Type 1 Went high despite not eating

olster

Active Member
Messages
26
Type of diabetes
Type 1
So im new to this whole type 1 diabetes thing so i may be a bit uneducated still, but today i had my first hypo(1.5 hours after eating my lunch), i went to 4.0 and i was told by my consultant to have my Glucojuice if i go 4 or under. So i had the drink, 15g carbs, then check my sugars 15 mins later and im back to 8.0. Then around 2 hours after that (haven't eaten anything) my sugars are up to 12.3 (my sugars are fairly high anyway because im only a week in with this and my consultant is fine with this as theyre still getting me the correct doses) but im confused why they went high despite not eating. If anyone could give me some information on why this happened it would be great :)
 

urbanracer

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5,186
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Type 1
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Not being able to eat as many chocolate digestives as I used to.
So im new to this whole type 1 diabetes thing so i may be a bit uneducated still, but today i had my first hypo(1.5 hours after eating my lunch), i went to 4.0 and i was told by my consultant to have my Glucojuice if i go 4 or under. So i had the drink, 15g carbs, then check my sugars 15 mins later and im back to 8.0. Then around 2 hours after that (haven't eaten anything) my sugars are up to 12.3 (my sugars are fairly high anyway because im only a week in with this and my consultant is fine with this as theyre still getting me the correct doses) but im confused why they went high despite not eating. If anyone could give me some information on why this happened it would be great :)

You went from 4 to 8 in 15 minutes!

What insulin regime are you on?
 
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catapillar

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3,390
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You did eat. You had 15g of carbs in glucojuice to treat a hypo, that wasn't a hypo. A hypo is anything under 4. So treating 4 with a glucojuice might be a might of an over reaction. It a good idea to think about eating if you are at 4, because you want to avoid dropping under and actually having a hypo. But something more like 4 or 5g of carbs would do better at keeping you up, without raising you through the roof.

A test two hours after eating is a test after eating.

So, you were 4, you drink glucojuice 15g of fast acting carbs, and 15 min later you are 8. That's normal glucojuice is a nice fast acting hypo treatment. But that doesn't mean all of the carbs in glucojuice are processed within 15 min and that's the end of the rise, they aren't and it isn't, it will keep taking you up and that's why you had risen to 12 2 hrs after.

Traditional advice to see how food and insulin has effected your blood sugar is to test 2 hours after your first bite of the meal. Just like you tested 2 hours after the glucojuice. You really can't look at that as a test after not eating anything, it's a test showing you the impact of the glucojuice.
 

paulus1

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Messages
843
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
ok taking the drink was correct. but not eating a slow release carbs afterwards was missed. to then not eat was very risky. normally the drink would get your levels up and the other carbs to keep them up. puzzled why you dropped so low when your still quite high. please dont miss meals and try for now to keep them roughly the same time.
 

olster

Active Member
Messages
26
Type of diabetes
Type 1
You did eat. You had 15g of carbs in glucojuice to treat a hypo, that wasn't a hypo. A hypo is anything under 4. So treating 4 with a glucojuice might be a might of an over reaction. It a good idea to think about eating if you are at 4, because you want to avoid dropping under and actually having a hypo. But something more like 4 or 5g of carbs would do better at keeping you up, without raising you through the roof.

A test two hours after eating is a test after eating.

So, you were 4, you drink glucojuice 15g of fast acting carbs, and 15 min later you are 8. That's normal glucojuice is a nice fast acting hypo treatment. But that doesn't mean all of the carbs in glucojuice are processed within 15 min and that's the end of the rise, they aren't and it isn't, it will keep taking you up and that's why you had risen to 12 2 hrs after.

Traditional advice to see how food and insulin has effected your blood sugar is to test 2 hours after your first bite of the meal. Just like you tested 2 hours after the glucojuice. You really can't look at that as a test after not eating anything, it's a test showing you the impact of the glucojuice.
I began feeling a huge amount of anxiety, my heart began beating fast and i felt dizzy. I was scared and didnt know what to do, so i went for the juice as i felt like i was going to pass out. I was told to only have the juice for a hypo (which i personally dont think is right but i thought i should trust my consultant over my own judgement). I also am new to this so i didnt know the whole effect, i only know to have it if i go low, but atleast i know for next time, sorry.
 

olster

Active Member
Messages
26
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Are you sure the reading of 4mmol/l was accurate? Did you wash your hands properly and re-test?
Yeah, i did wash my hands but i was so shaky that even getting the first reading took time and then when i saw the result of 4 i reacted (now i realise that i overreacted) due to the fear i had over passing out. This was the first hypo i had and my only thought was to get my sugars up.
 

olster

Active Member
Messages
26
Type of diabetes
Type 1
You went from 4 to 8 in 15 minutes!

What insulin regime are you on?

