Losing hope with these readings!

Hellbunny

Well-Known Member
Messages
240
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Hi everyone, i'm type 1 and this is my third baby, both previous pregnancies were easy compared to this time round, i didn't have a reading over 8mmol last time, now this time its all been haywire from word go!! Really greatful for your advice so here goes xx

I just feel like giving up! Can get my breakfast and lunch reading normal but after evening meal is a fail every single night.
Usually this is what happens:
Inject then eat meal. 1hour later around 6mmol
2hours later around 8 mmol
before bed (so around 5 hours later) around 12mmol.

I'm having my basal around 6pm each night. I've tried going low carb, high carb low fat, high carb high fat, none is working. I went evening meal free and my before bed reading was 5mmol, so its clearly that evening meal! I don't know what to do to sort this out? DSN just said carry on with it, but i can't keep going to bed with a reading of 12 and above every night, thats bad enough not being pregnant, but in pregnancy its a bloody no go isn't it?!

Also, i take 8 units of levemir at night as basal. My morning reading is between 7 and 8mmol. If i increase i go hypo twice at night, again DSN just said theres nothing i can do, and to keep my fasting at 8mmol because hypoing isn't good which i know. Its the dawn phenomenon i suspect but theres no info anywhere about type one and this, its all about diet control GD!
 

ivinghoe

Well-Known Member
Messages
89
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
professional football
I would ask to see your consultant and see if they can be of more help tbh but heres what I would try..

I would guess its the extra hormones from the growing baby making resistant to your insulin. It looks from what you have said like you will need to lower your evening carb ratio a little to try get the start of your sleep BS a little lower ...
ie increase your evening dose by 10% and see if it moves your BS in the right direction. You will need to watch what happens overnight though as you're morning BS is quite a bit lower than when you go to bed so you may need to reduce the evening levemir dose by a similar amount so you dont go low overnight.
Dont forget I am no expert on regarding having babies :D so you must test especially overnight when you try tweaking your doses if you think doing so may work for you :!:
Hope all goes well for you and your baby Hellbunny :)
 

hanadr

Expert
Messages
8,157
Dislikes
soaps on telly and people talking about the characters as if they were real.
Just a thought
Could you be carrying twins?
Hana
 

abc1

Newbie
Messages
4
Hello,

I spoke to my consultant on Friday, as I was waking with higher readings than i was going to sleep with. The 2 options he suggested:

1)That i was having a mild hypo in the early hours and that my sugars then 'bounced' back up hence the higher reading by the time I tested.
2)Or, to increase my levemir and increase my novorapid ratio, ie. i was taking 18 units levemir at night (pre pregnancy was on 12!) and used novorapid ratio of 1:7 with dinner, hence reading of 6ish before bed, previously i would then wake with reading 4-6. Now, I take 20 units levemir, but work on ratio 1:9 with food, and aim to go to bed between 7-8. However, I take levemir at 7pm, take novorapid and eat at 8pm and go to bed 10/10.30pm, so my peaks of levemir and novorapid will be very different from yours.

Also, I am 25 weeks, and for the last 2 weeks I have had to change both levemir and novorapid every couple of days; my consultant said that effect of pregnancy on diabetes has no consistency from person to person. I appreciate this isn't particularly helpful but i thought it may be reassuring to hear that someone else is having to constantly change their dosages too!

I do hope that you manage to play around with your doses, in the earlier stages of pregnancy i had frequent nightime hypos, nightly for many weeks, and it was as you describe a battle to sort it out. I did have to go to bed with reading in double figures to avoid it.
 

Hellbunny

Well-Known Member
Messages
240
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Thanks, im just losing the plot with it all :( Only having the one baby so defo not twins lol. I think i'm just in shock as my first two pregnancies were so easy, i rarely went above 7mmol, my A1C throughout was always below 5, so seeing double figures is getting me down i think.

I've increased my levemir but i'm waking around 1am low, i can get my 1hour post meal reading below 7mmol, but its about 3 hours later it seems to go up. I've spoke to my DSN who said my levemir must run out before the 24hour time, and to split the dose but i just end up hypoing. It seems its the dawn phenomenon as i was awake alot last night with my 2 year old and i checked at 3am and it was 4.9mmol, i checked at 6am and it was 7mmol, so i think when i increase the levemir thats where i'm going low.

I know a pump would probably combat this as i could increase the basal in the early hours but i doubt i would get one due to funding in my area, and i can't afford one as they are really expensive.

Thanks for replying it helps xxx