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bad week

J

Jessd

Well-Known Member
Messages
261
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Hi
The last week my diabetes control seems to have gone. Started the week having bad highs- upto 18/19 not good! then on Thursday thought I was back on track, had a low in the afternoon, was doing exercise (light) took 3 lucozades & lowered my basal rate to 70% for 1.5 hours, this was about 2pm, then about 4 felt really low, was driving, pulled over my bm was 2.2, think it was the worst low i've had, sweating, felt proper wobbly, got a boost bar , aswell as having 2 lucozades,got home & was quite active(lead an active lifestyle)got dogs & help out on the farm, about 6pm thought I may be a bit high, was 21.9 gave 4 units, came back down ok, was 5.9 at 8pm, had a banana, then half an hour later, felt low as, had 3 lucozades, another banana, my other half had been with me all this time, didn't feel right, he was getting a bit teasy, couldn't understand how I was still feeling low & left, this was about 9.45pm, next thing I know, i'm in the kitchen, cut my head, I collapsed with a low & my Dad found me, had to give me an injection
Just don't know what's happened, yesterday my numbers were fine, under 10 all day & today all good
 
Hi Jess

You don't mention any other foods besides lucozade (tablets not bottles I am assuming) and bananas....did you have any food an bolus as well? With the info you are giving here, I would find it really hard to offer any advice..were you doing a specific fasting for basals? If so, then this should have been abandoned at any low level...

From lows to high's with all the glucose tablets and the boost bar (which is loaded with extra glucose I believe) it is no wonder you went up to 20+ that level of glucose would really throw me skyward very fast, and then counteracting it with 4 units-(I take it that your correction doses normally work out ok???) and at no point do you actually mention eating anything else or having any bolus's...and also bananas can react very differently with different people..I will get a high from these and then plummet.

With the info given, I find it very hard to understand the method of control that you are using and how you calculate how many quick acting carbs etc to bring you up...I wish I could help, but think that you ought to speak to your DSN...
 
The afternoon low, I felt really bad, that's why I had the Boost bar aswell. I have been told by my DSN that 1 unit will bring me down 4mmol. I had tea later on, a sandwich, then through the evening my numbers were ok, at 8pm was fine, that's when I had the banana
I have got a clinic appointment tomorrow, will talk to my nurse. I am also thinking to arrange an appointment with the dietician, just feel because I am quite an active person, that I could be fueling my body better, for example better snacks
 
Jessd said:
The afternoon low, I felt really bad, that's why I had the Boost bar aswell. I have been told by my DSN that 1 unit will bring me down 4mmol. I had tea later on, a sandwich, then through the evening my numbers were ok, at 8pm was fine, that's when I had the banana
I have got a clinic appointment tomorrow, will talk to my nurse. I am also thinking to arrange an appointment with the dietician, just feel because I am quite an active person, that I could be fueling my body better, for example better snacks
Click to expand...

I think both are excellent ideas. How did the appointment with your DSN go? Was she able to offer any advice?
 
Appintment went well thanks. I told my nurse what had been going on. Changed my basal rate, mornings, seem to be low early. Also I upgraded to the Accu Chek Spirit Combo in the last few months, but haven't had the device to go with it, asked my nurse at the time about it & she said she would find out whether I could get funding for it, never heard anything, anyway we spoke about it on Friday & i've got to ring her for my HBAC1 result on Tuesday & see what she says about it then ,she reckons it'll be a help to me
 
I'm not sure how long you've been on the pump.

Looking at what you saying I do ponder if your readings are linked to your menstral cycle?

It sounds as though you stack your insulin, your high was caused by two factors, partly you overtreated hypo but turning your pump down for 1.5 hours caused it to go higher than it would have done, at the point you bolused the correction your basal insulin wouldn't have returned to normal levels so the correction would have been out of kilter, combining with the bolus correction insulin and hitting hard all at once.. You might have aggivated the hit by having some time lagg on your exercise but this is pretty difficult to tell..

The best way to treat an hypo if it's within your normal routine, is just have enough fast carbs to bring you back to normal levels, leave basal as it is.. As 99% of the time you would have soaked up the excess insulin that caused the hypo with the fast acting carbs..

I did notice in your post, that a couple of times you said you felt high/low and treated but didn't mention what BG you based the treatment on! I hope this was just an over sight and you didn't treat purely on how you felt without taking a BG first!

I'm a bit concerned about the input of your pump nurse, the adjustment she made to your basal was this based on a fasting test you've done? And why is your pump nurse deciding on what adjustments to make with your basal, are you making any adjusments to your basal without your nurses say so if not why not?

When I started pumping, yes my pump nurse did help crunch the numbers from my MDI data to get my pump set up.. From that day every adjustment of basal, the working out of carb ratio's etc my nurse hasn't had any input they have only made one suggesting concerning control in the very early days, and that was to avoid a large jump from one hour to the next on my basal perhaps here start the increase an hour earlier and stepping it up..

If I was you I would invest in Pumping Insulin by John Walsh, the pumpers bible
 
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