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Blood sugar dropping

Nicola M

Nicola M

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Staff Member
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Messages
1,050
Location
Nottinghamshire
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Usually at 10pm at night I go to bed and my blood sugar is normal at a good range of around 6.5 I do my last bit of insulin at 10pm which is lantus slow acting and I do 8 units the last bit of fast acting I do is at around 4:30pm. I can guarantee at around 11:30pm I get a low of around 3.0. I treat the low with a 1/4 cup of lucozade and a biscuit as recommended by my diabetes team. My sugars always go back up to within norml range but then once morning comes round again my blood sugars have dropped once again to around the 2.5 mark. I'm so confused as to what I am doing wrong to cause this as it has only been happening in the past couple of days and I haven't changed any of my insulin doses. I will be contacting my diabetes team to ask them what to do but in the mean time was wondering if any of you guys could advise me on what I'm doing wrong.
 
Nicola M said:
Usually at 10pm at night I go to bed and my blood sugar is normal at a good range of around 6.5 I do my last bit of insulin at 10pm which is lantus slow acting and I do 8 units the last bit of fast acting I do is at around 4:30pm. I can guarantee at around 11:30pm I get a low of around 3.0. I treat the low with a 1/4 cup of lucozade and a biscuit as recommended by my diabetes team. My sugars always go back up to within norml range but then once morning comes round again my blood sugars have dropped once again to around the 2.5 mark. I'm so confused as to what I am doing wrong to cause this as it has only been happening in the past couple of days and I haven't changed any of my insulin doses. I will be contacting my diabetes team to ask them what to do but in the mean time was wondering if any of you guys could advise me on what I'm doing wrong.
Click to expand...

It looks as though your basal insulin (Lantus) is too high. Talk to your diabetes team about it. If you are fairly recently diagnosed then you may be in the "honeymoon period" with your pancreas still working erratically & messing up your dosages.

Until you see the team I suggest having a small snack, perhaps a medium slice of wholemeal bread/toast with your Lantus. This should avoid the 11:30pm drop & keep your sugars steadier.
 
Sounds like to much basal (lantus) as DunePlodder has said. If the weather is cold with you then perhaps this is causing the lows as many do find they need less insulin in cold weather.
 
Hi Nicola . . .

If your Lantus dose has not changed, and the problem has started to occur suddenly, then possibly the below thread may be of interest. Lantus Insulin in particular can act like a Rapid Insulin in certain circumstances. If your Lows are occurring in the hours after the Lantus injection, this may be the problem.

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/lantus-users.67760/

Regards :)
Antony
 
Spoke to my diabetes team and they suggested reducing the Lantus insulin by 1 unit until things go within normal range again. Thank you all for your great suggestions :) Here's to hoping that I don't have lows at night again!
 
Nicola M said:
Spoke to my diabetes team and they suggested reducing the Lantus insulin by 1 unit until things go within normal range again. Thank you all for your great suggestions :) Here's to hoping that I don't have lows at night again!
Click to expand...

Hopefully no lows tonight Nicola.

A few years back I moved my basal injection from bed-time to earlier in the evening which made a big difference, like yourself I was experiencing a few night-time hypo's.
 
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