Type 1 for 18 years and STILL it's a mystery :(

Seriously_Sax1989

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Hi everyone and Happy New Year!!!

I've started swimming again and was planning on doing a few lengths tonight so I check my bloods and they're at 14.7 now I don't do excersize if I'm 13 or above! So I take 2 units as a correction which should bring me down to around 10/11 as my target is 10mmol. I've waited an hour and drunk water only no food (last meal was at midday) and tested again and what do you know they have risen to 16.5!!!!!!!! So no swimming for me this evening and I'm left feeling frustrated and confused... If ANYONE out there can solve this mystery I will be eternally grateful... Scooby dooby doo!!!

Thanks guys :) xxx
 

Emmotha

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Hello,
Infection?
Dodgy insulin pen? (Did it get hot/ cold?)
Accidentally drank normal coke not diet?
Did you do an air shot with needle?

Umm probably more things to try too lol
 
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DunePlodder

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Bad injection site, insulin gone off? As Emmotha suggests you may be going down with something?

Try changing your insulin cartridge & inject your next dose into a completely different site.
 

Spiker

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You wouldn't necessarily expect a reduction after only one hour post correction. Particularly because you have to consider - what was driving your BG up on the first place? Whatever that was, maybe it was still active. At one hour post injection the insulin, depending on the type, might only have been working for thirty minutes, out of a total action of as much as 5-6 hours.

How is your BG now?
 
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Daibell

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Hi. It could be many things but don't forget rapid insulin can take an hour or two to really work so if the previous meal was still being digested and was high carb when you took the correction shot your BS may have still been going up? Why don't you excercise when your bloods are 13 or above; I do. What's your reason? Also a target of 10 mmol is higher than NICE recommends (8.5mmol). Whilst I quite often go to 10 or above my target is always a lot less.
 
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Spiker

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It's standard advice on DAFNE not to exercise above 13 because they believe there is an elevated risk of ketoacidosis.
 
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tim2000s

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It's standard advice on DAFNE not to exercise above 13 because they believe there is an elevated risk of ketoacidosis.
I've seen this as well. I remember being told when I was diagnosed that when your blood sugar was high, you should exercise to bring it down. I distinctly remember a captain diabetes cartoon strip in Balance advocating this!

Times have changed.
 

Emmotha

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Yep I was on DAFNE in October and they said don't exercise above 13. Mainly because of the massive dehydration risk which can lead to high ketones
 

Seriously_Sax1989

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Hi. It could be many things but don't forget rapid insulin can take an hour or two to really work so if the previous meal was still being digested and was high carb when you took the correction shot your BS may have still been going up? Why don't you excercise when your bloods are 13 or above; I do. What's your reason? Also a target of 10 mmol is higher than NICE recommends (8.5mmol). Whilst I quite often go to 10 or above my target is always a lot less.

My target is 10 as there is no logic at all to my sugar levels, no routine no sense no anything and neither the doctors or myself know why they are so random. I was first given a target of 6 but there was no chance on earth that was going to happen. Usually my correction doses work within an hour/hour and half which is why I can't understand the increase as I had eaten at midday and it wasn't a high carb meal, I had also been walking too.

Just don't understand the increase
 

tim2000s

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Has it always been this way? Could it be that you are really brittle?
 

donnellysdogs

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I was always told NOT to exercise over 12 as it will increase bloods... And it does.

In fact even if my levels were to be 9 it goes up for me..

I have to be under 7.5 really to do my gardening otherwise I end up higher...
 

Seriously_Sax1989

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Yeah I've always been a bit of a mystery but I have phases. One minute my levels are perfect below teens and I eat whatever I fancy be it chocolate, cakes pretty much binge, other times I'll be eating healthily plenty of fruit and veg and they'll be crazy and vice versa! I'm not overweight, cholesterol etc is Normal, never had DKA or been admitted to hospital in all the time I've been type1. Can't even blame it on the weather as I'm in Somerset and it's quite mild here so I have no idea at all what's going on. Just checked again and they've elevated so plenty of water and a correction and we'll try again in the morning *sigh*
 

Daibell

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Hi again. Sorry to hear that your suagr control is difficult. I guess I'm lucky as my BS is quite predictable but we are all different. I'd like to know the real science behind the 'do not exercise above 12-14 mmol' or is it just another NHS pseudo-science thing? I'm afraid I've become very cyncial of some of these tablets of stone handed down by HCPs. If there is a risk of DKA and de-hydration then surely people need to have plenty to drink whilst exercising and most in my local gym do. Yes, blood sugar can spike up and down a bit during or after exercise but the overall trend is surely downwards. Could someone correct me if I'm wrong but DKA tends to happen with very high BS e.g. into the 20s and above together with ketone production. If you have had some carbs and the sugars stay below 20'ish I would have thought any risk is extremely low, but I speak as an amateur.
 
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Seriously_Sax1989

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Well it's only recently I've heard about the no excersize over 13 thing but it's because when active your liver releases glucose so your muscles can keep going (something along those lines) so blood sugars would rise and I think they are just advising really as they don't want us to work out and end up in hospital as we all have ketones :) I definitely don't go swimming if I'm even .1 over 13 as I seem to rocket but like you say it's different for everyone
 

mrman

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also told not to exercise above 13. This is because if you are that high something is not right and you may be on the up even with a correction dose. Without enough circulating insulin for the body exercise will greatly increase the need for energy and release even more sugar, and because it can't use it without enough injected insulin rapidly creates ketones. More a safety first approach that a correction dose works as expected, as many people have taken a correction dose and ended up higher after doing nothing.
 
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tim2000s

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@Daibell I tend to agree. I've found that cardio on a high dramatically drops my sugars (think cycling 7 miles in 25 mins with bs starting at 15) rather than pushing me into a danger zone. Maybe this is for another thread though.

@Seriously_Sax1989 have you ever been checked out for brittle diabetes?
 

Seriously_Sax1989

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No I haven't been checked for brittle diabetes, to be honest I've never heard of it, but anyway back to normal this morning :)
 

lizdeluz

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Hi everyone and Happy New Year!!!

I've started swimming again and was planning on doing a few lengths tonight so I check my bloods and they're at 14.7 now I don't do excersize if I'm 13 or above! So I take 2 units as a correction which should bring me down to around 10/11 as my target is 10mmol. I've waited an hour and drunk water only no food (last meal was at midday) and tested again and what do you know they have risen to 16.5!!!!!!!! So no swimming for me this evening and I'm left feeling frustrated and confused... If ANYONE out there can solve this mystery I will be eternally grateful... Scooby dooby doo!!!

Thanks guys :) xxx

Swimming sends my blood sugar upwards, almost without fail. If my blood sugar is high and I'm planning to go swimming, I still go swimming but I do more testing and give a correction. However, you're probably right not to go swimming when your blood sugar is high! I just get very irritated when my control goes haywire and I can't pin it down to a logical reason. (Which does happen quite often. I've never explored 'brittle' but I really do wonder, sometimes. ) I love swimming and one diabetes-related thing about it that I like is that it always drops my blood sugar low 2 or 3 hours later and that feels great after the depressing highs.
Advice from TeamBG was to swim slower to stop my blood sugar rising, advice that I found strange, but which I tried, and it does work. Why do I want to thrash my way down the pool anyway? :)
 
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kimkennedy89

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Being unwell & high blood sugars!
Sorry to hear that you're having so many ups and down with your diabetes. I know how frustrating it is when you do everything by the book and still get a rising BG level! May be worthwhile reading up on brittle diabetes

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/brittle-diabetes.html

Good luck, hope things settle down for you soon :)