I agree with Putertech. As long as I can take care of myself, I'm not too worried about what happens. With my pump and Dexcom, I seem to be able to take care of my lows. But I don't have faith that doctors, nurses, or nursing home personnel would be able to take good care of me. One Type 2 sliding scale correction will be enough to kill me, so maybe I don't have to worry too much about others taking care of me long-term.
Thanks Karen, I have One Touch so those won't help.
I hit E-Bay when I ran out, AR, they aren't as cheap as insurance, but waaaay cheaper than the drugstore, especially if you buy ones almost expired.
Those eBay strips may have come from the "gray market".... strips that people acquired via their insurance and never used, then sold to these resellers for pennies on the dollar. (See http://kuow.org/program.php?id=25844 ). I suppose you do what you've gotta do, but it might trouble me, personally, to know how they end up marketed at those prices.
I won't support the "gray market" at all so I will be justified when I go launch Titleists through the BCBS office windows. I can schwing out of pocket but it pisses the hell off out of me. I feel like I should send them an invoice for all the stupid phone calls. They sent me the form with which to seek reimbursement for my out of pocket crap but didn't tell me where to send it. I guess they want it wrapped around a golf ball launched through their window?
I guess I don't see that as a bad thing,("everybody's looking for something") but I can understand not wanting to support it!
Yeah, it's one thing if we run out from using more, but another if we run out because a supplier doesn't have their act together!
Just curious though...don't you feel sick, tired, not well, peeing all the time, blurred vision etc...if you continue to run your sugars high? This is what I don't understand about those who don't care about control. I don't know what 'high' is for you. What about the fear of losing your eye sight, kidneys, organs, feet, etc...that scares the heck out of me. It's not even that, I simply do not feel well when my blood sugars go high..that's my motivation day in and day out. I want to feel good. When my blood sugars are stable, I feel great. I want a good life not one where I'm always feeling sick. I hate, despise this disease like all of us..but I'll fight this beast with everything i have inside so I don't have to be needy, dependent on my family and/or lose my job, ya know!
me too, i wake up in the middle of the night every night..it seems my body wakes me up. can't remember a good night's sleep either.. :(
i feel this way too, cindy. like, how do i do just normal things or have just a normal life, sometimes if I bolus...or know I need to do a correction and have to be someplace (drive) it makes me very nervous. I'm still nervous about dining out, so many things. it just takes so much out of us. where am i going to be at (physically) when my time for my AM basal shot comes...(with vial and syringe). I know going on a pump will make some of this easy. Even when I was getting my pump training, I had to plan to go in 1/2 hour early and sit in their lobby to eat because I was afraid to bolus, eat and then drive....I don't know. Just get so burned out and bummed out with all this sometimes.
i sometimes feel this too gary...i'm afraid it's going to get worse. the days i feel good, normal blood sugars I feel hopeful, optimistic..it seems so hard to achieve though..and i'm afraid too that this is just how i'm going to feel everyday for the rest of my life, like CRAP most of the time, scared of going to sleep, scared of driving, blha, blah, blah. Sometimes if I have a bad blood sugar day..at night I just pray, just get me through tonight i feel so awful and hopefully tomorrow I'll feel better and wake up to a good number. I get fearful everytime I'm high and have to give a correction, sit there and just wait, wait to test...preoccupied with it. ugh!