6 levemir in morning, then 6 novorapid before each meal but if im over 12 before that meal i have to increase it by 1 unit, then 7 at night.
They are still working out what i right for me, ive been out of hospital for 4 days.
 

catapillar

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3,390
Type of diabetes
Type 1
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Insulin
I began feeling a huge amount of anxiety, my heart began beating fast and i felt dizzy. I was scared and didnt know what to do, so i went for the juice as i felt like i was going to pass out. I was told to only have the juice for a hypo (which i personally dont think is right but i thought i should trust my consultant over my own judgement). I also am new to this so i didnt know the whole effect, i only know to have it if i go low, but atleast i know for next time, sorry.

If your newly diagnosed and normally running high it's normal to get hypo symptoms at normal levels. This is called a false hypo, you body is so used to running high that it wrongly think the normal levels are hypo. You did well to treat it. I know on my first day of using insulin I nearly passed out into my wheatabix and couldn't even manage to open the shiny new packet of dextrose tablets to treat it - my mum had to open them and feed me. But my blood sugar was actually 9, so definitely not hypo, it was just I'd previously been sitting over 30 for a few weeks/months so it took a while to get used to being at normal levels.
 

urbanracer

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5,186
Type of diabetes
Type 1
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Insulin
Dislikes
Not being able to eat as many chocolate digestives as I used to.
6 levemir in morning, then 6 novorapid before each meal but if im over 12 before that meal i have to increase it by 1 unit, then 7 at night.
They are still working out what i right for me, ive been out of hospital for 4 days.

And may I ask what you ate for lunch?
 

olster

Active Member
Messages
26
Type of diabetes
Type 1
If your newly diagnosed and normally running high it's normal to get hypo symptoms at normal levels. This is called a false hypo, you body is so used to running high that it wrongly think the normal levels are hypo. You did well to treat it. I know on my first day of using insulin I nearly passed out into my wheatabix and couldn't even manage to open the shiny new packet of dextrose tablets to treat it - my mum had to open them and feed me. But my blood sugar was actually 9, so definitely not hypo, it was just I'd previously been sitting over 30 for a few weeks/months so it took a while to get used to being at normal levels.
And may I ask what you ate for lunch?
2 Boiled eggs, breast of chicken and uncle bens quinoa+whole grain, ive been told to eat as normal as i can.
 

Davie_sett

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Messages
78
Type of diabetes
Type 1
I can quite easily go from 4-8 in about 15 mins admittedly the machine can be off a little bit. If I had a hypo then ate something I would still give myself insulting after I can’t really say how much it depends on so many factors
 

scotteric

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Messages
312
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
2 Boiled eggs, breast of chicken and uncle bens quinoa+whole grain, ive been told to eat as normal as i can.
It's possible the protein or some of the carbs from this meal hit you later. This is common and one of the hardest parts of dosing insulin. A pump makes it easier or you can learn to take more insulin later depending on what you eat.
 

olster

Active Member
Messages
26
Type of diabetes
Type 1
It's possible the protein or some of the carbs from this meal hit you later. This is common and one of the hardest parts of dosing insulin. A pump makes it easier or you can learn to take more insulin later depending on what you eat.
Thanks, thats interesting to know, also another question i have is, if i eat a snack that has a very small amount of carbs like cheese or olives etc how do i dose the insulin (under 1 unit) or is there no need to? I get peckish in between meals and i dont know how to go about eating something, or is it not possible to snack between meals with t1d.
 

Scott-C

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Messages
2,474
Type of diabetes
Type 1
It's possible the protein or some of the carbs from this meal hit you later. This is common and one of the hardest parts of dosing insulin. A pump makes it easier or you can learn to take more insulin later depending on what you eat.

No, that played no part in it at all - it was entirely the glucojuice.
 

scotteric

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Messages
312
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Thanks, thats interesting to know, also another question i have is, if i eat a snack that has a very small amount of carbs like cheese or olives etc how do i dose the insulin (under 1 unit) or is there no need to? I get peckish in between meals and i dont know how to go about eating something, or is it not possible to snack between meals with t1d.

It's definitely possible to snack! I wouldn't take insulin for cheese or olives but there are plenty of things I would where I would take under 1 unit and do so all the time. I eat when I'm hungry and I'm not afraid of injecting as many times as I need to whenever I want to eat. If you are using NovoRapid you can use the NovoPen Echo which doses in half units. Pumps allow you to take insulin as small as 0.1 units if you ever consider one. Remember you need to figure out what your insulin:carb ratio is and then you can eat more of what you want, when you want.
 
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scotteric

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312
Type of diabetes
Type 1
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Pump
No, that played no part in it at all - it was entirely the glucojuice.
That's possible, but you can't say that for certain. Nothing is certain with this disease and lots of things digest later.
 

Scott-C

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Messages
2,474
Type of diabetes
Type 1
So im new to this whole type 1 diabetes thing so i may be a bit uneducated still, but today i had my first hypo(1.5 hours after eating my lunch), i went to 4.0 and i was told by my consultant to have my Glucojuice if i go 4 or under. So i had the drink, 15g carbs, then check my sugars 15 mins later and im back to 8.0. Then around 2 hours after that (haven't eaten anything) my sugars are up to 12.3 (my sugars are fairly high anyway because im only a week in with this and my consultant is fine with this as theyre still getting me the correct doses) but im confused why they went high despite not eating. If anyone could give me some information on why this happened it would be great :)

For someone who has been so recently dx'd, you're doing a damned good job of figuring out how T1 works! You're asking the right questions.

