Struggling With Highs

[myarnton1]

hey all! I’m only 6 weeks and really struggling with high blood sugars I’m trying so hard and my hba1c is 48 but they’ve been awful this past week. It’s particularly post meals, they just spike like anything. Rice is setting me off into the high teens for some reason. I feel like my insulin resistance is as bad as when I was 26+ weeks pregnant on my daughter. I just feel like crying I’m so fed up! I don’t even want to think what I’m going to be like in later pregnancy. Any help or advice please please please Xx

*edited to say I’m type 1 on a pump and using a CGM/FGM not sure with one

 

[Yvonnie]

I feel your pain
I’m T2 on insulin (again!) since April
Found out 3 weeks ago I’m pregnant
Now on such a strict insulin regime I think I’m going to go mad!
One min I’ve got highs 5 mins later I’m having a hypo!

 

[Antje77]

At only six weeks in you're still learning to find the right dose, give yourself some time to learn!

Rice is setting me off into the high teens for some reason.

It does for most of us. For me it needs a small portion and pre bolusing, not the easiest food. On novorapid, I needed to pre bolus by up to 45 minutes to catch the spike.
And don't forget, before CGM you'd never have seen the spikes, they would've gone down before the next finger prick. So you might be not as badly controlled as you think, it's just that you see what's happening
Try not to feel bad about 'bad' numbers, instead try to figure out what they tell you and how to change things.
Good luck!

 

[myarnton1]

Hi @Antje77, I thought I would or should be experiencing lows around this time not highs. My sugars weren’t this out of control when I was pregnant with my daughter.
Oh I’m glad to know rice does affect other people too, I thought I was going insane. Im also trying to follow a diet to stop me putting on much weight as I did last pregnancy and all the things I should be eating on the diet are just sending my sugars through the roof. Sometimes they have been up to 18 and I just don’t get that as I’ve never spiked to 18 before post meal and sometimes this is like 3-4 hours post meal.
Thanks for both replies x

 

[FingersCrossed]

Hi there,

I posted a very similar thread to you a few weeks back, on here, at approximately 5 weeks pregnant. When I was pregnant with my son (he's 4 now) I only had lows at the beginning. This time round, I had two insane weeks of crazy highs. I ended up doubling my total basal and increasing my carb to insulin amounts too as I was super insulin resistant and getting so stressed with the highs. Since that initial 2/3 week spike, along came the hypos so I've reduced my total basal from almost 100 to 66. (I'm type 1 on a pump that uses Novorapid). I really don't know what the highs are all about, but I get the tension too. I'm just over 9 weeks pregnant and in that stressy "is everything going to be ok?" phase too, so I am feeling the same. Just wanted to tell you my crazy highs only lasted a few weeks and I had to be really aggressive with my basal increases to get the results I wanted.

 

[myarnton1]

@FingersCrossed sorry you had to go through that, but it is nice to know I’m not alone. And glad to know that it might pass soon. Have you had your 8 week booking in scan? I’m at the hospital now for an appointment so hopefully have my basals changed as I can’t work them out myself right now. Thank you for your reply it means a lot xx

 

[FingersCrossed]

No problem. It's kinda nice to know you're not the only one habing odd highs. I did a few days carb-free when I was high and determined it was my basal that needed seriously increasing - like from approximately 1.9 units an hour to 4! My bolus needed tweaking too. I'm hoping they can help you at hospital. I haven't had my booking appointment yet but I did have a scan last week and they found a heartbeat. Just very nervous as I had a misscariage 3 months ago and hoping and praying I get to the safer stage of 12/13 weeks. Good luck with getting on top of the highs. It's a rollercoaster!

