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BG high all day after early hypo

smidge

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,761
Type of diabetes
LADA
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi all!

As some of you will have seen from a post I made earlier, I had quite a nasty hypo while asleep earlier today. It woke me up and I dealt with it, but since then my BG has hardly been in single figures. BG has been:

09:27 2.7 - corrected with 13g carb
09:46 7.0 - 20 mins later
09:51 8.0 - another 5 mins later
12:13 9.9 - before lunch
14:39 9.9 - after lunch of 17g carb and 3 units Apidra
18:48 12.0 - before tea
19:44 11.3 - 1 hour after tea of 8g carb and 2.5 units Apidra
20:47 10.3 - 2 hours after tea
21:53 10.0 - 3 hours after tea

I didn't eat anything after the 13g carb until lunch and I didn't eat anything between lunch and tea. I took my basal (Insuman basal) at 6.30pm reducing the dose from 4 to 3 units. My Apidra:carb ratio is usually 1:8. Anyone have any clue what's going on here and advise what I can do to return to my usual 5ish levels? Should I correct now as it's been high for so long? I'm at a bit of a loss and wonder if these highs are connected to the earlier hypo in some way.

Thanks for any advice.

Smidge
 
Hey all!

Ok, so to continue the sorry tale, I decided to correct at about 10pm last night and then wake periodically to test. Here's how it went:

21:53 10.0 - corrected with 1.5 units Apidra
22:53 8.7 - going in the right direction at last
00:10 6.2 - all good
1:21 4.9 - heading a little low so 1 jelly baby
2:59 6.8 - happy to sleep for rest of night
6:57 11.8 - ***?

Well, I am at a complete loss. This is well outside my experience. I have just had 1 sausage and 1 scrambled egg (about 3G carbs) and jabbed 2 units Apidra, so I'll see what happens in a little while. I took my normal 3 units Insuman basal at 7.00am

Any ideas gratefully received.

Smidge
 
So, you found the DP :)

4.9 + Jelly baby = 6.8
6.8 + DP = 11.8

Somewhere in those 4 hours, your body did something...

Let me think... Reducing your basal is probably causing the erratic numbers. I know I said, and that's also better than hypo's... What do you normally do before bed?

I have found that I can somewhat counter the DP and the lows by an amount of protein before bed. It has the ability to slowly convert if needed and does seem to get soaked up in your basal when it's not. Could you try something like that?

For another test I would aim for about 4.30 then also - normally the 'nadir', the time of lowest body temperature, the point just before DP starts, is around 5am.

Do you have a half unit pen for your basal?

*scratches head a bit*
 
smidge said:
Hey all!

Ok, so to continue the sorry tale, I decided to correct at about 10pm last night and then wake periodically to test. Here's how it went:

21:53 10.0 - corrected with 1.5 units Apidra
22:53 8.7 - going in the right direction at last
00:10 6.2 - all good
1:21 4.9 - heading a little low so 1 jelly baby
2:59 6.8 - happy to sleep for rest of night
6:57 11.8 - ***?

Well, I am at a complete loss. This is well outside my experience. I have just had 1 sausage and 1 scrambled egg (about 3G carbs) and jabbed 2 units Apidra, so I'll see what happens in a little while. I took my normal 3 units Insuman basal at 7.00am

Any ideas gratefully received.

Smidge


Are you coming down with something, often bg can be erratic days before the symptoms show. Another explanation could be hormones.
 
Hi Mileana - thanks for the thoughts on this. I think I will put my basal back to the usual 4 units tonight to try to avoid another v high fasting. I usually take 4 units at 6.30pm and 3 units at 6.30am, but I've been getting up late and taking my basal at different times for 2 weeks. Back to work tomorrow, so back to routine - hopefully that will settle things down.

Hi Noblehead - I don't think I'm going down with anything (except work shyness :-)) It could certainly be hormones. I've had a migraine for 3 days and they are also hormonal, so the mad BGs could be linked.

I've monitored frequently today and managed to get my BGs down to 4.4 before lunch and 6.8 2 hours after lunch. Until 3.30pm they stayed in the 6s but have now started rising again - 8.5 at 4.40pm. It is really looking like I need to increase the basal as it is not covering the full 12 hours, but I'm obviously reluctant to do so because of the earlier hypos. I guess I'll have to muddle through for a bit and see if it settles once I'm back to work. Luckily I've got my annual diabetes consultant appointment in 2 weeks time, so I can go through it with him if things haven't righted themselves. It might be time to move onto a longer-acting, more constant basal.

Smidge
 
And then there's people like myself who have their Levemir 3-ways, heh.

8.30am, 6pm and 1am. It seems this method for me is most sensible. 6-4-6 split too. Seems to best deal with my body at the times when I don't have any bolus around and allow me to avoid hypo's the time I am active better. Will still reduce when needed. It's a right riddle sometimes, lol.

You could try moving 1 unit of your morning dose and one from your evening dose to 3pm I suppose, but absolutely no basis for saying this other than the experience it works for me.
 
Hi Mileana!

Thanks for the further thoughts! I have considered splitting the basal 3 ways, but I would find it really difficult to inject basal at work. I manage the rapid-acting because I jab that in my tummy so it is quite discreet, but trying to jab in my thighs as work doesn't bear thinking about :oops:

Things seemed to settle a little today, with my fasting at 6.6, but I am not back to normal yet, because my pre-lunch was in the 7s and my pre-tea was 9.0 :shock: I really have no idea what's going on, but I'm discarding the open basal and will use a fresh cartridge tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Smidge
 
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