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Bloodsugar rise after taking insulin but didn't eat yet

DaftThoughts

Well-Known Member
Messages
397
Location
Netherlands
Type of diabetes
LADA
Treatment type
Insulin
So uhm, this one has me super puzzled.

This morning I woke up with a 6.3 value - that's a pretty average value I seem to default to even when I go to bed lower than this. I took my 2 units of Novorapid for my 25g carb breakfast but decided to hop into the shower instead and get dressed before eating. 25 minutes later I sit down to eat, test, and I'm suddenly rising rapidly. 7.4 on an empty stomach! I didn't even have a sip of water yet. (Yes, I washed my hands again after the shower because I use lotions.)

Now what the heck? I've noticed that when I hold this routine I seem to spike after breakfast no matter what I eat or inject. I always wait 15 minutes before I eat, could an extra 10 minutes in the shower really trigger my liver to dump glucose?

I don't shower particularly hot as I don't tolerate heat well, and I am very insulin sensitive in heat, but I never imagined a shower before I eat could cause this. Does anyone have any experience with this themselves?
 
It's unlikely to be the shower and more likely "Waking Up" phenomenon. It's not really the shower causing it, but rather the extra delay in eating, and yes, ten minutes more can do that, unfortunately!
 
Yeah, I get that as well. I wake up dead early for work and test and I'm around 6.X but then by the time I get to work (where I have breakfast) I am 7.X. Diabetes is mental
 
Yep, sounds like a waking rise. I get that too. My BS rises within a short time of getting up and will rise more if I delay breakfast.
 
Oh man. How do you guys fix this? Do you just eat immediately after getting up, or do you take a higher bolus for breakfast to deal with it? I'm coming down from what I think might have been a hyper (tested pretty high after my walk through IKEA all things considered).
 
I usually eat pretty soon after getting up. If I have to,get up early and don't have much time, I have a tiny breakfast and a bolus, as that will work. At a push, I do a very small bolus to control the rise but I prefer to eat early and bolus as that's simpler and works better for me
 

I try and eat soon after waking, if I don't my bg creeps up as the morning progresses, without a bolus dose/food it can be in double figures with an hour or two.

It's no problem as I happen to love breakfast and see it as the most important meal of the day, I don't take a higher insulin dose on a morning and my typical bolus dose is 5 units for a 50g of carbs breakfast.
 
This happens to me as well. A few months ago I wanted to see how long it took until my insulin started lowering me so I knew approximately when to prebolus. Eye opener. After 4 hours, no food and an entire days worth of insulin i still didn't drop, just kept rising.

So now I have found a system. I eat as soon as I get up. I prebolus 10 min for avocado and a thin slice of deli turkey. An hour later I bolus again no matter where I am because I know I'm going to go up from ooodles of testing. Then again at 2 hours I retest and sometimes take another 1/2. Just to be clear, my 1st boluses for food is 1/2-1 unit depending on where I am. The second is the same, 1/2-1. With me, there is something with the shower. I go higher than if I just fiddle around. Makes no sense but it is what it is. I never come down unless its after 2 pm. So for me, I now keep topping off as I'm not at all ready for a pump yet. This might not work for everyone but if I don't do it I rise 40 in an hour, correct and drop. I'd much rather just put the breaks on and stay steady. I can still go up bit but it's negligible.

Coffee can push some people's up too
 
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This happens to me too, but I really struggle to eat too soon after getting up - it makes me feel nauseous :/
 
Yep just the same. As soon as I wake up my blood sugar starts to rise. I don't normally have breakfast but do take 3u of novorapid as soon as I open my eyes to stop it.
 
emilyj17 said:
This happens to me too, but I really struggle to eat too soon after getting up - it makes me feel nauseous :/
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I have something like a biscuit and bolus if I have to get up early. I find that tiny amount of food and insulin works well and is ok to eat.
 

My Blood Sugar Levels will increase by 2 points every morning - it never fails and I think it's the stress of getting up. I guess getting up in the morning is a stressful thing to do - that's probably why many people have heart attacks in the morning. I often wondered if anyone else experienc the same thing - it sounds like they do
 
Thanks for all the feedback everyone.

I had the same thing happen to me again this morning. I ate and bolused immediately after getting up out of bed, but I still went from 6.3 to 9.7 in under 2 hours, even after a 10 minute bike ride was included. I'm going to try doubling my i:c for breakfast and see what that does for me.

I've been very active today and my sugar's been in a nice 5-7.5 range all day and tonight, which is super nice, with the post-breakfast exception of course, so if I can get this under control I'll have most of my regime figured out, whoop!
 
It's called the Dawn Phenomenon. I don't like to eat breakfast, and even if I wake up with a normal BG of 6-7 I still give myself 2 units of Novorapid QA to stop it rising by lunchtime. I've been T1 for 34 years with no complications so far and this seems to work for me.
 
Exercise in the morning ( or anytime) raises me but more so in the morning.

Sorry, there's always a wrench thrown in.....
 
azure said:
@DaftThoughts Pre-breakfast is the time I have to bolus furthest in advance. You could try having your bolus slightly earlier maybe?
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I've tried with taking it up to 30 minutes before breakfast but that isn't working. I'm having okay results with the double dose since yesterday though!
 
I had the same circadian rhythm/dawn phenomenon issue. I was doing my full basal (levemir) in the morning. By splitting me basal into 2 injections, before bed and before breakfast, helped lower the impact. My BS now creeps up a bit before bedtime and when I have a lie in, but not so much as to be bad.

On the subject of pre-breakfast run, I find it accelerates what would otherwise happen. In other words, if I haven't had any insulin or food my sugars rise... and quickly! If I have had insulin+food both drop in quick, which can leave me a bit low mid-morning.

If I want to run on an empty stomach I always do the morning basal beforehand. I might put a very small corrective bolus in if I wake high, but take care because this also drops in very quick when running. I firmly believe running on a high BS damages your bones so I try to avoid this.
 
I take Toujeo which is one shot per 24 hours and can't be split in two, so that won't work for me unfortunately.
 
Waking rise as said or could be your body realising it has insulin it doesn't need and dumping glucose to cover you. If I read you right and you took the insulin and then went to shower?
 
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