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A day in the life of my Bg

N

notorious_bob

Active Member
Messages
41
OK, so decided to map my Bg throughout the day yesterday and here are the results.

Fasting at Daybreak (7:30) was 228 (12.6)
Lantus right before breakfast (15 units as directed)
No real spike after breakfast (15 points)
No real lowering of bloodsugar until 2pm
Bg 124 (6.8) immediately before dinner (1/2 rack store bought ribs with salad)
Again no real spike after dinner (39 points)
Bg at 149 (8.2) before late evening snack and bed
Bg 50 points higher this morning (202 or 11.2)

Thoughts?
Day in the life of my Bg.jpg
 
How many carbs in the ribs? was it in a sauce (usually extra sugar added)
Snacks were what exactly pork rinds or a bag of crisps?.. these things are important (and snacks are best avoided completely)
 
Are you only taking Lantus? No rapid acting?

Your levels are quite high to be honest, so it seems to me that either you need to cut the carbs right down to match your insulin, or you need to increase the insulin (after speaking to nurse/doctor) to meet the carbs you normally eat. I know which one of these I would chose - less carbs = less insulin needed.
 
bulkbiker said:
How many carbs in the ribs? was it in a sauce (usually extra sugar added)
Snacks were what exactly pork rinds or a bag of crisps?.. these things are important (and snacks are best avoided completely)
Click to expand...

I cooked the ribs til dry so no sauce to speak of. No doubt there was some sugar but as noted, my Bg showed no real spike.

As a lunchtime snack I just had lean deli chicken - nothing else
As a bedtime snack I had lean deli chicken, a small piece of cheese and 6 slices of pickled beetroot.

A snack during the day is driven by when I feel hypo - headache, sweats, mood changes etc
If I don't have a snack at bedtime I get a (false) hypo in the middle of the night and wake up soaking in my own sweat.
 
notorious_bob said:
I cooked the ribs til dry so no sauce to speak of. No doubt there was some sugar but as noted, my Bg showed no real spike.

As a lunchtime snack I just had lean deli chicken - nothing else
As a bedtime snack I had lean deli chicken, a small piece of cheese and 6 slices of pickled beetroot.

A snack during the day is driven by when I feel hypo - headache, sweats, mood changes etc
If I don't have a snack at bedtime I get a (false) hypo in the middle of the night and wake up soaking in my own sweat.
Click to expand...

When you feel hypo, do you test?
 
notorious_bob said:
my Bg showed no real spike.
Click to expand...
6.8-8.2 am I missing something.. some times for the readings and times on the graph may be helpful.. sorry to be picky but I'm a data nerd and find it had to comment with only partial data.
Beetroot can be quite carby depending on how produced and as you are in the US I imagine almost everything has added sugar.
 
Bluetit1802 said:
Are you only taking Lantus? No rapid acting?

Your levels are quite high to be honest, so it seems to me that either you need to cut the carbs right down to match your insulin, or you need to increase the insulin (after speaking to nurse/doctor) to meet the carbs you normally eat. I know which one of these I would chose - less carbs = less insulin needed.
Click to expand...

Yes, only Lantus.

Right now, my daily carb intake is usually under 30g. I don't generally eat any carbs with breakfast (trace maybe from a little onion) and my lunch is typically around 5-10g of carbs. Dinner I stay low carb - I can't eat grass/wheat products due to a GMO related allergy so no bread, pasta, rice and I don't eat potatoes.

If I cut carbs completely - as previously mentioned on another thread, I've gone full on Adkins (<20g carbs per day) and my numbers are consistently the same.

I guess I can attempt to cut carbs back to under 20g or even lower but I know that will result in hypos.
 
bulkbiker said:
6.8-8.2 am I missing something.. some times for the readings and times on the graph may be helpful.. sorry to be picky but I'm a data nerd and find it had to comment with only partial data.
Beetroot can be quite carby depending on how produced and as you are in the US I imagine almost everything has added sugar.
Click to expand...
So you'd call a 1.4 rise after dinner a "spike"?

The beetroot is 2g of carbs (sugar) per serving

I wish folks would make up their minds. Previous advice suggested having a late night snack to avoid the hypo.
 
notorious_bob said:
I was getting the hyops as my Bg approached 100 (5.5) before they put me on Lantus in the hospital.
Click to expand...

5.5 is not a hypo. Under 4 is a hypo. If you felt hypo at 5.5 it would have been a false one due to your body being a stranger to lower levels.

The only suggestion I have now is to speak to nurse about changing the timing of your lantus. With your high fasting morning levels the Lantus from the previous breakfast time has past its usefulness. However, I am not an insulin user, so you need advice from someone who knows all about it.
 
Bluetit1802 said:
5.5 is not a hypo. Under 4 is a hypo. If you felt hypo at 5.5 it would have been a false one due to your body being a stranger to lower levels.

The only suggestion I have now is to speak to nurse about changing the timing of your lantus. With your high fasting morning levels the Lantus from the previous breakfast time has past its usefulness. However, I am not an insulin user, so you need advice from someone who knows all about it.
Click to expand...