 

[myarnton1]

Wow that is a huge difference in basal rates! They have higheres my basal rates but I personally think the basals need to be highered more, I’ll give it 2 days and up it more if it hasn’t made much of a change as I know my body more than them.
Oh that’s good that you had a scan and everything was ok! I’ve got a scan in two weeks time which will make me 8 weeks and 3 days. Oh no, I wish you the best of luck with your pregnancy. How bad have the lows been now?
Just for example, earlier I bloused for 20g of carbs for 2 satsumas, I left it a few mins in between bolusing and eating, within 10 minutes after eating my sugars spiked to 12.1 and they’re so hard to get back down. Is this similar to what you experienced too? X

 

[Hannah80]

Hi, I’ve just been put on a new insulin that seems to work faster at lowering the highs after eating... I know a lot of pregnant people on it it’s called “fiasp” it’s a better, quicker working, and quicker getting into your system than nova rapid. I’ve been on it a week and I’m amazed at the results, I’ve been diabetic for 20 years -(14 years on nova rapid) I’m quite impressed, might be worth an ask?

 

[myarnton1]

Hi @Hannah80 thank you for your reply! I didn’t think of this but my dietician did mention it today but said my consultant can only order this. I don’t see him for another 2 weeks though. I think I may phone up my DSN tomorrow and have a chat with her about my options. Thank you for that advice and sharing your experience. Could I ask how far along are you? If you don’t mind z

 

[FingersCrossed]

Hi there. Good luck with your scan. The waiting is so hard, so I hope you can do something to occupy you to hopefully help time pass quicker. I'm wishing away these next few weeks, but then again don't want to as my lovely little lad starts school in September (sob) and we're tied at the hip, so I'm just trying to focus on him, having fun in the school hols, and keeping my control as good as I can which is easier said than done.

As for your spike after two oranges, yes, that's what happened to me. I just copied this from my original post about highs in early pregnancy and this is what was going on with me a few weeks back..."Today I woke up with a bg of 13, took 10 units of insulin (much much much more than I'd usually take to reduce this) and it only went down to 10 a few hours later. I had no food at all, not even milk in a cup of tea to get it down first. In fact, I've had no carbs at all today to see what's happening. I did get to 5.8, 6.3 and 7 ish for most of the day, but tonight after tea, it was 12 again. I took 12 units to get my bg down to 9. My tea was homemade chilli with no rice. I take 1 unit for 5g of carbs for bolus, so I over estimated 20g for a few pulses and a bit in sauce, and took 4 units of insulin. I wouldn't even usually need to bolus for this kind of meal as it's carb free really. So I've taken 3 extra units and I'm at 8 now. This amount of insulin is crazy."

Back to the present time. So I didn't have these highs with my misscariage so I'm hoping it's a good surge of hormones making things go pear shaped. I was so worried a few weeks back that something was up, I was carrying twins or I had an infection, but I've done a bit of digging online and there are deffo more type 1s who have early highs than just us, phew. And the scan just showed one baby.

My lows now are mainly through the night so just like I aggressively increased my basal during the night, I'm dropping it every day. I took 1.9 unit pre-pregnancy hourly, that rocketed to 4 units in my insulin-crazy-land-resistance spell, and it's around 2.4 units now. I'm going to bed with levels around 6 or 7 ish and waking up around 4.5 or 5, even after night hypos and food, so my lowering basal spell continues. It's pretty exhausting but doable - just!!! You've caught me on a good night. Ask me again at 2am when I'm standing in my kitchen looking at what carbs I can stomach after my orange juice. Let's just hope there are healthy babies at the end of this sugar rollercoaster ride.

Best of luck.

