Do i have a uncommon Lada?

[absolutedisgrace]

Im finding it hard to get taken seriously by GPs. I was diagnosed as type 1 at the age of 30. Im certain i had slowly developing symptoms prior for many years. Im 42 now. When i was first diagnosed i used 1 unit of insulin for every 7g of carbs. Now im down to 1 for 2g. So far, so Lada right?

Well here is where is gets odd. At night time it can vary, i could be anywhere from 1 to 2g or 1 to 3g (currently). Even worse i get major sugar crashes commonly while trying to get to bed. These will commonly come on between 9:30pm and 12:30am. They can be so severe that ill need to eat between 10g to 100g of carbs to soak up the insulin that it feels like has been dumped into my blood stream. The amount is different every night.

Am i alone in this? Does anyone else have a dormant during the day to over active pancreas at night? One upside is that i know the difference in feeling between low blood sugar and falling blood sugar.

 

[Fenn]

Hi, welcome. I don’t know the definition of LADA but it sounds like you have insulin resistance. Do you take basal insulin? Do you have a split dose? I personally have to take less in the evening otherwise I hypo at 3am. I find it massively easier to control my numbers by eating VLC but that’s not for everyone I know, might be worth trying a low carb evening meal, therefore using way less insulin so maybe not crashing? Lots of assumptions sorry, hope you find some answers.

 

[Rokaab]

It could be that your ratio is different for the evening than the morning, mine certainly is, I need nearly twice as much per carb in the morning than I do in the evening.

Also I know my blood sugar drops between midnight and 3am if I am on a normal basal dose but then rises after that (by a lot on many occasions) - I am now on a pump to deal with the rollercoaster ride my blood sugars take overnight

 

[absolutedisgrace]

Thanks for the replies. Im not sure what basal insulin is. I take a long acting insulin once a day called optisulin. Someone of my size should take 30 units, but i find i can take 5 units with the same effect. Taking none becomes an issue after a couple of days so i do need it.

Whenever i eat, i have to use novorapid. Thats where the 1 unit to 2g of carb ratio comes from.

Mostly i behave like a type 1 diabetic but its like i still get a very small amount of insulin at night time, except when it deciedes to just randomly dump a load of it out of the blue.

 

[Circuspony]

I didn't know until I got the libre that I crash in the early hours. I never wake and obviously my liver must dump glucose at some point before my 6am alarm because my waking levels were fine. Explained the bad sleep and headaches which I was blaming on hormones. I've pulled back massively on my Tresiba dose as a result

No idea why it happens and no input from the medical team apart from telling me to make sure I had treatment by the bed.

 

[EllieM]

I didn't know until I got the libre that I crash in the early hours. I never wake and obviously my liver must dump glucose at some point before my 6am alarm because my waking levels were fine. Explained the bad sleep and headaches which I was blaming on hormones. I've pulled back massively on my Tresiba dose as a result

No idea why it happens and no input from the medical team apart from telling me to make sure I had treatment by the bed.

Have you ever tested the libre lows with a glucometer? Libres can give false "compression lows" at night if you lie on the sensor....