I would get the (false) hypo (as people are determined to correct me every time I refer to my hypo symptoms, that my Dr refers to as a hypo) regularly and have done over a long period of time. One day when I actually collapse and go into a full blown seizure someone might look and say " wow, that's a hypo" and no doubt a bystander will say "No, his Bg is only 5.5 that's a false hypo" :/

It's not my body being a stranger to lower levels, it's my body's typical reaction to that level. I've had 3 doctors tell me that I'm weird or "that shouldn't be happening". Apparently, not everybody is the same.

BTW, originally I took the Lantus last thing at night and it triggered a "hypo" at 3am which was so severe that it was dangerous. I don't want to go into a diabetic seizure in the middle of the night.
 
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notorious_bob said:
So you'd call a 1.4 rise after dinner a "spike"?

The beetroot is 2g of carbs (sugar) per serving

I wish folks would make up their minds. Previous advice suggested having a late night snack to avoid the hypo.
Click to expand...
what's a serving and carbs are more than just sugar.. if you are only looking at the sugar content of food then you might be underestimating your carb intake significantly.
As for the late night snack advice if you are taking more insulin than you need then you will hypo. We're all individual I will only tell you what works for me because that is all the experience I have.
 
notorious_bob said:
I was getting the hyops as my Bg approached 100 (5.5) before they put me on Lantus in the hospital.
Click to expand...
That's a false hypo as your body is so used to running higher. A "real" hypo is lower than 4.0 but if you are used to low carb you can go lower without feeling "off".

Edit to add sorry missed your previous post but that is in fact hat is happening.
 
bulkbiker said:
what's a serving and carbs are more than just sugar.. if you are only looking at the sugar content of food then you might be underestimating your carb intake significantly.
As for the late night snack advice if you are taking more insulin than you need then you will hypo. We're all individual I will only tell you what works for me because that is all the experience I have.
Click to expand...

A serving is 29g and no, the carbs are all from sugar in this particular case. Yes, I can and do read food labels.

I'm not underestimating my carb intake at all. I monitor it very closely and keep meticulous spreadsheets. You're not the only one who's a data nerd.

Don't worry. Seems like the general perception is that new posters who are seeking help, advice and support are basically here to be bashed and picked holes in. Is this really the way here?
 
notorious_bob said:
A serving is 29g and no, the carbs are all from sugar in this particular case. Yes, I can and do read food labels.

I'm not underestimating my carb intake at all. I monitor it very closely and keep meticulous spreadsheets. You're not the only one who's a data nerd.

Don't worry. Seems like the general perception is that new posters who are seeking help, advice and support are basically here to be bashed and picked holes in. Is this really the way here?
Click to expand...

OK fine.. you are getting frustrated with me because I can't solve your problem. I understand that but am backing out of this one. Good luck with your efforts to find a solution.
 
Lantus has a peak at around 4 hours, up until that point it doesn't do much at all, but it says hello in a quite aggressive way about 4 or so hours after injection. Your blood sugar graph is pretty much an inverse graph of the Lantus action curve, with an early morning rise added on, that could be accounted for by the dawn phenomenon.

Some fast acting insulin in the morning might flatten it out a bit, and given that the rest of the day seems to be ok, with just the Lantus, that might be an option.

I wouldn't go no carbs at all, you'd be denying yourself access to too many foods,that way.
 
notorious_bob said:
A serving is 29g and no, the carbs are all from sugar in this particular case. Yes, I can and do read food labels.

I'm not underestimating my carb intake at all. I monitor it very closely and keep meticulous spreadsheets. You're not the only one who's a data nerd.

Don't worry. Seems like the general perception is that new posters who are seeking help, advice and support are basically here to be bashed and picked holes in. Is this really the way here?
Click to expand...

I don't really think anyone is "bashing and picking holes", just trying to understand and help. We all react differently and I was consistently high for years as I didn't know I was diabetic until I had my free NHS medical and was told I was diabetic (very high glucose and HbA1c). I had no symptoms at all although I should have done.

I find it takes up to a week for anything to change if I am trying anything different, maybe you are the same. Don't worry about the posts you don't like but they all have something to offer and some may help you. Most of what is posted doesn't work for me then I stumble across a gem that helps.

Good luck.
 
51 years on insulin.
I agree with Allison. The Lantus insulin's effect is not going to match the sugar spikes from your meals and the fact that you have high sugar first thing in the morning could mean the Lantus is not lasting through to your next injection. Yes it can be frustrating !! You will need your DSN and doctor to advise on how to sort this out because it may be you need a more tailored insulin regime to better match your meals.. If you google Insulin profiles or graphs and look at the Lantus one, you will see what Allison is saying. Of course the profile is going to vary a bit from person to person but I have read that many on Lantus have to either take it morning and night or move to another long acting insulin tegime. For the meals, some people then use a small dose of short acting insulin before some or all. You can look at profiles of ones like Novorapid etc and see how they are better at peaking to better 'catch' the sugar from breakfast etc. Just remembering that when an insulin is at peak effect it is at peak blood sugar lowering. A meal's peak blood sugar raising effect is about 2 hours after a meal of carbs
So shaping your insulin types and doses to deal wth the after meal blood sugars is the name of the game. Exercise will make insulin work more efficiently so also needs to be allowed for. But I think the above with Allison's blessing is sufficient to deal with at the moment. Best Wishes. Always use the forum if you can but your DSN and Doc are the ones who provide the service to make it all happen.
 
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