My Type 1 friend surprised me

[KittyKatty]

I have a friend who is Type1 (I'm 2). He has the sensor monitor which he showed me the other day. His blood sugar was something like 14. I kind of blurted out in surprise as my levels are never usually over 6.5, pre or post eating.

He is on an insulin pump.

He said that 14 can be rather low for him as sometimes his reading is in the early 20's.

But I thought Type 1's have a tendency to go too low rather than too high???

According to NICE, Type 1's acceptable range is not all that different to Type 2s.

Or am I wrong?

 

[ewelina]

I have a friend who is Type1 (I'm 2). He has the sensor monitor which he showed me the other day. His blood sugar was something like 14. I kind of blurted out in surprise as my levels are never usually over 6.5, pre or post eating.

He is on an insulin pump.

He said that 14 can be rather low for him as sometimes his reading is in the early 20's.

But I thought Type 1's have a tendency to go too low rather than too high???

According to NICE, Type 1's acceptable range is not all that different to Type 2s.

Or am I wrong?

14 is high but it happens in Type1. With pump and cgm I think he can do much better than this though

 

[Stefano]

I have a friend who is Type1 (I'm 2). He has the sensor monitor which he showed me the other day. His blood sugar was something like 14. I kind of blurted out in surprise as my levels are never usually over 6.5, pre or post eating.

He is on an insulin pump.

He said that 14 can be rather low for him as sometimes his reading is in the early 20's.

But I thought Type 1's have a tendency to go too low rather than too high???

According to NICE, Type 1's acceptable range is not all that different to Type 2s.

Or am I wrong?

type one can go very low and very high. but the range to aim is the usual one (around 5- 7.5)
maybe what your friend means is that he can have much higher readings from time to time, which is absolutely true for a T1.
you just need a problem with the infusion set in the pump and the blood sugars will spike immediately or simply an infection or a misjudgement in carbs counting for a T1 easily bring this high reading.

 

[Stefano]

14 is high but it happens in Type1. With pump and cgm I think he can do much better than this though

hi Ewelina we almost wrote the same at the same time !!!

 

[ewelina]

hi Ewelina we almost wrote the same at the same time !!!

Ive just tested and Im 14.3 time to change the set

 

[donnellysdogs]

On a pump.. Apart from set failures it should be possible to stabilise bloods under 8.0.

Your friend should not be higher unless in times of illness or a set failure.

 

[noblehead]

You should get your friend to get in touch with their pump clinic, running bg levels of 14 and in the early 20's is dangerous (ask them if they are aware of DKA) and will lead to complications further down the road.

 

[Daibell]

It sounds like your friend needs urgent help with the pump. Perhaps he would be better on MDI. I wonder why he went from MDI to the pump yet is happy with those levels. I'm on MDI and only occasionally go into the teens.

 

[Oliver Da Costa]

People have different ranges mine is 5.8-8.5 but if I was 15 I wouldn't panic there could be hundreds of reasons why I'm above my target, from cannula broken to eaten something and the carbs gone in before all the insulin can catch up. it's not possible to be in the target range constantly without living a life I'm happy with and DKA is bloody horrible mine was from a broken cannula it just leaked over night so no one can be perfect with there diabetes but being hi all the time will do damage in the long run