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blood sugars are all over the place

ariaxo said:
i really don’t understand what you’re saying. my diabetic teams have never told me to take my long acting insulin during the day. it works well at night though. if i do take it during the day then how much do i take?
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Hi,

What is suggested by Mark is with no meal or fast acting insulin test the Toujeo. Make sure you are not too high or dropping low using & logging with your blood meter every hour.
Once that is right we can find out what is happening with your fast acting insulin & meals.
Without getting this sorted. The rest is like dancing at the disco (rave?) during a violent earthquake..
 
Hi, I was on a mixture of Toujeo and novorapid for a few years and found it near impossible to control my mealtime blood sugars. My diabetes team instructed me to do a basal test, where I would give 32 units of Toujeo at night, and then skip a meal and bolus to test that the long acting was working correctly. For example, I would go to sleep at around 9mmol, with 32 Toujeo, and when I woke up I would expect to be 9mmol give or take 2mmol (7-11 mmol), and If i was higher or lower than this at waking, I would adjust my basal by 2 units the next night and try again. Once I had my waking insulin right, I would do the same and skip breakfast and my breakfast bolus, and my blood should stay level until lunch (around 1pm), and repeat for all meals.
After trying all of this I was still struggling with keeping my blood under control, every meal time I would spike, or hypo, but my basal tests were showing fine. I have now switched to a split levemir basal long acting dose (13u in the morning and 13u at night), and that seems to work better. Toujeo is a 24 hour lasting basal, but my DSN said a lot of people struggle with it because they need less basal overnight and more during the day, meaning your overnight bloods would be fine and then your daytime ones are out.
Maybe asking to switch to a basal with a shorter acting time and taking two doses would be helpful?
 
Here is a quick guide to sort out your blood sugars

(1) Confirm how much basal you need. Eat a day or two of proteins and fats but no carbs so you don’t take any bolus. If blood glucose stays within range then basal is fine, if BG drops then basal is too high and vice versa.

(2) The 1:10 rule is only a general starting guide but people have all sorts of ratios. Experiment with different ratios if your blood sugars do not return back to what it was before the meal. Once you know your carb ratios you can bolus accordingly and won’t have to guess.

(3) Once all of these have been done observe anything that may be going on in your life that might affect BG: stress, less sleep, less exercise than usual or more, mental health issues etc
 
I am incredibly sorry to hear that and god forbid that becomes the case for me. Have you had any horrible issues because of it? my eyes have gone blurry and irritated and dry. and some times tingly sensation in my feet. it’s super annoying isn’t it, i hope everything works out for us in the end. i believe in you
 
it doesn’t seem like 24 hours... seems like only 8 hours. would it hurt if i also tried 32 units of toujeo in the morning as well as night ?
 
ok today i won’t have breakfast but i doubt that’s gonna do anything because it’s only when i eat when my blood sugars go up
 
If you keep a record of the grams of carb you eat, the units of novo injected and your blood sugars before injecting, at eating, and then every hour for five hours you might begin to get a handle on ways to adjust your dose. some of us have different insulin:carb ratios at different times of the day.
Some of us also get the simyogi effect which is when the liver dumps a load of glucose to power us for the start of the day. Some of us find that the liver does this when we get up.
How long have you been using novoslow? I used it for a few years and found it became less and less effective. I’m now using Fiasp which acts more swiftly than novo.
 
I totally get the desire to eat something different, and the way bs can behave counter to expectation.
I usually have a breakfast that works well. This morning there was a pack of Belgian choc chip scones by the breadboard. Googling showed 50g carbs. Bs a nice 5.4. Doses appropriately, waited for bs to begin falling, ate, and to date an extra 3.5 units Fiasp to bring bs down from the spike.
Is it the vendor’s carb info? Is it my ruddy body being a diva even though it’s a bit old for that malarky?
Good luck @ariaxo - but know that T1’s only 80% compliant.
 
i’ve been using.nova rapid for as long as i can remember. i don’t remember how long though since i was diagnosed at 1. ill defo try to do that. thanks!
is chocolate really a good breakfast? i’ve stopped all my sugary cereals and all my favourite foods just so i can be healthy which is miserable and sucks because food is the only thing that distracts me from my anxiety but i had to stop.
 
No, chocolate chip scones are a terrible breakfast - I let my guard down - I usually have Morrison’s wheat spelt and rye bread which seems to work very well for me.
If I eat chocolate it’s the 85% dark, one square’s very, chock-richly satisfying. I also have a 75% cocoa (1 unit Fiasp for me) before sleep. Proper old lady stuff, but I am old, and I have a cat, so it’s in character.
 
DAFNE may advise you to split your long acting insulin in 2. Twelve hours apart. Ask your DSNs. I would advise the programme. However, I had a tough time following the course, until I went onto a pump.
T1 28yrs.
 
i think taking toujeo twice a day is actually working idk i’ll try again tomorrow. i don’t think toujeo is actually 24 hours, it feels like 12 hours my blood sugar rises after that.
 
I agree that it would be worth considering whether the dawn phenomenon is a factor with blood sugars in the morning. I don’t eat breakfast, I have brunch at 1-ish, but I need an extra insulin in the mornings because of my ‘morning spike’. If I don’t have extra insulin about half an hour before I get up, my blood sugar can shoot up from 8mmol - 17 or 20 mmol in the first hour after getting up. As others have suggested, it will be useful to you to test blood glucose whilst cutting out carbs for a while. Also, if you’re exercising different amounts on different days, your insulin requirements at mealtimes might vary. My T1 diabetes is very volatile and refined carbs give me massive and unpredictable blood sugar spikes - I do find a low carb diet makes my diabetes and weight management much easier. Diabetes self-education is so important- there are many useful articles on this website.
 

i took toujeo at like 3am and at 8am when i woke up my blood sugar was at 8 then at 11i had mcdonald’s chicken nuggets and it said 2.5g carbs so i took 4.units of fast acting insulin and my blood sugar at 1pm was 18. i’m starting to lose hope
 
Emily95 said:
20 nuggets is about 60g of carbs
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i don’t understand the nutritional calculator then from mcdonald’s. though i don’t know why missing 2 units makes my blood sugar go up that high
 
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