Hi donnelysdogs, I've had a few switches of insulin regimen over the yeard but for the last 16 years I've injected in early mornings to beat the dawn phenomenon, it's been my own trial and error, and my current regimen is:
- 5 a.m Levemir
- 6 a.m Novorapid 1 unit (with put food, so by 8 a.m I'm usually between 4.8 - 5.6).
- 7 p.m Novorapid 3 units with 10g carb two thirds protein, including a big salad.
- 4 p.m 2 units sometimes without food, usually with 10g carb, like an apple.
- 9 p.m Levemir
I sleep early and wake up early, I'm working by 8 a.m. and if I don't inject the Novorapid in the morning, without food, my BS would go up to 13 or more. It took a while to adjust it to a steady level but I found that in the mornings my BS tends towards highs so I cut out eating my apple, (I've never been a breakfast eater really) then and it would stay level until lunch time.
20 or 25 years ago I injected higher doses and ate more varied foods but my metabolism changed and it's down to the same amount of the same thing each day now. Boring as hell but I'd rather avoid the mess of spikes and stick to the same meals, if you can call them that.
So you're not the only one doing early morning shots, and I know it's a pain, but I wake up a few times between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. and sometimes inject 1 unit of Novorapid to correct an upward-looking result. I test 8 or 9 times a day, if not I wouldn't have a clue.
43 years of this cruel T1 hasn't made it easier, I certainly don't have great control of B.S all the time, I do a lot of corrective shots. Sometimes the body just wants to do its own thing and I tear my hair out. Thankfully I haven't had to buy a wig yet.
For me T1 is draining, all the testing and planning and intervention when necessary. But it's there and we have to bite the bullet, to get on with it...I tell myself to take it one day at a time. No more beating myself up like I used to; that only came when I realised and accepted there's no such thing as perfect control which clinic visits always made me think I wasn't getting and had to strive for. My control is not high or low, it's in between, I make a lot of effort to be 'stable' and it isn't easy.
I'm sure maby of us would relax a bit more if some doctors and nurses who falsely believe there's an ideal perfect diabetic control stop adding to the burden of diabetes with that attitude. There's always a cloud of censorship about how good we are at controlling those bloody BS and how doomed we are if we don't get it right. If we were conditioned to relax about our results -yes work on getting better results - but relax and not be under that horrible gun, it wouldn't drain the living daylights out of us so much, that head pressure to get it right all the time. They should try living with it for a day.
I must shut up now. Hope you're feeling alright.