My take on it is this. You took a bolus shot for lunch, lunch was some uncle ben's whole grain, low gi, so your insulin for that probably started kicking in lowering you before the rice started digesting, so you end up low.

So then you, correctly, fire in some glucojuice to bring it back up. I say correctly, because that is correct for a newly dx to do - you're wanting to avoid hypos as much as possible in these first few days, so there's no harm in ending up at 12, even though though you overshot it too much this time - better safe than sorry.

Give it a bit of time, and you'll figure out ways of saying, ok, dropping levels, 15 g glucojuice too much, 4 to 8g glucotabs ok, but don't worry about that too much at the moment.

The end result is that you've got both the rice and the glucojuice kicking in, so 12 isn't a surprise.

You'll learn a lot about T1 by making mistakes and then reviewing them - mistakes aren't a failure: they teach you things.

In this case, you've maybe learned that the shot you took for the amount of carbs in that meal was a little too much, so think about tailing it back a bit for the next same sized meal, or taking the shot nearer to meal time, because the insulin has got to work before the food had turned to glucose. And how, while it is absolutely understandable that you've scoofed a whole glucojuice in response to your first hypo (welcome to the club - hypos ain't nice, don't beat about the bush with them), you've learned that it is possible to overtreat them by taking too much neat glucose. I tend to keep glucojuice for emergencies, your full on hard drop hypos, but for your common or garden slow hypos, a few glucotabs, about 4 to 8g sorts most other hypos out, but you'll learn those subtleties as time goes by, so don't be slow to fill your face with a glucojuice in these early days if you're feeling wobbly even if it puts you too high.

Keep at it, kid, you're doing well!
 
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urbanracer

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Not being able to eat as many chocolate digestives as I used to.
For someone who has been so recently dx'd, you're doing a damned good job of figuring out how T1 works! You're asking the right questions.

My take on it is this. You took a bolus shot for lunch, lunch was some uncle ben's whole grain, low gi, so your insulin for that probably started kicking in lowering you before the rice started digesting, so you end up low.

I'm also thinking that as a newly diagnosed T1, his pancreas might still be pushing out some insulin just to complicate the issue further. I still remember that my blood glucose was all over the place during the honeymoon period.
 

olster

Active Member
Messages
26
Type of diabetes
Type 1
For someone who has been so recently dx'd, you're doing a damned good job of figuring out how T1 works! You're asking the right questions.

My take on it is this. You took a bolus shot for lunch, lunch was some uncle ben's whole grain, low gi, so your insulin for that probably started kicking in lowering you before the rice started digesting, so you end up low.

So then you, correctly, fire in some glucojuice to bring it back up. I say correctly, because that is correct for a newly dx to do - you're wanting to avoid hypos as much as possible in these first few days, so there's no harm in ending up at 12, even though though you overshot it too much this time - better safe than sorry.

Give it a bit of time, and you'll figure out ways of saying, ok, dropping levels, 15 g glucojuice too much, 4 to 8g glucotabs ok, but don't worry about that too much at the moment.

The end result is that you've got both the rice and the glucojuice kicking in, so 12 isn't a surprise.

You'll learn a lot about T1 by making mistakes and then reviewing them - mistakes aren't a failure: they teach you things.

In this case, you've maybe learned that the shot you took for the amount of carbs in that meal was a little too much, so think about tailing it back a bit for the next same sized meal, or taking the shot nearer to meal time, because the insulin has got to work before the food had turned to glucose. And how, while it is absolutely understandable that you've scoofed a whole glucojuice in response to your first hypo (welcome to the club - hypos ain't nice, don't beat about the bush with them), you've learned that it is possible to overtreat them by taking too much neat glucose. I tend to keep glucojuice for emergencies, your full on hard drop hypos, but for your common or garden slow hypos, a few glucotabs, about 4 to 8g sorts most other hypos out, but you'll learn those subtleties as time goes by, so don't be slow to fill your face with a glucojuice in these early days if you're feeling wobbly even if it puts you too high.

Keep at it, kid, you're doing well!
Thank you! I have a much better understanding now
 

StewartH

Well-Known Member
Messages
47
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Olster, Your descriptions took me back to my very first hypo in hospital 1981, about an hour after being given my very first injection. As Scott-C has said, you are doing well. You may guess form the various answers above, controlling sugar levels is a very complicated business. The rules they give you at hospital are simplified to make them easier to learn and imply that accurate control is possible, and expected of you.... but it is not nearly that simple and certainly not easy. Over the coming years you will battle with lows and highs, with finding out what various foods do to your blood glucose levels , what various sports and activities do. You will find out that the body fuelling system is always a bit 'unpredictable' and will often be asking yourself after a blood test ' how did that happen?'. But with continuing curiosity and determination you will follow the path to become the worlds no.1 expert on Olster blood glucose control. Go for gold.
Good luck always.