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Basal nightmare

Natalie1974

Well-Known Member
Messages
870
Location
Kent
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Having a real nightmare with night time basal rate...I'm at my wits end now and could really use some suggestions.
Up until a few weeks ago I was taking a night time dose of levemir of 10u and it worked perfectly and held me steady all night...every night almost without fail. Then a few weeks ago I kept waking up hypo so started doing some basal testing and a bit of tweaking. After much trial and error...last week I finally arrived at 8.5u when I got a series of really good results...as the picture below shows...I was walking on sunshine that day...I really thought I'd cracked it.

However this week after continuing with 8.5 units I've started waking up hypo again...yesterday I woke up at 2.8 and today...although not as low as the picture suggests at 3.9 after going to bed at 7.2.


Can't for the life of me figure out what's happening here...or why. Has anyone got any suggestions please.
 
Could just be some random changes.
When I was on my hols In December my night time basal jumped from 25 to 37 almost overnight.
Since I got back it has dropped back down to 20.

I would follow what the numbers are telling you until you get it flat again. I think you are just going to have to take a deep breath and just carry on with what you are doing since it seems good.

/A
 
Its annoying that the basal can keep changing on us but on the bright side it's a nice smooth drop so should level out again as you trim the nighttime dose back.
 
my dsn advised to revisit basal testing about every 4 - 6 weeks regardless of whether everything was a flat as a pancake or not BG wise.
clearly you are having serious fluctuation-- is there any pattern at all to it

IE -- work days vs weekends , have you got some additional stress at work right now , is the drop happening at the same approx time ( great you have a libre to be able to see it)?

looks like a few nights of disrupted sleep to come ........sorry
 
Using a pump, I've lost count on the times I've needed to either alter the basal or the bolus to deal with bg changes....it just happens and not that uncommon to weirdly need more insulin for a few days and then need to reduce it again, often for no obvious reason. Thank goodness for cgm,fgm and bg teststrips
 
Thanks everyone

I guess I've just got a bit complacent...it was so good for so long on 10u that it's taken me a bit by surprise especially as I've not really changed anything...I've not taken up extreme sports or weight lifting or anything like that...just bumbling along as I always do.
There doesn't appear to be any kind of pattern in terms of weekdays or weekends although stress wise...I've been working a few days from home in the few weeks so I suppose my stress levels have been greatly reduced in that respect...thanks @himtoo I hadn't even considered that until you mentioned it but that could well be something to bear in mind.

Three cheers for the Libre...it makes night time basal checks so much easier
 
Hey , I suggest that you try to change your basal insulin to 10 IU Lantus, since the action profile of Lantus is absolutely peakless and will probably will decrease the riak of hypoglycemia. hhh
 
Aregk87 said:
Hey , I suggest that you try to change your basal insulin to 10 IU Lantus, since the action profile of Lantus is absolutely peakless and will probably will decrease the riak of hypoglycemia.
hhh
Click to expand...

I had a bit of a bad experience with Lantus a few years back...although for the life of me...I can't remember the details now...just that I was determined at the time not to go back to it
 
Natalie1974 said:
I had a bit of a bad experience with Lantus a few years back...although for the life of me...I can't remember the details now...just that I was determined at the time not to go back to it
Click to expand...

If matters don't improve ask about Tresiba @Natalie1974
 
My daytime has been playing silly beggars and I've had to fix it. Basal tested today though and got a fantastic flat line
 
I heard there is a cold snap in the UK at the moment if not then my post is not relevant ?

I always have to reduce my basal when it's cold , we had a week of -10 degrees in January and I ended up halving the basal dose to stay level. The opposite happens when it warms up I need to increase my basal. I always get 'caught out' with the temperature changes.
 
Looks like I've finally cracked it




...well at least for now anyway. Had the best nights sleep I've had in ages and feeling positive once again
 
Yay !!!!
 
Glad yours is working well. Mine's not gone so well and is proving, ahem, tricky!
 
Sorry @tim2000s not meaning to make you feel bad by posting this...but feeling quite chuffed with myself and needed to share. Hope you get your problems sorted.

Have also had a few problems with my daytime basal dose but after a bit of tweaking seem to have that sorted too


 
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