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Correction Factor

Flowerpot

Flowerpot

Well-Known Member
Messages
424
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
My normal correction factor is 1 unit to reduce my blood glucose by 4mmol. This morning I woke with a high reading of 17 after a hypo of 2.0 in the night which I know I over treated because I just wanted to go back to sleep. I corrected with 1 unit just to be cautious as I can't remember the last time I was high on waking. My bg dropped from 17 down to 6.9 in about 1.5 hours so a drop of 10.1 mmol.

I was expecting to have to correct again due to my high starting point. What other factors would cause my glucose to drop that much when, based on my normal correction factor I should have needed at least 2 units. I'm a bit puzzled by it, am I missing something obvious?
 
Hi Flowrpot
i can see from your signature you are on a pump.

You will have an hourly basal factor going in as well as the correction dose you bolused for.
curious to know what sort of hourly rate you are operating on at the time you corrected ?

going to tag @noblehead as well as he is a pumper - always has great insight into the mysteries of D
 
My basal rate from 6 am to 8 am, which was when I corrected ,is 0.6 units per hour so not that high.

I've always thought that corrections take longer to do their thing when bg's are higher so it surprised me to see mine dropping so quickly. My correction factor works fine the rest of the day but I haven't corrected earlier in the day for ages so maybe it is just a mystery of the D.
 
That is one hell of a drop in bg levels for one unit of insulin, tbh I've never experienced anything like that on MDI or since using a pump, if your bg levels are normally fine on waking then it is a mystery, just to throw caution to the wind I would do some bg tests in the early hours just to be safe.
 
Would it not just be your liver pulling back the extra glucose it pumped out when you were low? I'm always advised not to correct on the test after a hypo but wait til the next one because of this
 
Yes, it was 17 as I use a CGM and it had risen to that level for about 3 hours through the night after I treated the hypo. I did wonder if it was something to do with having quite a low hypo a few hours before. I will mark it down to experience and bear it in mind if I end up in the same situation again.
 
As @gemma6549 said - it may be your liver pulling the glucose back. I had similar problems - correcting after overtreating a hypo and 1 unit could drop me waaaaay lower (I had similar drops, like 10mmols and I'm quite resistant to insulin at any other times). I talked to my DSN and she said it's not surprising after a hypo - if your liver released some glucose, it will want to pull it back (it sounded weird to me, but I gave it a try). Since then, I tried waiting longer before correcting - and my levels do actually come down without insulin.
My solution is to wait even up to 2 hours after the hypo to see if my levels will come down before getting a correction. Since you have a CGM it's very easy to see if anything is happening :)
 
I find that if I wake at a level like that (10-15 - not hypo induced) which has happened on occasions, I see similar drops with little insulin. My largest recorded was about 7mmol, when my normal correction is about 3-3.5.

I put it down to having zero glucose intake overnight. I know that my overnight basal is ~1/2 that of my daytime basal, so it can occur. It's all a bit odd.
 
Hmmmm lol

ive also been the same way @Flowerpot.... Its probably because of treating the low bg with jellybabies or lucozade etc which sort of gives a temporary rise in bg but goes again whereas if it was carb, the rise would be more long lasting. But, we are all human beings, and we make mistakes (well I do at times). Look on it as a nice way to eat some carb to treat the correction dose and try to remember to reduce the correction next time following a high after a low.
 
Thank you all, I did consider- just for a moment- that I would need to change my correction factor to 1u to 10mmol but that seemed a bit extreme. It's reassuring to hear I'm not alone :)
 
noblehead said:
That is one hell of a drop in bg levels for one unit of insulin, tbh I've never experienced anything like that on MDI or since using a pump, if your bg levels are normally fine on waking then it is a mystery, just to throw caution to the wind I would do some bg tests in the early hours just to be safe.
Click to expand...
see what i mean ! noblehead always comes up with the goods :)

it is really a mystery to me as I am the opposite -- If I wake at 17 -- i will correct with 14-16 units and still won't drop below 8 even after 3-4 hours.

so total IOB for you in the 90 minutes after bolus is 1 + 0.6 + 0.3 == 1.9u
tis a bit spooky flowerpot but the additional overnight testing may provide a clue !
 
When you have a hypo you liver pumps glucose into your body at some point within the next 24 hours you only the drawers back those glucose to replace them in the store and that's why you should never really correct after a hypo
 
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