Help with sugar roller coaster

[ryan1990]

hi laura i know how you feel basically that whole 1/10 ratio for insulin and carbs seems like bull as i tried it out this morning i had bran flakes and two pieces of toast the whole carb content came to 50g so i took 8 units of insluin and low and behold two hours later my blood sugar is 13.5 cant win then a hour later its 2.4 just mental dont know *** is going on with it sick of living my life like this on a constant high or low having to make sure i dont go anywhere without food is a nightmare do you have much luck with your basual insulin and your daily insulin regime as i am open to any help

 

[tim2000s]

@ryan1990, have you done any basal testing yet (as you were advised right at the start of this topic)? Whenever there are issues like this, you have to go back to first principles and check that everything is correct. If you don't, it is very hard to fix and moaning about it on a forum doesn't help you fix it!

A reminder here of how to do it: http://integrateddiabetes.com/basal-testing/

 

[LauraC27]

I think it's a little different for me as this is all new to me. I've only had diabetes for 3 months so I'm still learning so I'm no expert my any means.. for you I imagine you've had years it.. (not sure when you were diagnosed) but it's easy to get stuck in a rut, get fed up, have no motivation anymore..
but diabetes doesn't come with choices.. we have to get on with it. and I'm sure with your blood sugars being so up and down this is probably affecting your mood too.. (I'm not trying to tell you what you feel .. or even how you should feel.. I'm just trying to help you feel a bit better about it all) ...
I'm going on a mini carb counting session tomorrow at the hospital and then an appointment with my diabetic nurse after that.. hopefully that's going to give me some more idea..
i do realise you've had diabetes for years.. but maybe it would be good to go and speak to a nurse just to give you some peace of mind.. you never know you may come away feeling a bit less stressed? I'll let you know how tomorrow goes. it's easy to get down about it all and fed up.. but you are so young if you do get a bit more control of it life would be alot easier! and you wouldn't feel so down I'm sure everyone goes through these problems at some stage with diabetes.. but other people get through it and manage and so will you. ☺

 

[RuthW]

Ryan, I don't know exactly what you ate, but I think two things: I have never met a piece of toast that was less than 25g carbs, so I suspect your carb counting is way out. Second, possible reasons for the high then low : your carb counting is out, your timing is out, or your basal is wrong. Or more than one of those. My guess is carb counting plus timing of bolus.

 

[becky.ford93]

Don't forget you need to carb count milk as well. Did you correct the 13.5? That may be why you went low. I'm sure many people here will disagree with me but for now I would concentrate on getting your pre-meal readings right, and not panic about post-meal highs. You can get to sorting that out later. To me it sounds like in general you've been regularly over correcting yourself. Also, were you high before breakfast? Otherwise it should only have been 5 units for 50g carb

 

[noblehead]

hi laura i know how you feel basically that whole 1/10 ratio for insulin and carbs seems like bull as i tried it out this morning i had bran flakes and two pieces of toast the whole carb content came to 50g so i took 8 units of insluin and low and behold two hours later my blood sugar is 13.5 cant win then a hour later its 2.4 just mental dont know *** is going on with it sick of living my life like this on a constant high or low having to make sure i dont go anywhere without food is a nightmare do you have much luck with your basual insulin and your daily insulin regime as i am open to any help

A 40g serving of Bran Flakes is around 30g of carbs plus milk say 5g, most medium sized slices of bread can range from 15-20g of carbs so I'd say the carb content of your meal was nearer 65-75g, on a ratio of 1:10 you would need to give 6.5 - 7.5 units of insulin provided your pre-breakfast bg levels were in range.

 

[RuthW]

Ryan, have heard of the DAFNE courses that the NHS runs? That would really help you. You have to ask your doctor or DN to enrol you, I believe.

 

[bk60]

Hi Ryan, I have been a type 1 for 25 yrs now and still struggle. However, I saw a new Diabete's Dr on Monday. He dropped my long acting at night by 4 and funnily enough, after one day of highs the last 2 have evened out.
What ever you do, Go to your GP and demand to see a specialist as soon as you can. Try and keep a record of your readings and insulin taken, as well as meals, because, this helps the Dr work out what is going on. Hope this helps.

 

[Claire007]

Can I just give a big LIKE for all the invaluable information on this thread
It's just so helpful ,as a recently diagnosed type 1,I've had all this information, but it's just great to refresh. Who ever knew diabetes was so bloody complicated? I certainly didn't.

Ryan, you sound so defeated mate but you can do it, go back to basics, do that basal testing, it's a pain but cmon, it's one day and it will help you enormously.