 

[myarnton1]

Ahh, good luck to your little boy starting school!! You’re definitely right the wait seems to take forever, time is passing so slow but at the same time I don’t want it to speed up as this means that my little girl is growing up quickly.
That sounds exactly what I’m going through right now! I hope it ends soon for me too. It’s made me feel so much better knowing how similar our experiences are.
I can’t thank you enough for for your advice and sharing your experienc with me, I feel much more optimistic now x

 

[Moosh97]

I’m glad I’m not the only one, I’ve constantly struggled with keeping my glucose levels under control so when I found out I was pregnant last week. It was like a big shock to me and my partner (we are over the moon) but I’m worried about making sure I do everything right. I’m avoiding certain foods, stopped smoking, not a big drinker. I’ve also stopped drinking energy drinks and coffee/tea.
I currently work early in the mornings so I don’t tend to have breakfast until a few hours later, this morning I woke up to a glucose level of 9.7mmol/l and 2 hours later after doing nothing but drinking water my glucose levels was 18mmol/l! I couldn’t believe it, I’m trying to hard I’ve even gone back to injection before dinner rather then after to ensure this pregnancy goes well.

 

[myarnton1]

I’m glad I’m not the only one, I’ve constantly struggled with keeping my glucose levels under control so when I found out I was pregnant last week. It was like a big shock to me and my partner (we are over the moon) but I’m worried about making sure I do everything right. I’m avoiding certain foods, stopped smoking, not a big drinker. I’ve also stopped drinking energy drinks and coffee/tea.
I currently work early in the mornings so I don’t tend to have breakfast until a few hours later, this morning I woke up to a glucose level of 9.7mmol/l and 2 hours later after doing nothing but drinking water my glucose levels was 18mmol/l! I couldn’t believe it, I’m trying to hard I’ve even gone back to injection before dinner rather then after to ensure this pregnancy goes well.

You’re definitely not on your own. I am type 1 on a pump. Maybe even try injecting about 10 minutes before food if you find that your glucose are still high after meals. I know how you feel,I felt so out of control and for me that’s a horrible feeling with diabetes. At about 9 weeks I found myself having a few lows and the rest of my blood sugars went back to pretty much normal. I’m 13 weeks 4 days now and still okay but I think they’re starting to possibly go up again x

 

[Moosh97]

I’m only 6 weeks right now, and have doctors tomorrow. I’m also not currently feeling pregnant I don’t know if that’s normal because I’m so early in this pregnancy or what! I’m so excited to go through the whole pregnancy thing. Most of my friends and family all have kids now so it was nice to know my body thinks it’s my turn, when I last went to my doctors in January/ February time my hba1c was at 61, I’m hoping it’s gone down more because I know it can cause problems with the baby, only had 2 hypos since finding out and the highest my levels has been is 18mmol/l I’m trying to be more strict on what I eat and try to exercise more but I’m always confused when they are high, I haven’t had much of a sweet tooth lately so that’s of the table and I try to not eat so much carbohydrates.

 

[myarnton1]

I’m only 6 weeks right now, and have doctors tomorrow. I’m also not currently feeling pregnant I don’t know if that’s normal because I’m so early in this pregnancy or what! I’m so excited to go through the whole pregnancy thing. Most of my friends and family all have kids now so it was nice to know my body thinks it’s my turn, when I last went to my doctors in January/ February time my hba1c was at 61, I’m hoping it’s gone down more because I know it can cause problems with the baby, only had 2 hypos since finding out and the highest my levels has been is 18mmol/l I’m trying to be more strict on what I eat and try to exercise more but I’m always confused when they are high, I haven’t had much of a sweet tooth lately so that’s of the table and I try to not eat so much carbohydrates.

I haven’t had many symptoms this pregnancy, only mild nausea around 7-8 weeks. Do you have an appointment with your diabetes specialist nurse? Then you can find out what your hba1c is at now, to know where you are at Ive had appointments every two weekly so far through this pregnancy. Pregnancy can do funny things to your blood sugars, generally throwing them out of place. The recommended hba1c for pregnancy is 48 but there a loooads if women on here who have had healthy pregnancies as babies with higher hba1c’s to begin with x

 

[Moosh97]

I saw my doctor on Tuesday and he’s going to refer me to a specialist in who deals with diabetes and pregnancies, I’m currently waiting on that appointment. I have got a appointment next Thursday to see my diabetes team so hopefully they can help