 

[nigelho]

I'm guessing it's normal for your blood sugars to fluctuate during the day but I can't seem to keep mine regular this has been the same for a year now I'm on humolog 7 units In morning 10 at lunch and 12 in evening and all my readings are all over the place I hardly eat much and when I do I get severe highs and sudden lows my reading this morning was 2.1 what is that !! I must be having hypos daily as my hba1c is 5.4 which is too low really this is annoying as I get no help with doctors and just feel trapped in this non stop rollar coaster iv had diabites for 6 years and I'm a type 1 I'm skinny and not overweight I also suffer with weakness in my legs and episodic foot drop now :/ to make things worse

Consider doing the DAFNE Course. It sorted me out in 2013 and it's much more than just learning how to carb count. You learn much more than the DSN will ever tell you.

 

[RuthW]

Are you still with us, Ryan, or have we scared you off?

 

[ryan1990]

im still around i have had two days of good control well i say good there were no highs but 4 lows in the day so not good i guess i am going to try taking my basual in the day see what that does although i dont want to go hypo in my sleep even though i wouldn't feel it still dangerous as far as carbs and counting i dont understand how you work out the ratio of insulin to carbs as im taking 10 units for a 60 g carb meal and its stil going high so dosent figure out

 

[RuthW]

Have you made any changes to timing of boluses? You know that novorapid usually starts working about fifteen minutes after you inject and its action peaks 90 minutes after you inject. So you want your digestion and your insulin to work together. So if your blood sugar is high before a meal, inject, wait half an hour, then eat. If its normal, just wait fifteen minutes after injecting. Your pattern of high blood sugar, then hypo means that your food is digested and glucose enters your blood stream before the insulin. Then you pee out half the glucose, and the insulin arrives too late and sends you hypo. Try changing the timing. Tim2000s leaves a long time between bolus and meal, longer than I do, so each of us has to work out our own timing. Some people digest faster than others, I guess.
But if you've cut the highs, that's an improvement, half the roller coaster cut down!

This is the article that helped me stop those swings:
http://www.diabetesselfmanagement.com/managing-diabetes/blood-glucose-management/strike-the-spike/

 

[Juliet boxall]

Hi there.i am new to this as well but I am on novorapid and levemire and I find I can eat what I want and can keep my sugars somewhere around normal as I take the correct amount for each meal.it still takes some work and carb counting but it may work for you too.it could be worth a try.

 

[Juliet boxall]

I was also 1/10 but I was still high just like what you are experiencing.i contacted the diabetes clinic with a week of bg readings and they changed it to 2/10 and that worked. But you would need to talk to your clinic first.

 

[RuthW]

If you want to check your own carb counting without going back to your clinic or DN, there's a free online course here: http://www.bdec-e-learning.com

I personally think it is worth re-checking every now and then. When I was first diagnosed we were told to weigh and measure everything. Then a few years later we were told to give that up, it's useless, and just eyeball everything. Now the fashion is back to weighing.

But fashions or not, I do take time to weigh stuff like rice, bread, bulgur, potatoes at least every couple of weeks. Otherwise I start to suffer from "portion distortion", where I am convinced I am eating 40g of carbs, but when I weigh it I find its more like 60 or 70. Especially when I'm hungry!

Digital scales are cheap and good now. I have one of those ones where you put the dish, plate, cup, whatever on top and then turn it on and it sets itself to zero, so no maths to subtract the dish.

 

[Juliet boxall]

I have a really good digital scale like yhe one you describe and i do religiously weigh all food but couldn't work out why my sugars were all over the place.no one told me the regime could be changed until last week so for three years I had been struggling to control and was permanently self correcting when it could have been sorted out.hopefully now it will start to settle down.

 

[ryan1990]

its a constant nightmare isnt it is it natural that everyone's sugars go high after a meal like say if you check your bg 30 mins after a meal and its say 12.4 would this be ok as long as in another hour and a half it went to 5.6 just worry about all these highs like i imagine its damaging my body everytime i have a high reading or is it just impossible to not have a high reading as everyone's bodies metabolise differently ?

 

[Juliet boxall]

Well I was told by the consultant that you should inject 15 minutes before a meal as it takes 30minutes to even start working.if you bear this in mind then your sugars will be high after a meal.my insulin lasts 4 hours in my body so as long as it doesn't stay high after this time then as far as I am aware this is normal.

 

[ryan1990]

ok least thats not that bad then just wish someone could shed light on foot drop and muscle cramps as i suffer with this daily its a nightmare even when my blood sugar is in normal limits im still cramping my legs my back my arms my jaw funnily enough and now i feel the cramping in my lungs its as if i cant breathe its horrible and it always accompanied by a strong metallic smell in my nose